Fantastic Four

After reports of absurd production woes and months of online ridicule by comic-book fans, I almost wanted to Fantastic Four to blow everyone’s socks off. It wasn’t the Fantastic Four movie I wanted, but it looked like it had the potential to be an interesting, hard science-fiction reimagining of some classic superhero material. Unfortunately, Fantastic Four starts out weak and only gets weaker. None of the characters have any development or arc, the special effects are astonishingly bad, and the film relies on just about every grim ‘n’ gritty superhero cliché you can imagine.

It’s a shame because the film showed promise. With a proven director on board (I was a big fan of Josh Trank’s earlier Chronicle) and a talented cast, this could have been really good. Boy, was I wrong.

Fantastic Four starts out weak and only gets weaker. None of the characters have any development or arc, the special effects are astonishingly bad, and the film relies on just about every grim ‘n’ gritty superhero cliché you can imagine.

The film’s most basic problems lie structurally – there is no character development, 40-50 minutes of build up, and then a bizarre time jump after the fateful incident that gives the titular heroes their powers, and then about 30 minutes of characters giving Reed Richards a hard-time for “abandoning” his teammates, concluded with a less than stellar final battle. There is no single scene until the end of the film where all four of the heroes are together. Say what you will about the earlier Fantastic Four series – at least those films got the family camaraderie right. None of the characters at a script-level have any charisma or chemistry with others. The actors do the best they can, but ultimately none of them prove that interesting. My heart goes out to Jamie Bell, who could’ve crafted a tragic performance as the Thing given the chance.

Image: Fox
The Thing, played by Jamie Bell

However, the most important problem the film has is a lack of an artistic vision. From the outset the film builds realism along the lines of Man of Steel. However, unlike Man of Steel, it doesn’t commit; the moment the superpowers are introduced, the realism falls apart. Man of Steel may not have been totally realistic, but it had a committed artistic vision – this was a modern Superman grounded in semi-explained science. Fantastic Four shares no such commitment – it’s stuck halfway between the realism established in the earlier scenes and the fun superhero romps that Marvel has built its empire on. It’s not totally impossible to combine the two, as last summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past showed, but it simply doesn’t materialize here.

Image: Fox. Even the performances of a strong cast couldn’t save Fantastic Four from blandness.

The most offensive thing about Fantastic Four remains that Fox has now filmed three separate interpretations to keep the rights to the franchise. The unreleased 1994 version isn’t supposed to be that great. The 2005 reboot was a fun family film that pinned the family dynamic but was totally naïve. This is their third incarnation, and yet again Fox have shown they don’t know what to do. They insist that they’re pushing ahead with a sequel. I don’t see the point considering the abysmal reception and box office numbers.

The sad thing is that a great Fantastic Four movie is entirely possible. There are years of great stories to draw upon, and the Fantastic Four has some of the best Marvel villains – Galactus, Doctor Doom, Annihilus – and yet all we’ve seen is two half-assed iterations of Doom that were scared to carry over the political dimensions of his character. Doom looks silly and exhudes no menace even when people’s heads start exploding (too much violence for a superhero movie, perhaps?). I simply laughed out loud when he said, “there is no Victor, only Doom!” It’s a shame considering he is potentially Marvel’s greatest villain.

If Fox pursue a sequel or move fore a reboot in 10-15 years time, then it is out of spite. The thing to do is to let the rights lapse back to Marvel so that they can give the fans the version of Fantastic Four we’ve all been waiting for. Even if that should happen, I think the reputation of the franchise has been too badly tarnished. I don’t think it’s really that possible to reboot the franchise successfully. I hope Marvel can prove me wrong. Fantastic Four is easily one of the best franchises Marvel has on offer, and it would be a shame if the characters never translate onto screen faithfully.

Director: Josh Trank

Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell

Running Time: 100 minutes

Country: USA

For more pieces by this writer, check out his blog at https://talesontheborder.wordpress.com/