‘Fantastic Four’ Review: a superhero failure of epic proportions
Director Josh Trank came over to the mega-franchise after Chronicle and is trying to save face by dropping tweets blaming Fox for the failed reboot of Fantastic Four.
Despite Trank’s efforts, we can’t JUST blame the studio for this disaster of a film.
After a brief backstory designed to show a strong bond between Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), the group of scientists are gathered to jump start Reed’s vision to “teleport,” which is the perfect design for traveling to another dimension, called Planet Zero.
Kate Mara plays Sue Richards, who is the adopted daughter of Reg. E Cathey’s Dr. Franklin Storm, playing opposite Michael B. Jordan as Johnny. The group accesses this chaotic planet and are exposed to the mysterious green energy giving them all a unique talent.
The story makes little sense as no one is expected to wonder why each character gets a different talent after surviving their Planet Zero experience. Toby Kebbell’s Doctor Doom is an absolute mess: never frightening and his powers are never explained.
Trank tweeted: “A year ago, I had a fantastic version of this. And it would have received great reviews. You’ll probably never see. That’s reality though.”
The decision to cast a black actor (Jordan) as Johnny Storm and change all of the characters’ back story has come under attack by fanboys and frankly, I couldn’t agree more. These decisions didn’t do anything to help the story and took away the family theme in the FF.
Void of action, character development, a love story, any science that would make sense, a scary or intimidating villain — Fantastic Four is one of the worst superhero films ever made. Yes, worse than the first two FF film, IMO.
Trank can blame the studio, but it’s hard to believe anything was ever “good” about this film. Mara is awful in a blonde wig, the Thing CGI is not able to convey any emotion at all and Jordan’s human torch is never funny or a daredevil – not sure what the intent really was for the character.
Doom’s “costume” and CGI was just embarrassing. The glowing green eyes made Malekith from Thor: The Dark World look like an Oscar worthy special effect.
Fantastic Four receives 1 1/2 stars out of 5 stars.
1/2 star is given for the younger versions of the main characters, Owen Judge and Evan Hannemann, because it is all downhill once the grown-ups take over.
This will be a top contender for Worst Film of the Year, a Razzie or two and I can’t find a way to defend 2015’s Fantastic Four.
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