What the Fantastic Four can learn from the Guardians of the Galaxy

(CNN) – With Guardians of the Galaxy set to cap off an incredibly successful trilogy, the ragtag heroes can teach the Fantastic Four, the grandfather of Marvel’s super teams, several lessons as the studio embarks on a third attempt to get this foundational title right.

Twentieth Century Fox, which has terminated the rights to the quadruple film, has adapted the major comedy by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 2005 and reissued a decade later.

Neither quite succeeded (although the first did well enough to warrant a sequel), which is why attention turned almost immediately to the Fantastic Four, as well as the X-Men, when Marvel reclaimed those rights through parent Disney’s acquisition of Fox’s entertainment assets. in 2019.

The long-awaited Marvel movie from The Fantastic Four It’s now set to be released in 2025, and lately it’s been keeping the internet abuzz with rumors being spread. However, no amount of star power (or unsung talent, for that matter) will carry a movie that fails to master the fine art of delivering a team of superheroes to victory, which remains perhaps the film’s most daunting challenge. After years of successful career Marvel launched with “Iron Man”.

The original Guardians of the Galaxy, somehow, bucked that trend, moving towards this third installment, which feels like a true climactic chapter, and more so when the director is out. James Gunn left to steer the ship to rival Marvel DC (which, like CNN, is a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery).

To understand How did the Guardians of the Galaxy succeed? And what can be learned from “Fantastic Four,” it’s worth revisiting what defined and characterized the original comics and, in fact, An amazingly fruitful collaboration by Lee and Kirby in the early 1960s.

For starters: The Cosmically Radiation featured a member, The Thing, who hated what he had become, because he had turned into a monster. He frequently quarreled and feuded with teammates Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and Human Torch, who were also dealing with issues of being public figures, without the need for secret identities.

Those early Marvel comics felt real and relevant, in a way they hadn’t before, and spoke to a generation whose lives were upended by the turmoil of the ’60s.

Precisely for entertainment, 2005’s Fantastic Four had its moments, including the relationship between The Thing and the Human Torch played by Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans before he played Captain America, but it doesn’t have much of a “wow” factor. The same went with a disappointing sequel with Silver Surfer, mostly wasting one of Kirby’s most amazing and stunning creations.

The darker reboot greatly cemented the effects of The Thing, and with hindsight cast Miles Teller and Michael B. Overall, the film failed, getting bogged down in the twisted lore about interdimensional portals.

By contrast, “Guardians” thrives in a way that The Fantastic Four hasn’t, capturing a mix of action, family warmth, and a good deal of silliness. While always going corny is a risk in the genre, the humor was as integral to the comics and remains as ingrained in the title’s DNA as that of Cosmic Rays.

“Volume 3” of the Guardians of the Galaxy saga He relies heavily on this feeling of family, including the dynamic of sibling battles between characters. The series achieved that, in particular, with heroes that were particularly dark and weird, including a talking raccoon and a monosyllabic tree.

Although much of this discussion inevitably veers toward the more committed fans, there’s a reason The Fantastic Four entered the Marvel Comics franchise in the ’60s and remains a source of fascination now. Marvel Studios also needed something to get audiences excited, after seeing Halo of Indomitable at the box office I encountered some hiccupsif not stopped entirely, in the aftermath of “Avengers: Endgame.”

Fantastic Four and Guardians of the Galaxy are two separate concepts, and Marvel should treat them as such. However, in terms of the big screen popularity from which the first two have eluded, Fantastic Four will need to at least emulate those traits extensively if they hope to make the third time magic.

“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” opened May 5 in theaters across the United States.