Review of Fantastic Four (2015) by Justin G — 08 Aug 2016

After watching "Captain America: Civil War" I went home as was in the superhero mood. So I decided I would catch up on the superhero movies so I picked "Fantastic Four." And the movie lives up to the negative reception I have been reading. This review should be taken as a warning of what you might see, and you might wanna save your money if you are thinking about renting this.

The movie is about Reed Richards (Miles Teller) who is made a teleporter machine when he is young. His friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) helps him along the way. Eventually, they become teenagers and enter their teleporter in a science fair where they are recognized by Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey). He invites them to work for him making a teleporter to another dimension. There they meet his son Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), Susan Storm (Kate Mara), and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). They make the machine and decide to travel to the other dimension, which is a wasteland with green goo. They get in some trouble and lose Victor Von Doom as they try to escape back to out dimension. When they come back, they find themselves in different rooms with powers.

The movie is worse than cliché when it comes to superhero films. There's so much wrong here for this to even be mediocre. To me, mediocre is "Man of Steel" or even "Fantastic Four" from 2005. I didn't even really wanna write this but I felt people should know what there getting into. So I will tell you the five things that are wrong with this movie that are not so fantastic.

1. The movie is way too dark and gritty. This is usually an upgrade when it comes to the superhero genre, but here it's so overly serious it lacks all humor. The fact that Ben (The Thing) got his toughness from his brother who beats him and even gets the phrase "It's clobbering time!" from him is just downright depressing. Although the small amount of humor we do get is from Johnny (The Human Torch) who is played by Michael B. Jordan. Which is the only character with the character if you get what I mean.

2. The lack of character development and chemistry is horrible. They all feel cardboard, except for Michael B. Jordan, but the real problem is the relationship between each other. Not once did Susan talk to Ben. They all were separated and only appeared together at the end. There was no real communication or emotions between them. Even when Franklin died, his son Johnny didn't even grieve. After he died that was it. As if they didn't care for him. They are the worst team I have seen in any film.

3. The villain is Victor Von Doom, who is supposed to be Fantastic Four's biggest enemy. We see him as a human who seems selfish and a jerk and when we see him as a villain in the last 30 minutes he is a joke. His costume isn't scary or believable. He looks like a walking mannequin. He just comes to the conclusion that people invaded his world and they want to destroy it, so that makes him wanna eliminate all life on earth! He is the worst villain I have seen in a movie, seriously he is that bad.

4. The special effects and action are lacking. The Thing and Planet Zero are the only convincing special effects I have seen. The rest seem very cheap. There is a scene where Mister Fantastic is punching soldiers in the forest and his arms are stretching. It looks laughably fake.

5. The action doesn't happen much. Once when the team goes into another dimension, then extremely briefly when Mister Fantastic is running in the woods, and at the end when they battle Dr. Doom. They are very brief and lack to fun thrills. As if they had to cut down on action to make this 100 minutes. The last battle happened so fast, I said to myself "Is that it?". Was Dr. Doom even a threat? Was there even a reason for this movie to be made?".

So in conclusion, Fantastic Four is a crappy film and is a disappointment when it comes to superhero movies or any movie for that matter. It seems that this franchise is just not meant to be. Who knows. I can't blame it all on Director Josh Trank. I know on a small scale he is great like when he made "Chronicle". It was probably the large budget and pressure from movie executives. Either way, I suggest you stay away from this one. Almost all other superhero films are better.