True, it might have been a different movie. But I think part of a directors job is to not lose control and make a good movie. And part being able to reassure and convince the executives to stay out of the way.

On a side not, not that there's anything wrong with the cast but it seems to have no star power to anchor the film and get people to go see it. I mean, Chris Evans was not huge at the time of Captain America but he was well enough known to bring it some solidarity. And they just plain got lucky with Chris Hemsworth, he was already a star just didn't know it yet.

Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen leading X-men with Halle Berry around. Not too mention the great young very famous actors they have for the First Class trilogy.

I've never heard of any of the actors for the Fantastic Four.

Right, but it's often hard even for directors with much more pull than Trank. Remember, this was his second movie ever, and first big budget blockbuster, first time working on a big franchise with a studio breathing down his neck. And keep in mind that over at marvel Studios even Whedon, the guy made Avengers, Marvel's biggest success, didn't get to have his preferred cut of Age of Ultron released.

No doubt. Can't really argue with you when Fox executives let themselves into the editing room.

They should put as director instead of Trank, directed by fox executives. I'm sure they studied for years at film school, then made low budget films and pounded the festival circuit for years to get their experience...

Or more likely just a business degree and executive experience from a previous job.

You will get far more enjoyment out of GOG's staff picks this week than Fant4stic.

James Gunn was left alone when he made Guardians of the Galaxy and it exceeded everyone's expectations. Are other Marvel Studios films more conservative? Sure. All I am saying is there is still room for innovation and individuality in Marvel Studio's grand plan if the director is passionate enough. For me, there hasn't been a Marvel Studios film yet that I haven't enjoyed.

That is impressively sexist. Welcome to 2015, sir. Girls can like the same things that boys do and they've been doing so for years.

A single tweet that was quickly deleted is a "total meltdown"? The guy was simply defending himself against an ocean of personal attacks from critics. He realized that blaming the studio was in bad form and deleted the tweet. Was it a smart thing to do? Debatable. Was it a meltdown? Not even close.

He was great. It's just a shame he was dubbed over by Lawrence Fishburne. Hearing Morpheus' voice coming out of the Surfer's mouth took me out of the movie every time. That and Jessica Alba's unnaturally blue eyes and blonde hair. How did they mess that up so bad when she looked fine in the first movie?

Truth.

Definitely at least a co-director credit.

Guardians of the Galaxy sucks. Hard. And it's definately not orignal. It's just not a "superhero" movie, but as far as space sci-fi goes it could hardly be more unoriginal. Iron Man 2 was terrible, and 3 is only enjoyable in a "it's so stupid it's funny" kind of way. Age of Ultron is barely watchable and Thor: Dark World is god-awful (pun intended), and both are the result of heavy studio interference (at least partially).

And as for "there is still room for innovation and individuality in Marvel Studio's grand plan if the director is passionate enough"? Tell that to Edgar Wright.

At first glance two alike situations. While I do support Tranks stance & am pretty sure that studio interference was responsible for the harsh reactions I think its good that Marvel has a say in their works. At least they can not afford a director of one franchise to mess up the MCU vision they have and thus influencing (knowingly or not) works of other directors on that project (Hypothetical: "Whedon: and then Asgard get destroyed to get Thor really angry!").

I don't think that Wright's Ant-Man or Whedons intended cut of Age of Ultron was going to do anything that dangerous for the whole MCU. Nevertheless I know what you mean, and you're not wrong, but that is part of the problem with the whole "cinematic universe" thing, this need to play it safe. Age of Ultron really sufferd for that. It's just treading water, because they're keeping everything big for Infinity War. It's like a movie made up of teasers for other movies. How long can you keep teasing Thanos? It went from "O shit! Thanos!" at the end of Avengers to "Yawn. Thanos again. Whatever" at the end of Ultron.

And I thought Galactus was the worse and most powerful villain in the Marvel-verse even outmatching Thanos?

Never been much of a Marvel reader so I'm only bound to feel let down by the expectations the movie sets (and by that I expect Thanos to be a major bad ass threat if so many other major bad asses whimper in front of him), but I totally love the idea of a unified Movie/Series universe of the magnitude Marvel is doing it. Maybe there should be a bit of clearer communication between Marvel as over-director and the sub-directors of the franchises that are in there so they can plan ahead accordingly and don't be surprised that the dramatic death of [whomever is critical] is not well received & denied.

Or they should be less Divas and stop ignoring the fact that they are part of a Movie universe, not the center of it :P

Galactus is part of the Fantastic Four rights-package, so Marvel can't use him in movies.

In fact, that is another big problem MCU has- they lack most big Marvel villains, and other than Loki they have failed to produce a memorable on-screen villain so far. I think the Spider-Man villains may be a much bigger boost for the MCU than Spidey himself. Bring on Norman Osborn, bring on Carnage and Venom.

Has Galactus always been solely a Fantasic Four villain? Or is he a genral threat to every Marvel Characters universe?

He eats entire planets, so he's kind of by definition a threat to the whole world. But I guess since he debuted in Fantastic Four and was always associated with them he falls into that "folder" as far as the rights are concerned. Honestly, I have not followed Marvel Universe close enough to know what part he plays after his initiall confrontation with Fantastic Four. I know he had many heralds after Silver Surfer and is usually kind of just out there somewhere, eating planets and watching Scrubs reruns. I don't know if he had some major confrontations with other of Earth's heroes.

I wish we could get a proper Silver Surfer-Galactus movie. It would would be huge, beautiful, strange and fresh.

Like all Marvel characters, there's a possibility that Galactus could appear in various series (e.g., he once guest-starred in Dazzler), but for all intents and purposes he's a Fantastic Four character and is most likely to appear there, and if you were making an FF movie he'd be near the top of the list of villains you'd be looking to use.

Movies about lesser-known heroes can work (Hellboy) or it can suck (Howard the Duck).

But I agree, the script matters a ton, and most of these films get made seemingly just to throw something at the screen and hope it sticks.

"Fungus", lol.