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Yeah. Making white characters black for the movies is nothing new (Kingpin and Nick Fury are two of the best-represented characters on screen), but . . .
A. They've never changed ethnicities to any other race but black. The more this goes on the more it seems like they're singling it out, which sounds a lot like tokenism.
B. Johnny (the Human Torch) and Sue (Invisible Woman) are brother and sister, and they're apparently keeping that relationship intact. They'll have to explain that somehow, and that elevates the ethnic change from "he just happens to be black" to a storyline change, which reeks even more of tokenism.
C. Why didn't they make Reed black? He'd be a perfect candidate, and . . .
D. The guy playing Reed looks about 12; Reed is in his forties or so and one of his defining characteristics is his greying temples. Also . . .
E. Jamie Bell as the Thing? Jamie Bell was Billy Elliott. I've taken craps bigger than him.
F. Honestly, their biggest problem is that they're basing it off the atrocious fanfiction-y Ultimate series. For those who don't read comics, the 'Ultimate Universe' is a sort of parallel world they invented about 15 years ago. It's terrible - all style with no substance, with stories based mostly on shock value alone while butchering perfectly good characters, and perpetually selling only mediocre numbers but inexplicably still around. The 'Ultimate Fantastic Four' is totally unlike the characters and storyline we know: Reed is a boneless jelly-man who becomes an evil mastermind; Sue married Ben; Johnny sheds his skin periodically and hates being on the team; and Dr. Doom is a small-timer with cloven hooves and acid blood like in Alien.
It's stupidity all around, and I'll call it now: It will be a bad, bad movie. Like, Green Lantern levels of powerful bad. I wish they'd left it alone.
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