Review of Fantastic Four (2015) by Drew T — 13 Oct 2016

Fantastic Four has a lot of glaring problems. The notable production troubles are wildly evident in the final product, especially in how the film is edited. It's structured to where it seems to build and build to something greater that comes and goes before it has time to be impactful, and the midpoint of the movie seems to exclude a huge chunk of story that is key to these characters and the situation they're put in from the previous scenes of the movies. There's continuity issues galore, with changing hair colors and appearing and disappearing facial hair between scenes that happen back to back. The dialogue in the third act is wonky, and delivered in a dry manner that falls completely flat. Certain visual effects are completely unfinished.

But movies should be judged by the sum of their parts. These glaring issues are largely relegated to the last act of the movie, last half at most. The rest of the movie is a surprisingly engaging result that, despite being a complete 180 from the campy tone of the original comics, introduces lots of really interesting perspectives on comics' first family. The dark tone especially works in favor with Josh Trank's Cronenberg-esque body horror direction: when the main quartet receive their powers after being exposed to Planet Zero, their transformations are actually nightmarish, complete with horror movie soundtrack to complement the visuals. The same goes for the scene where the villainous Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell) returns from Planet Zero and wreaks havoc on the facility where the leads are kept. The five leads themselves are all pretty well acted, and share solid chemistry when paired with one another. Reed Richards (a more grounded Miles Teller) and Sue Storm (Kate Mara) have a nice relationship that isn't too obvious or heavy-handed in hinting at romance, and they both have a friendly, if not fearful, relationship with von Doom. Sue is constantly annoyed with the antics of her hot-headed brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), but their relationship as a whole has the brother-sister dynamic it needs, and Reed and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) have an almost brotherly relationship as well. Some relationships are weaker (Sue and Ben rarely interact, for example), but there's enough here to get a nice feel for each character.

For all of the faults stemming from its already infamous production story (one probably more fascinating than the story in the movie itself), Fantastic Four has a lot of interesting ideas that are just entertaining enough to outweigh the problems. At its worst, Fantastic Four is simply forgettable, but at its best, it's only ok. There's certainly much worse entries in the superhero genre.