It’s been a big few years for the epic wonders of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Captain America: Winter Soldier and even Ant-Man all doing well on the big screen. Sadly, in their latest new addition, Fantastic Four (2015), the run of form has come to an end and we’d even go so far as to say it doesn’t even justify the reboot from the 2005 movie, let alone live up to the brilliance of the comic books and TV cartoons that inspired it.
Having had its UK release date on the 6th August 2015 it was well placed to be one of the big blockbuster movie releases of the summer, but it doesn’t even come close to the potential that the trailer hinted at. With an incredibly slow buildup very little actually happens for large parts of the film and when the action finally does arrive it comes out of nowhere and it’s over in a flash leaving you scratching your frustrated noggin over the lack of substance to a film that could have been genius.
The general storyline is based largely on the Fantastic Four comic books, so it’s difficult to see how the hell they managed to get things so wrong. The only significant divergences from its origins is that there’s a slight twist of inter-dimensional travel as the source of their powers and Johnny and Susan storm have been portrayed as step brother and sister in the Josh Trank-directed superhero adventure. The changes take nothing away from the film, however, it just doesn’t come together well with a stuttering first half, conflicting character development and an underwhelming amount of action.
The very beginning makes for a good back story to Reed Richards’ scientific breakthrough, but it all sort of falls down after they cross over to the other side into a different dimension and the film takes a turn for the worse. Not enough is made of Victor Doom’s fate from that point onwards and the year on the lamb for Reed just doesn’t strike true, so you end up feeling the two halves of the film are at odds with each other.
It also means that there’s no tension for the vast majority of the film as you start with a garage science project that’s turns into a government funded operation, followed by a disaster, a year of nothing for no sensible reason and then ten minutes of “remember this guy?”. Much more needed to be made of the situation with Doom to develop that side of the story. It isn’t helped by the fact that his suit looks a bit naff when he’s fully revealed or that his battle with the Fantastic Four comes out of nowhere and finishes all too easily.
The cast is actually quite strong, with them all doing a pretty good job of taking on the much loved characters within the confines of the poorly constructed film. It’s a nice touch that they’re all so young, especially with Miles Teller (Whiplash) in the role of Reed Richards, taking us away from the slightly aging approach in the 2005 movie. While the characters aren’t developed too much, there was a lot of potential in Michael B. Jordan (Chronicle), Kate Mara (The Martian) and Jamie Bell (The Adventures Of Tintin) in their casting as Johnny Storm, Sue Storm and Ben Grimm. Reg E. Cathey’s voice is epic as Dr. Franklin Storm and Toby Kebbell (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes) does a pretty good in bringing Victor Doom to life. If he’d had more of a chance to develop the transition of the character within the story and been given a batter costume he could have gone on to be a great bad guy.
However, they’re all let down by the Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater and Josh Trank screenplay, along with Trank’s direction of the film. With only one other film in Trank’s back catalogue (2012’s Chronicle) you’ve got to say that inexperience let the 31 year-old director down, because the film is a long way from being fantastic. Storyline and direction are the two biggest offenders and he’s got credits in both. Though he put out a Tweet, which was pulled as quickly as the action in the film, saying that he had a better cut of the film that we’ll probably never get to see, we can’t help but feel that the issues go much deeper than a simple re-edit.
Visually, it’s a bit of a mixed bag with some effects working well and others just looking all kinds of wrong. It sort of feels a bit rushed and misguided at times with Reed’s stretched out arms looking like Photoshop gone wrong, Susan’s shifting in and out of the visible spectrum is cheap at best and while the Human Torch looks very cool close up he looks a bit like a stretched firefly from afar. It’s also the subtle things like movement that don’t always look too good. The Thing is exceptionally well designed and portrayed and the Fantastic Four suits are pretty cool, but Kate Mara’s telekinetic orb flight looks like a weak impression of Iron Man in hover mode.
Fantastic Four (2015) is the year’s biggest letdown, which is added to by the fact that there is no mid or post credit cut scenes; something that has become a fan favourite in recent years, but the lack of one here is either an sign that there’s a lack of faith in the film or it’s a tragic omission. It’s too late to go back to the storyboard now, but that’s exactly what was needed when the screenplay was first read at the start of the project, just to round things off a bit more. Maybe Josh Trank did the best he could with a poor storyline to follow, but the fact that he was one of the writers indicates that he had enough sway at the time to pull things around. Sadly that didn’t happen and we’re stuck with yet another underwhelming Fantastic Four movie.
Fantastic Four (2015) review: 2/5
