Okay, I admit that since I saw the trailer for it at the beginning of Star Wars, I want to see the “Fantastic Four” movie. Even though, as my brother seems to think, it will likely turn out to be desperately bad. But with today’s CGI and effects technology, even the desperately bad can look good—or at least the trailers can.

The qualm I do have about the movie is one I share with my brother—the rubbery-looking costume for the Thing. I hope the final version looks a lot better, because right now it looks like, I don’t know, Meat Man or something. This is supposed to be a character who’s mutated into orange rock or somesuch, not latex. Couldn’t they have done an all-CGI Thing?

I don’t have a problem with casting Michael Chiklis in that role, though. It seems appropriate. Peter David, who’s doing the novelization, made a comment about this: “If I had to guess, I’m thinking Chiklis’ Ben Grimm is going to be the character everyone’s talking about.” So there’s hope. Maybe.

Of course, when there’s an article on Wired about all the hype and hooplah the studio’s going through to promote the movie, that just seems to be that they’re trying too hard. The movie will look good—mostly—but it’ll likely be another Hulk.

And in related news: Defamer reports that a skywriter promoting the movie messed up by drawing the “4” backwards. Nice.