April 19, 2007 | by Vic Holtreman 

AICN Losing It’s Cool?

Ain’t It Cool News has always been a huge movie site, with it’s founder Harry Knowles becoming a bit of a celebrity among the geek fanboy movie crowd (don’t be offended, I’m IN that crowd). Like many movie websites out there (including this one) they report rumors based on information sent to them, but usually their sources are pretty solid.

However right now they’re getting pretty hammered in regards to recent reports about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.


First they reported that Laurence Fishburne was providing the voice of Galactus in the film, but it turns out that he’s going to be the voice of the Silver Surfer. The same story told of a test screening in Seattle where the feedback was that the movie was absolutely horrible.

Considering how much clout the site has, FOX put out some information today stating that not only was there not a screening in Seattle, but that there has not been a screening of the film anywhere. Also, although they didn’t reveal what Galactus would look like, they reiterated that “fans definitely won’t be disappointed.”

I think that perhaps the fact that AICN has so much competition now may be causing them to loosen their standards when it comes to “sources.” In the past even information they put out there as rumor has been pretty reliable, and even with these items they stated that. But to post information regarding a test screening that never happened? I can see that happening on a little podunk site like mine, but Harry has an infrastructure… on his contact page he has about 20 people listed, he has tons of industry contacts and I’m sure a wide network of “scoopers.” I would think that there would have been some way to verify a test screening of a blockbuster film with the resources at his disposal.

The other question is what’s going on here? Could this be some sort of misinformation campaign targeting the movie by some other studio that has a competing film coming out around the same time? It just seems odd that there would be both a terrible fake review of the film plus a description of Galactus guaranteed to make the fans really angry. Of course it remains to be seen if Galactus does turn out to be a giant cloud… but if not, this thing will reek of disinformation.

Source: Dark Horizons

Related Posts with Thumbnails


Tags: fantastic four, fantastic four rise of the silver surfer,

  • Quicksilver
    picking jessica alba to play invisible woman? ridiculous. first, the blond hair does not match her almond, and smooth, beautiful complexion. plus, she looks like a little girl (say...15 years of age) especially in ff2. casting usually seems to be the big problem with these flicks, other than the fact they make these comic book movies for 10 year old kids. that stinks too. i mean, it's probably going to be an 8 to 10 year drought before we see another ff movie (after number 3 is made of course) before the suits realize that maybe, just maybe they need to make the movie more fit for the older generation (anyone over the age of 18). by more fit, i mean more serious. if it is more serious it will be more believable. a sure good example to prove my point would be of course Batman.

    however, i do not blame the suits for this, i blame marvel, who i think loves to sign its name on the dotted like of the contract to give the suits the right to run amok with THEIR character to do whatever it is they want to do with the character. the lesson here is: NEVER EXPECT SOMEONE TO GIVE THE SAME CARE OR MORE CARE TO YOUR BABY THAN YOU.
  • Vic
    I figured they wouldn't let it go by without a response, but his comment certainly does make it seem like there's a grudge between AICN and Fox!

    We'll just have to wait for the movie to see who is right. :-)

    Vic
  • http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32364

    AICN responds, calling Fox liars.

    heath
  • Vic
    Well X3 wasn't awful, but it had some serious issues. I wasn't TOO tough on it, after all gave it 3 out of 5 stars. :-)

    And that was based not a bit on anything said on AICN or any other site.

    Vic
  • No way am I defending B&R. It made Fantastic Four look like Shakespeare. All I am saying is that AICN wants to claim that they destroyed another film (regardless of the actual quality of the film).

    For the most part, I agree that pre film buzz for F4 and X-Men 3 was weak, but especially in the case of X3, there were announcements that sounded cool. AICN just always put a negative spin on them. I still say X3 is only bad by comparison to X2. Overall, it may not be great, but its not terrible either.
  • Vic
    Thanks, Heath. Maybe it's too early, but at the time I'm writing this, it's REALLY bothering me that there is neither a new post on their site addressing this issue nor are there updates to any of the posts that brought up these items in the first place.

    If Harry doesn't comment on this, I'll consider that pretty crappy behaviour. Then again, he really likes to write long-winded posts, so who knows? There may be something on the horizon regarding all this.

    Or not.

    Vic
  • Great story, Vic. AICN has disliked Fox for years, talking about how Rothman, head of Fox, allegedly fired Singer when he went to make Superman Returns, then brought him back the next day to direct the HOUSE, MD pilot.

    AICN isn't saying anything, but your article, and Dark Horizons, are shedding some light.

    heath
  • Vic
    Richard,

    I don't know what the final result will be, but I think that we've definitely been victims of disinformation. Regardless, I'm not expecting an awesome film here.

    Vic
  • Why would Galactus be a cloud and Tim Story still be talking about putting the finishing designs on the character and that fans wouldn't be disappointed?

    Call me crazy, but someone is lying there. Either Story knows that fans will be disappointed because he, as the Direcor, is spending ages with a CG team creating something they do everyday, clouds...or

    ...Glactus is more than a standard CG effect and Story is telling us the truth that we'll see the character and he's really trying to be true to the fanbase for him.

    I think it's the latter.
  • Vic
    Well in AICN's defense, both "X-Men 3" and "Fantastic Four" were pretty weak, and the info that dribbled out prior to the release of those two films (even on other sites) supported that. On the other hand with "SR" you had a director with a great superhero flicks under his belt (the first two "X-Men" movies) at the helm with lots of GOOD pre-release tidbits coming out.

    Unfortunately "SR" did not live up to the high hopes with Superman as an illegitimate father, too much "gooeyness", and Lex Luthor STILL in his real estate kick.

    Now please tell me that you are NOT defending the train wreck that was "Batman & Robin"!!!! :-)

    Vic
  • AICN has something against Fox. It is pretty obvious from how they slammed X-Men 3 and Fantastic Four for every single bit of news that came out, yet praised Superman Returns to high heaven. This creating fake news business is just another low for them. They keep attempting to thwart another film like they did in their anti Batman & Robin glory days.
blog comments powered by Disqus