Harry's thoughts on the not so FANTASTIC FOUR pictures from USA TODAY

Hey folks, Harry here... Marvel has a habit of debuting their characters in spectacular fashion. Think of that dynamic first image of SPIDER-MAN - that really cool image of DAREDEVIL - most recently that shot of Garner as ELEKTRA. Then there's the other debuts... HULK was almost hidden throughout - easy enough, he's a computer effect. The X-MEN looked like ass in advance. I remember showing y'all publicity images of the X-MEN and almost without exception every talk backer ringed the Doom Bell. That awful shot of THE PUNISHER they put together rather haphazard got a bad taste in our mouths early.

We still haven't seen a High-Res beautiful digital image of these pics. Which you can see here! But - I'm not really a fan of what I'm seeing there. The costumes are not bad... it's the heads that are coming out of them. Reed and Johnny look almost exactly the same. Where's Storm's blonde lockes? I know that's a detail, but at least looking at these early pics, wouldn't it be sweet if visually you instantly could tell the difference between the two white guys without having to read captions? I'm willing to bet that's part of the reason his hair was blonde in the book, and to just instantly create that connection to his sister, Sue... Speaking of, Alba is hot, no doubt, but she looks like a slutty stripper Sue. Not the wholesome Martha Stewart-Jackie Kennedy adventurer. She just looks wrong, hot, but wrong.

Ben Grimm... the Thing. Well, it's a slight improvement on this one in the movie made for less than a $1million bucks, but I'm not even sure about that. I hate his pants/shorts/whatever that is. I don't like the off center 4. His hands rule. Wish he had a pronounced brow, but it does look like a guy in a suit. Hopefully, they'll employ CG to help it out, much how Del Toro enhanced the same company's make up on Abe Sapien, to just bring it that extra level to life.

I'm sure the recent online leaks of set photos resulted in these rush jobs by the studio, but frankly... These are underwhelming. Reed, Johnny and Sue just look like attractive dorks in costumes. There's utterly nothing fantastic about them. The first shots released by them should have had a bit of cosmic power enhancements in place. The only image I even vaguely have a hope for is Ben Grimm, and that's soleyly based upon my hopes for Michael Chiklis' performance. I know that in the script, these characters are written fine... and ultimately they fucked the pooch on Dr Doom. But these pics don't make me go, HOLY SHIT COOL! I'm not screaming FANTASTIC, I'm thinking... Is this a remake of the Roger Corman FANTASTIC FOUR?