Monday, April 25, 2022

Now Showing: Fantastic Four: Doom

Fantastic Four: Doom
Genre: Action/Superhero/Sci-Fi
Director: Gareth Edwards
Writer: Mark Newton
Based on Marvel Comics characters
Cast: John Krasinski, Sarah Gadon, Jason Segel, Jack Reynor, Orlando Bloom, Sarah Snook, Joe Mazzello, Laura Berlin, Aksel Hennie, Dan Bakkedahl, Robert Patrick

Plot: Almost one year after their return from the Negative Zone and the disappearance of Victor Von Doom, Admiral Westbrook (Robert Patrick) sits down to make a deal with the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards (John Krasinski), Sue Storm (Sarah Gadon), Johnny Storm (Jack Reynor) and Ben Grimm (Jason Segel). Westbrook tells the team that he knows they all have superpowers, pointing out Ben’s large, rocky body. He asks the team to conduct a rescue mission back to the Negative Zone to save Victor Von Doom. Reed is suspicious of Westbrook’s request, but agrees if the government will give them the Baxter Building and enough funding and resources for him to work on a cure for Ben’s condition. Westbrook accepts the deal, and Reed stretches his hand across the long table to shake Westbrook’s hand.

The four go to the Baxter Building, which is still damaged from Galactus' attack. Reed immediately begins setting up a lab to make a new dimensional shuttle to take them to the Negative Zone. Johnny uses his flame abilities to weld together damaged pieces of the Baxter Building structure while Ben and Sue use their powers to remove massive amounts of debris from the building. Just as they are putting the finishing touches on the building, Agent Jasper Sitwell (Joe Mazzello) arrives to inform them that his bosses with S.H.I.E.L.D. have sent him there to supervise operations and report back how the “Fantastic Four” are spending the government’s money. Johnny says he's never heard of any government agency called S.H.I.E.L.D. Jasper says that's how his bosses like it. Johnny asks if it is an acronym for something. Jasper confirms it is, but the full name is long and boring and was probably come up with just for the excuse of the much cooler sounding acronym.

Late one night, Ben goes for a walk around the city late at night, when he hears a woman scream. He runs toward the scream, finding a blind woman, Alicia Masters (Sarah Snook), in the process of being mugged. Ben easily fights off the muggers. Alicia asks Ben if he'll walk her home after rescuing her. She holds his hand and is not scared off by his large, rocky hands. She asks to touch his face so he knows what he looks like. Ben tries to tell her that he isn't exactly as handsome as he used to be. Alicia feels his face and tells him that he has dry skin, but other than that he looks fine to her.

Sitwell arrives at the Baxter Building bearing gifts: new uniforms for the team. He tells Reed that his suit is specially made to stretch with his body, Johnny's suit will not burn up from his flames, Sue's suit will turn invisible along with the rest of her and Ben's suit is, well, big. Each suit is adorned with a S.H.I.E.L.D. patch on the chest. Reed cuts the patch off and replaces it with a '4' he has already prepared.

When Reed finishes building the dimensional shuttle, he gets the team ready to head back to the Negative Zone to find Victor Von Doom. Jasper tries to convince the team to take him along as he will not be able to report on the events otherwise, but Sue sufficiently convinces Jasper that it would be too dangerous for him.

The Fantastic Four arrive in the Negative Zone and they land their dimensional shuttle next to the one Doom took. As they inspect it, they find Doom's shuttle crash landed and is inoperable. They are soon attacked by Annihilus (Aksel Hennie) and his insectoid horde. Sue tells Annihilus that they did not come back to the Negative Zone to battle or conquer, simply to rescue Victor Von Doom. Annihilus then takes them to Doom, who resides at the top of the tower. Doom has become an almost god-like figure to the residents of the Negative Zone since he arrived almost one year prior. Victor has been badly scarred, but is otherwise healthy as ever. He greets the Fantastic Four warmly and asks them what took so long. The group heads to the shuttle, but Annihilus and the horde try to stop Victor from leaving as they do not want to lose their new god. Victor sends them all reeling back with a blast of cosmic energy, allowing Johnny to pilot the shuttle back to their dimension.

Victor and the Fantastic Four return back to the Baxter Building. When the news breaks, the press has a field day. Victor, however, quickly becomes annoyed that the press cares more about the heroic Fantastic Four than they do about his return. Victor is quarantined and questioned by Admiral Westbrook and Jasper. Westbrook begins grilling Victor on what side effects he is feeling from almost a year in the Negative Zone. Victor simply tells Westbrook that he feels fantastic. Jasper then chimes to ask if Victor has experienced any special abilities. Victor smiles and says that he’s the same old Victor Von Doom.

Now that the rescue mission is successfully completed, Reed goes about trying to cure Ben's physical issues. Reed surmises that if they can reverse the particles in the Negative Zone cosmic energy, he might be able to reverse it within Ben's DNA strain. They are then interrupted by Jasper. Johnny asks him why he is still hanging around the Baxter Building. Sitwell says that he isn't leaving the team after the rescue of Victor Von Doom, much to the chagrin of the team. He reminds them that the money they are using to help cure Ben comes from his superiors. If he leaves, the money does as well.

Victor soon finds out that his company, Doom Industries, has been taken over by the board of directors led by billionaire Michael Stockton (Dan Bakkedahl) after they had him declared dead. He tries to say that he wasn't dead, but Stockton informs Victor that until the lawyers do their  paperwork the company belongs to him and the board, not Victor because as far as the law is concerned Victor is dead. Victor becomes angry. As his hands shake with anger, the whole room begins to shake as well. Stockton wonders if it’s an earthquake or yet another alien attack and goes to look out the window. When he turns back around, Victor is gone.

Ben finds Alicia again on her nightly walk home. She can smell him and asks if he is stalking her. Ben says that he was wondering if she wanted him to walk her home again to make sure she is safe. She says that would be nice. As they walk down the street, they stumble upon a carjacking in process. Alicia asks Ben to help. Ben walks over to the car and lifts the back of it off the ground, keeping the thief from being able to drive away. The thief gets out to attack Ben, but once he sees the large, orange, rocky figure, the car thief runs away. The owner of the car thanks Ben for his help. Ben goes back over to Alicia and they continue walking to her apartment. When they reach the front steps, Alicia gives Ben a kiss.

Victor goes back to his home country of Latveria where is the heir to the throne, but has refused to accept it even after his parents died. He encounters Zora Vukovic (Laura Berlin) at the royal palace. He’s surprised to see her there, but she reminds him that as his distant cousin, she was the only one with royal blood left in the country when he left. Victor reveals that he has come back to Latveria because his company was stolen from him. Zora convinces him that he should take back what belongs to him rather than pouting about it in Latveria. She asks how he got the scars on his face. Victor then looks in a mirror and finally notices the scars, damaging his pride and ego. Victor sees a metal mask from one of his ancestors hanging on the palace walls. He reminds her of the story of their ancestor being forced to wear an iron mask so that he couldn’t claim his rightful spot in the palace. Victor puts on the mask.

Reed is hard at work on the device he hopes will cure Ben’s condition. Sue interrupts him, stating that he needs to eat, sleep and have a life still. Reed says it isn’t fair for him to have a life if Ben can’t. Sue then points out a news article about a carjacking being thwarted by an “orange rock monster” and says that Ben is living a life. Sue gives Reed a kiss. She says that she knows Ben is his best friend, but there are others to care about as well.

Victor goes back to New York to reclaim his company. When Stockton refuses to turn back over control of Doom Industries to him, Victor tells them to call him “Doom”. They laugh at the request. In a rage, Victor uses his cosmic powers to kill Stockton and the rest of the Doom Industries Board of Directors with a large cosmic blast that levels the entire floor of the building and disintegrates the members of the board into a green dust. Victor then goes through the building destroying various objects with his cosmic blasts as the employees scramble for the exits.

Reed believes he has finally figured out how to reverse Ben's transformation. Ben is wary though, stating that by using the energy that made him this way in the first place it could just make things worse. Johnny jokingly asks how it could get worse than that. The conversation is interrupted by Jasper. He turns on a TV, which shows the destruction going on at Doom Industries. Reed says that they need to stop Victor. Jasper tells them that he'll need to talk to his superiors about a big move like that, he pulls out his phone, but Johnny grabs it and melts it with his powers. The Fantastic Four then suit up.

The team confronts Victor on the top of the Doom Industries building. Reed and Sue try to talk him into coming with them, even offering for Reed to cure Victor of his new abilities. Victor laughs, asking why he would ever want to get rid of them - they’ve made him into a god. He then sends a cosmic blast all around, knocking the Fantastic Four off the top of the tower. Reed stretches out and catches Ben, but Ben’s weight causes Reed’s arms to stretch all the way from the top of the building to the ground. Sue catches herself with a forcefield and flies back to the top of the building, alongside the flying Johnny. When they reach the top, Victor uses his powers to teleport away. Johnny says it isn’t fair that Victor appears to have a bigger variety of powers.

Back in the Baxter Building, the team tries to figure out how to find Victor. Sue comments that Victor’s cosmic blasts look a lot like the energy from the Negative Zone. Reed then surmises that if Victor really is harnessing that energy, he can easily track it anywhere on the globe due its unique signature. He then pulls up an energy radar screen with a blip over Latveria. Ben asks how exactly they are supposed to get to Latveria on short notice. Jasper raises his hand and says he can get them a plane.

Jasper pilots a large cargo plane across the Atlantic Ocean. Johnny flies beside it, while Sue, Reed and Ben ride inside. Once they get near the palace, Ben jumps from the plane, landing with a large crash. Johnny lands beside him, still engulfed in flame. Sue and Reed fly down to the ground in a forcefield. The Fantastic Four storm the palace where they are attacked by an army of robots programmed by Victor to defend the castle. Ben tells the others to find Victor while he deals with the robots. Ben begins “clobbering” the robots, smashing them all to pieces with his stone fists. Reed, Sue and Johnny find Victor in the throne room with Zora where Victor has finally taken over the throne as his birthright. Johnny throws a fireball at Victor, but he blocks it with a cosmic shield before firing an energy blast at Johnny that makes his powers uncontrollable. Reed reaches across the room to grab Victor, but Victor covers himself in a layer of cosmic energy, causing Reed to become too elastic and unable to grip. Victor is then about to teleport again, but Sue covers him in a forcefield that blocks him from leaving.

The Fantastic Four track Victor to his palace in Latveria. They equip the dimensional shuttle to take them there. Unbeknownst to them, Jasper has stowed away for the trip. They land the shuttle on top of the palace in Latveria. They storm into the palace and confront Victor. He tries to teleport away again, but Sue uses her powers to create a forcefield around the palace that prevents his teleportation. Victor then tells the team that they can’t have him arrested because now that he has finally taken the throne of Latveria he has diplomatic immunity. Ben then comes in and throws one of Victor's robots at him, knocking him out. Reed announces that he has an idea.

With Sue’s forcefield still restricting Victor’s powers, they take him back to the Baxter Building. Reed plans on using the device he made to cure Ben on Victor instead. They hook an unwilling Victor up to the device and activate it. Suddenly the device begins to overload. Reed tries to turn it off, but the device explodes. Sue creates a forcefield around the team to protect them. When the dust settles, they find Victor has vanished. Reed checks the energy radar, but Victor is nowhere to be found. Johnny asks if the explosion could have killed Victor, but Sue says that’s unlikely. Reed apologizes to Ben for the device being destroyed. Ben says not to worry about it as he’s learning to be okay with his new appearance. Jasper asks the team what they plan on doing about Victor. Reed says that he isn’t sure how to find Victor yet, but if he ever pops up again the Fantastic Four will be ready for him.

Post-Credits: Victor Von Doom, alive and well, sits on his throne atop the tower in the Negative Zone. The energy from the Negative Zone begins recharging his powers making his eyes glow green.



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