Fantastic Four (2015)

Movie Info

Cool, action…and it’s over!

Reed Richards (Miles Teller) finds a friend in tough guy Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell).  When Reed is tapped by Professor Richards (Reg E. Cathey) for a special project with the Baxter Foundation, Reed finds himself teamed with Richards’ daughter Sue (Kate Mara), her hot-shot brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), and the arrogant Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell).  The Baxter Foundation is about to tap into some of the greatest power ever known to mankind…and the experiment could create heroes or destroy the world!

Directed by Josh Trank, Fantastic Four is a Marvel Comics super-hero film.  The film was a reboot of the Fantastic Four series which began in 2005 with the Fantastic Four and followed with Fantastic Four:  Rise of the Silver Surfer in 2007.  It was released to negative reviews and won Razzies for Worst Picture, Worst Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel, and Worst Director with nominations for Worst Screen Combo (Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell) and Worst Screenplay.

How about a Marvel Two-In-One?

The Fantastic Four is notoriously difficult.  You have to bridge the gap between action and comedy.  It can’t be dark, but if you make it too light it comes off as goofy and cheesy.  This attempt at the Fantastic Four tried to make it dark, but you never got a sense of the team because it was almost an hour and a half into the movie before things started happening.  Most of the film was a dull, sleepy origin story of which every already knows the basic structure.  The film is basically nothing, nothing, nothing, ACTION, end…it feels like build up for a sequel that never happened.

It is a good cast, but because of the script, they have no chemistry.  It doesn’t feel like they have enough interaction before the end of the film.  Toby Kebbell’s Doom apparently is essentially just Magneto in this film version and can do what is ever necessary for the script.  Tim Blake Nelson is also wasted.

Hi…I have indescribable powers…

I will say that I kind of liked the character designs.  I thought the Thing and Human Torch both looked like the comic, but the movie missed the mark with Doctor Doom who looked more like Kamelion from the old Doctor Who than Dr. Doom.  Like the movie however, the special effects really don’t kick in until the end.

Fantastic Four is a failure because it tried too hard.  The previous Fantastic Four movies went too goofy and this went too dark (and we won’t even talk about Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four).  I don’t know if anyone will ever get the balance right for the team, but I’m sure with the success of Marvel movies, they’ll keep trying.

Related Links:

Fantastic Four (2005)

Fantastic Four:  Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Fantastic Four:  World’s Greatest Heroes