Review of Fantastic Four (2015) by Sonny N — 21 Nov 2016

Ripping the latest Fantastic Four reboot seems to be the sport du jour. While the news about the impending negativity this movie would spark has been circling the media for nearly a year, my inherent fandom of comics in general made this a necessary film for me to see.

While not a huge fan of the previous two movies (I've never seen the bootleg from the early 90s), generally speaking, Fantastic Four is a difficult story to interestingly bring to the screen. It's very cosmic in nature, has a long history of some very strange villains and story lines, and can be kind of boring.

In the 2005 initial outing, the good things included a very good origin story, representation of Ben Grimm as a pilot and a perfect Johnny Storm. However, Dr. Doom was horrible. Not representative of the comic version at all.

Jessica Alba's ethnicity came across strangely as a blonde woman. And, while looking like the very early 60's Thing, the orange suit was...just bad. The second movie, centering around Silver Surfer was a much better representation of the comics, in spite of the weird Galactus.

The stories overall were very weak and too goofy. When I heard they were going to reboot it, I was ok with it, for the recasting of Dr. Doom alone. Fast forward to the introduction of Josh Trank as the director.

Someone who had done ONE film. Yes, it was a decent film, but given that he was handed the keys to the FF reboot AND a Star Wars film, I was confused. So...fast forward again to nearly a year ago when word came out that the movie was in trouble.

Josh was acting erratic. He had destroyed the house he was staying in while shooting in Louisiana. Fox secretly told Disney that Josh would be a bad idea to keep on staff for the Star Wars movie. Then suddenly, Josh was off the Star Wars film while rumors were abound that he had abandoned the final steps in FF post-production.

The studio had come in and held reshoots and was completely in control of editing. So much bad press that nearly no one was looking forward to this movie coming out. Marvel was grinning like a cheshire cat wanting to get the rights to making FF back in the House of the Mouse.

Then word came that an embargo was being put on all screenings and release of critical reviews until 2 days prior to opening day, always the kiss of death to a film. Then...3 days ago, the embargo broke and the messages were loud and clear.

This movie was horrendous. I still planned on seeing the movie, but after Sony destroyed anything interesting about Ghost Rider...twice...I wasn't feeling good. Expectations were in the toilet. So, this morning, as I'm making my way through the surprisingly short (one hour, forty minutes) reboot, I was pleasantly surprised.

The acting, even from the kids at the beginning, was very strong. The characters were coming together well. While the origin was different and the inclusion of Franklin Storm, Sr. and a mixed-race Storm clan was.

..well, unnecessary, it worked. I was buying it. Then they got their powers. From this point forward, it's like a completely different director and/or editor ran the film. There was essentially only ONE action scene.

The end. And it lasted mere minutes. Without spoiling what led up to that one action scene, I will simply say that Doom was introduced. A very good Dr. Doom. Character and actor-wise, I very much like this flavor of Fantastic Four.

And the tweaked origin introduces the potential for much more cosmic inclusion. The potential is exciting to this comic fanboy. The problem is, from the point where they go their powers, which was on a planet that required CGI and special effects, I was confused as to where the budget went.

The effects were some of the worst I've ever seen. Just awful. So many story points were shortened, sped up and left to the viewers interpretation and assumption. Weird considering how well-paced the story had been until this point and how well-developed the characters had been.

For the final 40 minutes, character development evaporated. The effects were horrible. There was no story. Just...scenes. Leading up to a very short and shallow action scene. Then...it just ended. A short, quick wrap-up, not to mention dumb, especially considering how strong the film had been the first hour.

I simply couldn't understand why the film shifted tone and pace so quickly. As a result, I couldn't give it more than 2 stars. I believe Fox should give the rights back to Marvel or, at the very least, allow this film to have a sequel with a PROVEN director.