Directed by:
Josh TrankCinematography:
Matthew JensenCast:
Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson, Mary Rachel Quinn, Han Soto, Marco St. John, Don Yesso (more)VOD (5)
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FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel's original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy. (20th Century Fox)
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Reviews (8)
In this case, I really don't understand why they decided to start something anew here. Just so Johnny Storm can be black and the whole comic book family can be more politically correct? This is just a crazy mess, and besides, the whole film is a ridiculous construct, as if the creators were returning to the basics of comics but failed to realize it would just come off as awkward.
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An origin story like crazy, that could never find a favorable reception with the audience. It contains so many separate films that it remains almost untenable as a whole. In the first layer, it goes through the exploration of other worlds, in the second it explores oneself when trying to succeed in your field despite unfavorable circumstances. And in the third layer, a military dilemma is projected, and ultimately also the predictable realm of an action comic. To fit all of this into one blockbuster would take three hours, and even then it wouldn't be easy. Josh Trank attempts to master it in ninety minutes, which is complete folly, but it's so appealing to me because of the fight with the windmills. Also because he knew how to lead the viewer to the characters – primarily through the boyish charm of Miles Teller and the closeups on Kate Mara's eyes. That's why it's a pity that the birth of an iconic villain comes across completely empty and doesn't create a craving for a potential (however unlikely) sequel.
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I don't like comic book films about heroes with superpowers because I consider them to be heavily infantile and their audience clearly belongs to a different age category than mine. But even within what comic books work with and strive for, Fantastic Four tragically fails. It amounts to sterile boredom, where all attempts at dramatic transcendence fail and where it lacks even what its genre colleagues possess, namely exciting action and plenty of special effects. The ratio of investment to result here is catastrophic. Overall impression: 10%.
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I must say I was quite surprised by the pretty negative reviews this movie has been getting here. I didn’t think The Fantastic Four was any worse than the last Avengers movie. The fact that the plot is as silly as a pair of trousers with holes in them does not surprise me at all. That is essentially true about every other Marvel movie (or DC Comics, they’re pretty much the same) that is being made these days. But I do have to say that I liked the way they depicted other dimensions and planets. You can clearly see that some grumpy digital effects specialist really had a great time playing with those in this film. I didn’t have any problem with the actors, either. For instance, I’ve really enjoyed Miles Teller’s performances lately. I don’t need to point out that this movie is useless. In my opinion, any contemporary comic book movie is useless – they keep recycling the same things over and over again. A three-star review is adequate. What I got was superheroes, a beautiful and colorful digital world and an average villain who has his better moments. So, I got pretty much everything these movies are able to offer. You see, these movies hardly ever manage to deliver more than that.
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I’m really bummed that the Fantastic Four reboot flopped. They nailed the origin story and the cast was spot on, but the film’s inconsistency, especially towards the end, really dragged it down. Up until the final battle, I was pretty happy with how the story was unfolding. It even had a surprisingly dark tone at times, and I appreciated the attempt to take a different approach than previous films. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite come together. The final showdown with Doom was just a mess of digital chaos, and it hit me then how much potential had been wasted. That said, I don’t think Fantastic Four is a total disaster. I wasn’t bored and left the theater relatively satisfied, but watching it again at home made some of the flaws more glaring and harder to ignore. Plus, why is the movie barely over an hour and a half? We’ll probably never know what the film could’ve been without the creative conflicts between Fox and Josh Trank, but I believe it could have been a solid foundation for future installments. Some elements were really well done, but as a whole, it just didn’t work and that overshadows the good parts. If this had been a pilot episode for a TV series, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But as a big-budget blockbuster with a $120 million price tag, it just can’t hold up, especially with some effects looking more like TV quality. It’s a shame the potential was squandered.
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