The whole movie is so nonsensical (Herve Villechaize as a fearsome, Oddjob-esque assassin!), I just can't bring myself to dislike it. I'm not sure there's ever been a dumber ending in movie history than "chase the hero through a maze to the spot where he can take the place of his wax duplicate and get the drop on the…

It may be apocryphal, but I've heard the whole purple obsession came from his being a die-hard Vikings fan. I find that amazingly endearing, for some reason.

Vulture? Has anyone contacted Charles Dance?

I keep thinking a modern origin should be tied into Reed trying to win an X-Prize, getting his girlfriend, her brother, and pilot buddy involved, and skimping on the shielding, which results in the cosmic ray bombardment. I suppose a Buckaroo Banzai type thing where they traverse dimensions and end up attracting…

Yeah, I've been trying to think of a decent threat for the FF to address in an origin film, and keep coming up blank. On the other hand, there's nothing that says the origin can't be handled in a flashback (or over the opening credits, ala Godzilla), with the FF already famous adventurers.

I do agree that doing Doom's origin and FF's in the same movie doesn't make sense. Easier just to have Doom "be" and worry about the details later. Easier still to have him show up on a post-credit's teaser and make him the villain in the sequel. Either way, an armored guy in a green cape should be a slam dunk.

I kind of agree. At the very least, Johnny and Ben were very well cast and totally got the "bickering siblings" thing from the comics. I think they tripped up over Reed, Sue, and, especially Doom. He's the prototype for Darth Vader. Why is he so hard to get right?

In the LEGO Star Wars game, the Emperor gives off this little cackle when you play him. Cracks my wife up every time.

I guess it's pretty common knowledge that: a) Lucas didn't know Vader was Luke's father when he was writing Ep. IV, and b) Didn't know Leia was Luke's sister when he was writing Ep. V.

There's actually a "canon" (or at least Lucas-approved) novel, Splinter in the Mind's Eye, that came out between IV and V where Vader…

That's not how the Force works! (tm Lucasfilm, Ltd.)

The Dirty Dancing hotel is actually in Virginia, standing in for upstate New York. I attended a wedding there several years ago, but had no idea of the connection until I saw all the Dirty Dancing merchandise in the gift shop.

That's the first thing I thought of. RL Stevenson always likened Jekyll's "potion" to alcohol. Andrea's interactions with herself were straight-up Jekyll/Hyde.

Now Parks and Rec, on the other hand…(I grew up in farm country in Indiana, too.)

Scientist geek retort: diamonds are measured by hardness, not necessarily density.

My favorite explanation for the effect Clark's kiss has on Lois at the end of Superman II: "It was Super-Hypnosis! Duh!"

There's a grade-A level comics geek question: Could the Vision make himself so dense that even Superman couldn't lift him?

To me, the prequels just missed. Lucas' big problem was trying to find a noble justification for Anakin to become a child murderer, and there just isn't one.

Have Anakin start as an arrogant hot headed teen who's always looking for the short cut. Then make the movies about Obi-Wan's failure to prevent Anakin from…

Actually a lot of the characters in the DC Universe have that problem. They made the characters so powerful in the Silver Age, they're virtual gods. The Flash can time travel, for crying out loud.

The Vision has always had the Marvel Universe's version of the "Superman problem." Namely, if he was always able to use all the powers attributed to him, he'd never lose a battle to anyone. They kind of dial him up and down as the situation requires.

Exactly.