Review of Fantastic Four (2015) by Robert H — 12 Mar 2016

I already knew this wasn't going to be good going in. The only question was "How bad could it be?" The answer is "quite a lot," although not irredeemably so. This reboot was directed by Josh Trank (CHRONICLE), and he stated during production that this was going to have a horror vibe to it.

He (really, I'm assuming it was him) also made the decision to age down the characters significantly. These two aspects are actually fine with me, as I don't read comic books and therefore don't care about strict adherence to what's on the page.

What I do care about is an interesting story with well-written characters, and unfortunately, that's where FANTASTIC FOUR fails. Since what I did like takes up less time/space, I'll start there.

Given the material, all of the actors involved did give good performances. There was also the sequence right after the group first comes back from Planet Zero, when they discover their powers. That short scene perfectly captured the essence of what I believe Josh Trank had been going for.

Sadly, one good sequence doesn't make a good movie. Everything else falls short. The downside of aging the characters down is that you can't short-cut the relationships and personalities involved in making the team.

However, the writers decided to cut corners on this anyway and have the personalities already fully formed, and the team coming together just becomes a waiting game. Secondly, just about everything in the plot happens as a result of coincidence or bad decisions, and with little to no motivation (Doom is probably the worst/best example of this).

Thirdly (and, for my sake, finally), there is no conflict until 80 minutes in (of a 100-minute movie). I could go on about how the CGI is barely better overall than the previous two cinematic attempts or that the pacing sucks, but I think you get the idea.

The only reason Fox made this was to hold onto the rights. Had Josh Trank been given a little more creative freedom, maybe something a little more coherent and tonally balanced could have been made, but we'll never know.

There are a few glimmers of what might have been, but that's like looking for diamonds in manure. The only reason to watch this is out of morbid curiosity, and even then I wouldn't advise paying for it.