‘Fantastic Four’ disappoints worldwide

By Ryan, October 1, 2015

By Ryan Rosenthal, Staff Writer//

Despite all of the hype, the newest addition in the “Fantastic Four” series has turned out to be complete and utter garbage and may be the worst comic-book movie I’ve seen in a long time. “Fantastic Four” is directed by Josh Trank and stars a brand new cast, featuring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, and Jamie Bell. This fourth film tells the story of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, a group of four people who come together on a science project and are given superpowers. One can stretch, one can turn invisible, one becomes a rock monster, and the other one can fly and turn into flames.
This newest iteration of the Fantastic Four series is not only the worst among the long string of films made on this basic premise of four humans with supernatural powers, but it also one of the worst comic book movies I’ve ever seen. The entire hour and forty minutes of this film is nothing but exposition, all of which leads to a film that never happens. The movie never takes the time to have any of its leads get to know each other or allow the audience to know them. Usually I would put a spoiler warning before the review, but there isn’t anything to spoil. If you’ve seen a trailer for this movie then you know all of the plot beats: the Fantastic Four build a machine, they get their powers, they fight Doctor Doom. That’s it. Fantastic Four isn’t one of those “So-bad-that-it’s-good-movies,” but rather one of those, “Oh-god-this-is-boring-movies.” All of the relationships and interplay in this movie come off as forced and awkward, the bits of comedy in this don’t even work. I wanted to like this movie, but sadly, there was nothing to like. The villain, Dr. Doom, played by Toby Kebbell, becomes a villain in the last 15 minutes of the film and has quite possibly one of the worst motivations I’ve ever seen. I wish I could go further into why his motivations are so poor, but I can’t- not because I don’t understand them, but because there are none. Not to mention the CGI in this movie is atrocious. Additionally, the screenwriters didn’t make me feel compelled to like the characters, leaving me and moviegoers to just not care about these four humans banded together. In short, I struggle to find anything this action film did well.
“Fantastic Four” was clearly a rushed hack-job made only so Fox can retain the rights to these characters for another seven years, lest the rights revert back to Marvel Studios proper. Marvel sold a whole bunch of the film rights of their characters to a number of different studios back in the 90’s for some quick cash. Basically, if Fox hadn’t and doesn’t from this point forward make a Fantastic Four movie every seven years, then the rights revert to Marvel Studios. “Fantastic Four” is the type of superhero movie that tries to be edgy and dark because that’s what worked with 2009’s The Dark Knight. The difference between The Dark Knight and Fantastic Four is that Batman himself has a rich history in being a dark and gritty character; so creating a plot that feels more like a crime drama than a superhero movie worked well. Meanwhile The Fantastic Four are a strange, old-fashioned, pure comic-book fun quartet and ultimately fail to capture any of the family dynamic, fun, or spirit of the original Marvel comic. Taking a concept as old-fashioned and lighthearted as The Fantastic Four and updating them to be grim and dark is not the wisest direction to go. A perfect example of the unnecessary darkness brought to the film is exemplified in the tainting The Thing’s catchphrase, “It’s clobberin’ time!” by having it be what his older brother would say before beating him as a child.
Marvel Studios usually makes fun, entertaining films that leave a good taste in your mouth. After seeing this film, Fox has left me with a bitter aftertaste. I’m pleased to say that I am not the only one who feels this way, and from the numbers, it appears as though “Fantastic Four” is bombing in theatres. “Fantastic Four” had a $120 million budget and has only grossed $53 million domestically. Here’s to hoping that Marvel can one day get the rights back and create something worthwhile with them.