It feels like it was only yesterday when Jessica Alba, Ioan Griffiths, Chris Evans and Michael Chicklis laced up their superhero boots for the 2005 Fantastic Four movie, but just like Spider-Man before it, it’s getting a reboot to refresh the series, which didn’t quite have the same impact as Iron Man, Thor or Captain America. Landing in summer 2015, it’s got a whole new cast and visual style, and the latest adaptation of the Marvel comic book series will be setting its sights on having a similar result as Avengers had at the box office and with fan appreciation.
Release date
Fantastic Four (2015) made its way to the big screen with a UK release date of the 6th August 2015, a day earlier than the US release on the 7th. As a big budget Marvel superhero outing it’s a good shout for 3D or IMAX viewing to get the most out of the special effects at the cinema. It lands a good while after the rest of the year’s big blockbuster superhero movies with Avengers: Age Of Ultron smashing things up in May and the diminutive Ant-Man scurrying round in July, so it should have a pretty good run at the number 1 spot if it works out well.
It will be making its way to home entertainment ahead of Christmas 2015 with a digital download, Blu-ray and DVD release date in the UK of the 14th December 2015, followed by the US release on the 15th.
Storyline
Most of you should be familiar with the plot of The Fantastic Four and it doesn’t look like the 2015 movie will be deviating too much from the hallowed ground of the past. However, there is at least one big change in terms of the origin of their superpowers. Where previously their abilities came from exposure to cosmic rays when the team of scientists complete a space travel mission, this time around they come as a result of an attempt to teleport to an alternate dimension.
When Reed Richards becomes Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm develops into the Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm becomes the Human Torch and Ben Grimm transforms into The Thing they have to learn how to use their crazy new powers to save the planet from the dangers on the other side of the teleportation divide. However, they’ve also got the difficulty of dealing with a menace closer to home with former friend Victor Domashev developing into the super-villain, Doom.
Cast
The new Fantastic Four team will be made up by Miles Teller (Whiplash) playing Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Kate Mara (Iron Man 2) as Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (That Awkward Moment) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Jamie Bell (The Adventures Of Tintin Secret Of The Unicorn) as Ben Grimm/The Thing. Toby Kebbell (Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes) has been cast as Domashev/Doom. The cast is rounded out by Reg E. Cathey and Tim Blake Nelson.
Production
Josh Trank has been given the big responsibility of directing the reboot origin story, giving him a chance to flex his capabilities ahead of Rogue One, the first ever standalone Star Wars movie that he’s been given the reigns for. The screenplay for the film has been written by Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Days Of Future Past) and Jeremy Slater with Kinberg producing alongside Matthew Vaughn (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Gregory Goodman (X-Men: First Class).
Review
We were 50-50 on the potential of the 2015 reboot of Fantastic Four ahead of the release, but sadly it fell on the downer side of the coin toss. The trailer gave it a lot of gravitas, with a serious and borderline noir quality to it, but there were a lot of hurdles for it to get over, not least of all making a stretchy man and a hero made out of stone look cool on the big screen. There was a good amount of acting might thrown at the film in the way of Miles Teller, who impressed in his recent performance in Whiplash, and Kinberg’s involvement added to the potential, but then there was a big gap between the 2005 adaptation and the brilliance of Avengers, so the question was whether or not Josh Trank could bridge it. The bad news is that he didn’t and the film fell way short of expectations, so it may be back to the drawing board for Marvel.
Read our full Fantastic Four (2015) review for more details, before you head out to buy the DVD or Blu-ray.
 release date, trailer and movie details from the film section of Tuppence Magazine, including info on the cast and story of the reboot.){kind=link}