Fantastic Four (stylised and marketed as Fant4stic) is directed by Josh Trank and is the fourth attempt at a live action superhero movie of Marvel's famous quartet. Boasting a stellar cast of very young actors such as Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Michael B Jordan and Toby Kebbell, I was naturally excited to see these people hopefully do the Fantastic Four justice on the silver screen. Despite enjoying a few decently constructed scenes and a brilliant and intimidating character design for The Thing, I thought the rest of Fantastic Four was a complete and utter disaster.
I'll give you a small story before the review. So there I was myself and my friend driving to my local theatre when we decided to turn on the Radio. Ironically, it was a news bulletin concerning the release of Fantastic Four. According to the report, Josh Trank had posted and later been forced to remove a tweet on his social media saying something along the lines of "about a year ago we had a really good movie in front of us". This was followed by cast members saying that they hadn't even seen the film yet and something else which said that there weren't any early screenings for Fant4stic for fear of terrible reviews. That just says it all doesn't it?
I love the cast and its easy to tell that people like Miles Teller and Michael B Jordan are trying to give some decent performances. However, the screenplay for this movie doesn't physically allow them to explore the emotional recesses of their characters. As superheroes, the Fantastic Four themselves aren't all that likeable simply because the film doesn't really flesh out the relationships they have with each other. They don't feel like a team and have no natural synergy, which was a big let down.
This could've been a film about 4 very young people who have to deal with these incredible life changing superpowers and all of the consequences that could have come with it. We could have seen the Fantastic Four come to terms with their powers and learn how to harness them, meaning that as the film drew to its conclusion we as audience members would really feel as if they have earned their wings as superheroes. Instead, the film jumps a year later as soon as the Four return from the dimension which gave them their powers.
The movie, for me, was edited and paced atrociously. They spend around 80 minutes spouting exposition with nothing of any surprise or interest actually happening only to rush the villain in at the last 10 minutes where they have a really short-lived and underwhelming fight. Hardly anything happens at all in this movie. Scenes which are supposed to flesh out characters or that try and be funny in some way feel forced and unnatural. I think one of the biggest complaints I can have with Fant4stic is the dialogue; it ranges from dumbed-down exposition, awkward character development and humour which falls flat on every single occasion it is attempted.
Toby Kebbell's Doctor Doom is terrible. I won't blame the actor at all because I know that given a decent script, he can be a great antagonist. Just look at Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, my favourite film of last year. However, this interpretation of Doctor Doom is laughable. There's a love triangle between him, Reed Richards and Sue Storm which they set up and never harken back to. There's also a rivalry between him and Reed which never fully arcs. And don't get me started on his lack of real motivation or ugly character design.
With the exception of The Thing, even the use of visual effects, green screen and costume design were disappointing especially with a film of this size and budget. But visuals don't make a film, it's the acting, the characters, the story and the script which are the real meat and bones of an effective film. We've seen the standard of superhero films raised by both DC and Marvel over recent years proving they can be more than light entertainment, they can be thought provoking and impactful stories. But most importantly, they can be all this but still fun. Fantastic Four isn't fun. I was never thrilled, surprised or excited at anything that happened which is unforgiveable in this day and age of superhero films.
Fantastic Four? More like Fantastic bore.
Rating - D-
Thanks for reading,
Matt
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