5 Reasons Why Fantastic Four Went So Wrong

Years from now, I believe we will be sitting there viewing 2015's Fantastic Four movie as an enigma in the comic book genre. Currently projected to be a box office flop and already solidified as a critical bomb, I will try and examine just why Fantastic Four failed so catastrophically. Beware of minor spoilers, but to be honest, nothing of any real surprise happens in the film anyway.

If you've read my original review, you'll know that I was not a fan of Fantastic Four in any way shape or form. As a superhero movie it completely fails; there's no thrills, joy or fun to be had at all. I thought its editing was all over the place, tonally inconsistent and paced atrociously. And those are just a few complaints I had. If you'd like to read it, I'll leave a link below:


Fantastic Four Movie Review - http://movieswithmattharrison.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/fanastic-four-movie-review.html


Now let's crack on with 5 reasons I came up with as to why Fantastic Four went so wrong:



5) The Rights issue

For those of you who do not know, the Fantastic Four and all the characters associated with the franchise are owned by 20th Century Fox, not Marvel Studios. This means as it stands, the Fantastic Four can't appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is a shame. However judging by the poor reception of this film, we could be seeing the first family of superheroes cross studios (hopefully) soon. Marvel make movies with proper passion and awareness of the fans. Fox on the other hand, simply made this film to maintain the film rights. At least that's how it came across to me.


4) Changes made to the villain

Ask any Marvel comics fan you come across if Doctor Doom is a better villain than he has been portrayed on the big screen. Every time, you will get an overwhelming yes. In the comics, Victor von Doom is both menacing and conniving. But you can also empathise with him as a lot of the evil stuff he does is because he has to lead and protect his nation Latveria. Its not a difficult thing to get right. The Victor von Doom we got in Fantastic Four was a terrible incarnation. There were also rumours during filming that the villain named "Victor" was supposed to be a computer hacker, which fans didn't receive well. I think its possible this was changed at the last second by the studio and then we got the Doom we got. I want a proper Doctor Doom and not a computer nerd, just not the Doctor Doom we got this time around.


3) The Director

Another pre-release controversy surrounding this film concerned director Josh Trank. These rumours included destructive behaviour and turning up to the set smashed off his face. I don't want to believe those things and have no proof it happened. However, I do think its obvious that Trank is probably more comfortable directing indie films over big studio blockbusters. Judging by the quality of Chronicle and Fantastic Four, there's no comparison. Maybe Fantastic Four would've benefited being helmed by someone who had big blockbuster experience. I think Trank couldn't handle all of the studio interference, which leads me onto my next reason.


2) Studio Interference

A load of reshoots, shoe-horned in action sequences which were executed poorly and Kate Mara's inconsistent hair cut just proved that 20th Century Fox couldn't keep their dirty hands off a film which was supposed to be Josh Trank's directorial vision. I have a feeling that the "action climax" was not the intended ending, simply because the CGI fighting is executed terribly and it ends ridiculously abruptly. Much like they did with X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fox clearly interfered with the film making a tonally inconsistent and poorly edited final cut.


1) Nothing happens

Fantastic Four is nothing more than a basis origin story. The Fantastic Four meet, work on a science project, things go wrong, they get their powers, they fight a bad guy, and then the movie ends. It feels like a set up for another film or better yet an entire franchise. If this film had just stood on its own (which I guarantee was Trank's vision before Fox started meddling with it) and tried to tell a solid story, I think it would've been at least watchable.



Fantastic Four already has a sequel planned for a June 2017 release. Good luck to any director who takes on this project. Fingers crossed it won't happen and Marvel takes back the rights. Only then will we get a Fantastic Four film which does the characters justice.


Thanks for reading,
Matt