Movie Information
Release Date: August 7, 2015
Director: Josh Trank
Writer: Simon Kinberg (screenplay), Jeremy Slater (screenplay), Josh Trank (screenplay)
Cast: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson, Joshua Montes, Dan Castellaneta, Owen Judge, Kylen Davis, Evan Hannemann, Chet Hanks, Mary-Pat Green, Tim Heidecker, Mary Rachel Dudley, Wayne Pere
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 100 minutes
Production Company: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Marvel Entertainment (in association with), TSG Entertainment (in association with), Marv Films (as Marv), Genre Films
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
Language: English
Country: USA
Budget: $120,000,000
I give high respect for those who make an attempt, but fall down only to get back up to try again. It’s honorable, and Twentieth Century Fox did just that. After three failed attempts of anything worthy, Fantastic Four has been rebooted again, and it’s mind boggling how this great story of heroes continues to be driven into the ground. There’s nothing fantastic about it. The tone is bland, the story dry, and there’s no action that takes place. We don’t see the characters grow, and their motivations have no true meaning. Simply boring with no fun.
At least the past two Fantastic Four films were fun, but this adaptation is empty of joy, heart, and logical sense. Not only does this rendition take the trophy for one of the worst comic book films ever, it qualifies as one of the worst films period. Some of the crimes committed here can only be forgiven if done at an elementary level. So when simple tasks like hair and makeup fail as it abruptly changes styles from scene to scene, you can only frown at the poor quality on screen.
I understand you can adapt page to page from the comic book, and this isn’t the Marvel 616 universe most fans are used to. This is adapted from the Ultimate’s version of the series. That being said the core make-up of the characters still never changes, or should. The portrayal of Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Miles Teller) was an abomination. In the source material he’s considered as the smartest man on the planet, but here is treated as someone that constantly needs to be corrected. In both versions of the comics he was always a man that proceeded with caution, but now he blindly leads his so called “family” into another dimension, with no equipment, weapons, supplies, or brains. Sue Storm/The Invisible (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Michael B. Jordan) were much better, but still nothing to be impressed by. I didn’t care if they cast white, black, yellow, orange, or purple people. It didn’t matter to me, but making them bi-racial when they’re known as blood related siblings in the comics makes me cringe. Ben Grimm/The Thing (Jamie Bell) had his moment to shine quoting one of his signature lines. It made me smile, but his image didn’t. His rock form wasn’t photo real, and looked like computerized rocks. Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) villainous take was a copycat of the Marvel Studios villain syndrome. Weak and forgettable. This version of Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom was as bad as Reed Richards’ taking. I won’t even try to begin explaining what he looked like, and his powers made no sense whatsoever. He could basically do anything he wanted, but decided to wait for no known reason.
The plot and story was a train wreck from the start as well. Reed Richards decides to make a teleporter at the age of 10. Yet seven years later no one ON THE PLANET is aware of this, and he still decides not to share the information. I would think someone with this level of intelligence would be granted a scholarship to every known school, college, or university in the galaxy, but he’s only discovered at a high school science fair contest. Now characters are being forced upon each other just for the sake of the movie. World changing science and technology advancements are on the brink of discovery, and mechanics (Johnny Storm) that can’t even repair a motor vehicle properly, are then given the responsibility of millions of dollars’ worth of research and development to make the next scientific leap forward. The brains behind this operation are being willfully dense, yet we’re supposed to root for them? I think not, then they make it even harder to.
This also brings new meaning to the word boring. What was louder than the non-climatic movie in the theater was all the deep sighs of the audience waiting for something to happen. This is an action comic book tale that contains at most three minutes of action in the entire film. Then the rest of the action is displayed briefly in surveillance footage from the past. As the trailers suggest, four people now have super powers and the government wants to use them to their advantage. This makes perfect sense, and is just about the only logic to be found in the movie. What doesn’t make sense is when the four heroes do work for the government it’s all off screen. They don’t show any of it to us. During the 365 days of being a government puppet (that we don’t get to witness) the not Fantastic Four are learning their new abilities, advancing their powers, and completing missions. The audience only gets to see less than ten seconds of it. It seems like the studio wanted to pretend they were taking things seriously, but behind scenes were too afraid truly adapt what’s rich.
If you didn’t think it could get any worse than that you’re wrong. The last third of the film beats you over the head repeatedly to the point of discombobulation. The whole movie was a set up that never happened. Doctor Doom finally takes his final form, and does everything wrong imaginable. What pleasure could possibly be found with a villain that can pretty much do anything he wants, but then doesn’t? People just die around him with the blink of an eye, yet when given the chance to kill those who may possibly pose a threat, he turns his attention to internal madness. He has no motivation to kill anyone, or anything yet he wants to destroy the world. If anything people are trying to guide him to health, but he treats his surroundings as if they ripped his heart out. He decides to break the rules, an accident happens, people try to help him, but he still wants to kill everyone. NO SENSE!
Other than a couple of funny lines and twenty three seconds of action there is without a doubt absolutely nothing positive I can say about this movie. How in the world do you reboot a franchise and make it worse than before? You tell me. If I had to describe it in one word that would be bland. There is no action, no fun, no joy, no meaning, no logic, no plot, no story, no nothing! Just a few colors and people walking around on screen for no reason, but the attempt to be different in the comic book genre. This was an epic failure of massive proportions, and that’s me putting it lightly.