New Fantastic Four Cast Revealed; So is the New YouTube

Ah comic book fans. They can be so possessive. Especially when it comes to adaptions of the the comics they love made for the silver screen. Such is the case when certain actors they don't want to star in the films will star in the films. This includes Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan in Green Lantern, and much recently, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the next Man of Superman movie. That move made comic book fans go crazy, spurred a huge backlash on Twitter.
Even I myself had a word to say about this.

So Ben Affleck is playing Batman in the next Superman movie. It's perfectly fine but I like the guy who played Adam West on Family Guy more.

— andrewpollard (@APollard36) August 23, 2013

A few months ago, there were rumors circulating around the Internet that a few certain actors would play the comic book Fab Four in a new, including Josh Gad, Miles Teller, and Michael B. Jordan as (wait-for-it) The Human Torch. (headshake)
Of course it was a rumor, but a stupid rumor nonetheless. But it's true.
So imagine their reactions when the cast of the new Fantastic Four film reboot was revealed yesterday.

Joining the cast are Kate Mara (who is brunette) playing Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (a blonde), Miles Teller (who looks 25) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (who looks 45), Michael B. Jordan (who is BLACK) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (obviously not black) and Jamie Bell (who is skinny) playing Ben Grimm/The Thing (who's husky as hell).

Of course the comic book world as a whole is outraged at the casting decision. If you go to comic book movie websites, and read the comments, you would definitely see how they're feeling about this. But you know what? I actually agree with them. There is no way these actors can play these roles without people making comments about this. Yes, that's every other movie, but this time's different. And they actually have a legitimate reason why. So, obviously, there are a few sticking points that show wrong with this story.

First, a black man playing a white character. Is there anything right with this? Who in the production staff thought this was a great idea in the first place? Was this based on a bet to see who could make the first illogical choice in pre-production? Did someone get drunk in the Casting Department while choosing actors? Did they cast a black dude as the Human Torch just because they want Comic Book Guy to rip them apart in a episode of The Simpsons?

Second, unless he finds a way to make it happen, there is no way Miles Teller can look the part of Reed Richards, let alone Mr. Fantastic. The dude is currently pushing 30, while Mr. Fantastic looks 50 with the gray sides in his hair. Maybe the producers are pushing for younger versions of the characters. I'm not sure; this seems really odd.

Third, see First. Unless they have a white mother and a black father, white Sue and black Johnny cannot LOOK related, let alone be related. No one will fall for that. At least they got it right casting a white actress as a white character. Not that Jessica Alba isn't talented, she's just not white.

And finally, look at Jamie. Now look at Thing. Now Jamie. Now Thing. If you sill don't get it, I think Jamie Bell is a little too skinny to have the role of the Thing, or even Ben Grimm. I'm not saying the actor should be fat, but come on.

Those are my reasons why I think these are bad choices to put together the cast. I don't think the casting department made the right decisions with this cast, but I'm okay with it. I will watch the film; I'm not a comic fanboy. If the cast does a really good, or even great job, I'll say I was wrong and will be okay with that. If the movie bombs, It was a stupid decision.


Speaking of stupid decisions, YouTube suddenly changed its layout on Wednesday. It originally looked most of the same, but with a three-lined "guide" icon on the left-hand side, which gets you to the channels you subscribed to the recent videos you watched, and other stuff, looking liked this.

Now it looks near-completely different. The guide is now on the top, now next to the YouTube logo. The homepage is wider than ever, with no ads on top. Looking like this.

Usually I ever like or get used to a new website layout if the company announces the change in advance. This time around, I guess I'll get used to this...I hate it. It looks ugly and baggy. It looks much less better than the last look.
They said it was to "make tweaking playlists easier and closely resemble its apps". Well, to me it looks like they screwed up on that. The desktop website and the mobile app still look completely different from each other. They don't need to look the same. In fact, i'm getting tired of seeing websites and mobile apps of one site look on and the same. It's fine if the app has something unique to it, but the looks better to me in some sense. But if the website begins to look like the app, I hate its guts.