Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four
Starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell
Directed by Josh Trank
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) is a child genius, who invented a teleportation device with the help of his best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell). Ten years later, he shows off the device at his high school's science fair, but is disqualified for beliefs that he's doing magic and not science.
However, he draws the attention of Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara), who invited their own teleportation device, but weren't capable of bringing stuff back. Reed agrees to work for them, along with fellow young genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), who invited the other teleportation device.
As they begin work on the device, Storm enlists the help of his rebellious son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), and together they create a working teleportation device that not only teleports things away, but brings them back as well. They find a new dimension, which seems to be barren and lifeless, and Storm hopes he can use the information garnered there to help Earth.
One night Doom, Reed, Johnny and Ben teleport to the planet, with disastrous consequences. They come back changed. Reed can now stretch his body. Sue (who brought them back but didn't travel with them) could now turn invisible and create force fields. Johnny can turn his body to fire, and Ben comes back as a rock creature with insurmountable strength.
One year later, Sue, Johnny and Ben are working with the government, and Reed is on the run, hoping to find a way to cure them. However, the only way they can possibly cure each other is to go back to the different dimension, where they come into contact with their friend, long thought dead, now bent on creating the new dimension into his own image, even if it means destroying Earth in the process.
The Synopsis:
Where to begin? When I first heard the casting choices two years ago, I knew the film was doomed (no pun intended). The Fantastic Four were always older, more well-defined, more balanced people. When it was announced that Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan were taking on the roles, I laughed. It's like casting Zac Efron as Iron Man, Miley Cyrus as Black Widow and Justin Bieber as Thor. They weren't suited for the roles they were supposed to take on. I wasn't even upset that the Human Torch was going to be African American, I just didn't understand the casting choices as a whole.
For what seemed like an eternity, the film was caught in limbo and reshoots. Finally the first trailer came out, and I was unimpressed. Then the second one, and I was even more unimpressed, but I figured that it didn't have to elevate much in order for it to be better than the abysmal previous outings - but I was wrong. Even though everyone and their mother deadpanned the movie and called it terrible, I was willing to give it a try. It ended up exceeding my already low expectations.
So what is so wrong with this film, that it earns the title as the worst superhero movie in the last fifteen years (beating out its two predecessors, "Hulk," "Daredevil" and "Elektra")? There's several factors to be taken into consideration:
First, the story. Plain and simple, there wasn't one. All the movie gave us was a bunch of young geniuses working together to create a teleporter to another dimension. But why? It's said it's so they can use what they find to help our planet. Is our planet dying? In imminent danger? There's no explanation there. The film spends more than 2/3 of its running time developing this aspect of the "story," with no action, no villain, and nothing worthwhile for us to watch. Then, all of a sudden, the movie turns to pure action as Doom returns and decides to destroy Earth because the new dimension is his home, and Earth threatens it for some unknown reason.
Second is the characters. Mostly everyone knows of the Fantastic Four and their feud with Dr. Doom. This film throws all that out the window, and gives us worse than one-dimensional (heh, dimensions) material. After watching the film, here is what I surmised:
-Reed and Ben are BFFs
-Sue and Johnny are brother and sister (although, OBVIOUSLY, Sue is adopted, which they stress in the film)
-Victor has the hots for Sue, and Reed might. Or not. You don't really know.
-After Ben is turned to The Thing, he's angry at Reed, even saying they're not friends. Then, after one "Braveheart" inspired speech by Reed, all is supposedly forgiven
-Ben doesn't seem at all phased about being turned into a giant rock monster
-Johnny loves being the Human Torch
-Sue seems ambivalent about being the Invisible Woman
-Reed hardly uses his ability, nor does he seem to care about it
There was a lot of material the film could've used, but opted out of it for some reason. There were no real struggles for the characters to face their life-altering changes. Even one year after it happens, they seem to just accept it and don't really question it (not to mention that, even a year later, they all look exactly the same, hairstyles and all).
Finally there's the villain. Victor Von Doom has amassed a rich history in the comics, as the ruler of Latveria and having a God-like complex. At least the complex is explored here, but very little is added. He wants to rule the new dimension for some reason, even though there's no other signs of life there. Then there's his look, which laughably resembles a Crash Test Dummy:
Plus, the villain Doom doesn't appear until the last twenty minutes.
Director Josh Trank, known for his amazing film "Chronicle," has tweeted that the studio interfered with the story he wanted to tell. If that's the case, I want to see his version. As I said before, it couldn't be worse than the sheer fantastic filth I saw.
The Summary:
Fox, for the love of all things right in the world, please give the Fantastic Four back to Marvel. They'll do better.
The Score: D+
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