Fantastic Four

Or as I like to call it, Fant 4 Stic.

I did a review for the 2005 release of The Fantastic Four a long time ago. The writing is probably pretty crude and it probably doesn't give a great representation of the film so I'll try and give my abbreviated thoughts here. In short, I don't think its the worst superhero movie and it definitely was in the formation years of comic book movies. This is about the same time as the Sam Raimi Spider-man films where comic book movies were just starting to figure out what works and what doesn't and figuring out the formula for good films we have today.

Unfortunately, for some reason, The Fantastic Four just can't seem to figure out a way to get that formula to work for them...

The Fantastic Four starts by introducing Reed Richards (played by Miles Teller). While Reed is in high school in the 2000s, its almost like Reed's teachers are from the 70s or 80s. Reed has a plan to be the first scientist to crack teleportation. His teachers, his classmates, all oddly acting as if they are from a different time, quickly laugh off his hopes and dreams, cause you know, teaching the future.

Fortunately he does have people who believe in him, like his buddy Ben Grimm (played by Jaime Bell) and then later, a scientist by the name of Dr. Franklin Storm (played by Reg E. Cathey) who invites Reed to take part in an interdimensional science experiment in the Baxter Institute with his adopted daughter Sue Storm (played by Kate Mara) and his son Johnny Storm (played by Michael B Jordan) utilizing Reed's teleportation device as the final piece needed to complete the research.

The project is also facilitated by the poorly named Vicktor Von Doom (played by Tobey Kebbell). Why Vicktor is brought into the project after Dr. Storm obviously knows that he is a dangerous individual and its been clearly proven that Reed Richards is smarter than him, is beyond me.

The group work to create this machine for a large portion of the movie and when it is finally complete, they test it and figure out that it totally works.

The obvious next step is to send actual humans through the machine and into the other dimension. Unfortunately, through a horrible accident, the team is left with incredible abilities, abilities that make them The Fantastic Four.

Reed is granted the ability to stretch himself beyond what is actually possible. Johnny is granted the ability to set himself on fire, fly, and throw fire. Sue is granted the ability to turn herself invisible and utilize force fields. And Ben is turned into a giant rock monster.

Now here's the thing about the Fantastic Four that make them incredibly difficult to adapt to film. While its pretty cool seeing Michael B Jordan fly around on fire, while its kind of cool seeing Kate Mara... do Sue Storm things, and while its kind of cool seeing the creative things Reed Richards can do with his stretchiness, the Fantastic Four are, as a whole, a really, really, REALLY, boring super team.

There's nothing really overly special about them. They're just another super team that doesn't really compare to what we've seen since. Thing about it. The Avengers have Iron man, Robert Downey Jr. in a mechanized suit. Captain America, a man from World War 2 with super strength. Thor, a Norse God. And Bruce Banner, a scientist who turns into a giant green rage monster when he gets angry.

And that's just a piece of the people who are on the Avengers. If you're going to make another super team, they have to be interesting, and unfortunately, The Fantastic Four are just not that interesting.

 I wrote in my review of the 2005 films that I don't know that much about the source material of the Fantastic Four. I don't know what makes them interesting in the source material, therefore I don't know what you can do to make it so they are interesting in the movies.

The one thing that I do know about the Fantastic Four that makes them a little bit different is the fact that a lot of their super powering goes on in other dimensions.

Part of the appeal of the Fantastic Four is the fact that they travel between dimensions and they see different world. Because on earth, they're really kind of run of the mill. And a while back, I didn't think that was something that they should be doing, I thought that they should be trying to incorporate The Fantastic Four in with what Fox has already established, but there was a glimmer of what this movie could have been when they start traveling through different dimensions and I see glimmers of what could have been a really good movie.

What would have happened if the Fantastic Four tried to distinguish themselves by facing off against evil in other dimensions? Maybe it'd be different but the way I understand it, the team has always been different. They're not your run of the mill super heroes and I don't think that's how they should have been done like they were in this film.

Which brings me to my next point and that is the main antagonist of this film, Vicktor Von Doom.

Now a lot of people saw this picture from the trailer and they were not wild about the way Doom looks in this film. I saw it and I was underwhelmed. Again, I don't know much about the source material, all I know is the crappy version from the 2005 version. How could this be any worse than that?

Well it is. I saw a review that said this version makes me miss that version with Julian McMahon, and I have to agree.

Mainly because there was no development of Doom as the antagonist and suddenly he's just there as the antagonist. There's no build up, there's no development, one minute he's Vicktor Von Doom, the kind of creepy but not hurting anybody yet guy who ends up being a casualty of the accident, to this weird tin man who doesn't move his mouth. There's no build up, there's no evolution, he's just Dr. Doom. Its probably the worst creation of a villain I have ever seen on film.

And while Doom had barely any set up at all and was by far the worst of any of the characters in the film, I didn't feel like any of the characters really had a whole lot of set up to a point where I feel like I was invested in any of their stories. Instead of these people being characters, they were just bodies on screen doing cool things with visual effects. While I saw glimmers of character development, the movie itself felt so rushed and so crammed that I never felt anything for any of them.

Starting right off the bat, you have Miles Teller as Reed Richards. Now I'm not the biggest Miles Teller fan to begin with but I do have to admit that I feel like he is a good choice for a Reed Richards. I feel like he does pull of the gawkiness of the character and is able to portray the most intelligent man in the Marvel universe.

That is kind of a theme throughout all the characters. I feel like all the main characters are good actors. I love Kate Mara, I think she's phenomenal. I know Michael B Jordan is a really good actor. I've seen bits and pieces of Turn and I know Jaime Bell can act.

But again, I really don't feel like any of the characters were ever really developed and I didn't feel like they were that good.

Ben Grimm is the best example. Sure he's set up as Reed's friend, but he's barely in the movie leading up to the transformation that I don't really feel bad for him the way I should. I mean he's a guy who is forever a rock monster. Say what you will about the 2005 version, at least they touched on that and made it an important part of the story.

And that's the horrible thing. As much as the 2005 version had its issues, I at least knew the dilemma each one of these characters faced. Each of them had a personality, each one of them had their own distinct personalities.

The Fantastic Four falls under a device used in story telling called the 4 humors. Its mainly known in the formation of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. I used to post this video on this blog all the time and I still love it to this day.

The cast from the 2005 film, as flawed as they were, fell into those character designs. You may say that's lazy, but at least it gave them character.

In this version I felt like a lot of the characters overlapped. Reed is the quiet smart one, but so is Sue. Johnny's the guy who's the brash one who doesn't play by anybody's rules... but I guess so is Ben in a way.

In a weird way, I go back to the 2005 version and... as much as I don't want to believe it, its actually better than this version.

Now, don't take that in a way that says the 2005 version is by any means good. Its not. Its campy, its kind of boring, and it was dead on arrival the minute anyone sees it.

However, its an example of Fox's attitude towards The Fantastic Four. They do not care.

I don't know if it was Fox, I don't know if it was Josh Trank, hell it was probably a combination of both, but the point is, somebody screened this movie, they saw how incomplete it is (did I mention this is a 90 minute movie) they saw how shallow the characters were. They saw how the first half of the movie is drawn out introductions while the last third is just an incoherent mess, and they said, Fuck it, we'll do it live. Meaning, meh, we'll let this slide, we don't have any corrections at all on this. People are stupid.

Well, we're not. Based on the critical reception of this movie, it is very apparent that this is not a complete movie, and what is complete in it, is not good.

And the unfortunate part is, this is not the first time, the second time, or the third time this has happened to the Fantastic Four. This is the fourth time Fox has tried their hand at a Fantastic Four movie and just down right failed.

And the even more unfortunate thing is, I feel like they had something here.

The truth is, they had the cast, they had the budget, they had the effects. Hell, they had the universe. They had so much potential to utilize established characters from the X-men universe, if they really weren't confident with the final product, as long as it was conducive to the story as opposed to just having a shameless plug to a larger universe, this movie had something here.

But instead there was just a lack of effort. I don't really care about rumors but if the rumors are true that Josh Trank showed up drunk to production, and he acted unprofessional, there's a lack of effort there. Its obvious that the studio didn't care about the final product or they wouldn't have let this pile of garbage go to screen.

If they really wanted to release a good Fantastic Four movie, they could have given themselves more time to develop actual characters, give themselves a distinct feel, and actually do something worth wild.

Instead, this movie was exactly what everyone was afraid it was going to be, a revamping of the franchise so Fox could hold onto the rights of the characters so they don't go back to Marvel. And that, to me, is just down right unacceptable.

If you don't feel like you can make a good movie with these characters, fine. I'm not totally interested in the characters, nobody else seems to be, just let them drift away, especially if there's no money in it. But don't waste my time trying to sell this movie as anything different than it is, and that's wasted money and wasted time.

I wasn't expecting to have this angry of a reaction to this film but this movie made me angry about 10 minutes after I was done and I had started digesting it. Its just a down right horribly put together film, and not in the fun way.

But that's what I thought of Fantastic Four. What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! I really want to hear somebody defend this movie. You can also send me your thoughts on this movie by following me on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and you can also send me requests for future films to review, I will put them as a priority. You can also follow me to get updates on future movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this, its a lay up as i already put a lot of work into this post already. But here's the honest trailer for the 2005 version of this film. Enjoy!