FANTASTIC FOUR (2015) Review

So I heeded the warnings back when this new Fantastic Four movie came out and skipped it at the theaters and caught it on HBO. The credit for director goes to Josh Trank, and the film stars

Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (The Human Torch),
Kate Mara as Susan Storm (Invisible Girl),
Miles Teller as Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), and
Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm (Thing).

Oh, and Toby Kebbell plays Victor Von Doom or Doctor Doom.

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Well, 20th Century Fox did it again and gave us yet another Fantastic Four origin movie. Admittedly, it was a different departure from the comics classic version, but still, yet another origins film.

Despite that, Josh Trank put forth an interesting alternate origins story.  But the development of their origin took the first two acts of the movie.

From one angle, it was a good, slow methodical development. On the other hand, it was a drawn out beginning, culminated by a quick third act as the team comes together to defeat the classic FF4 evil, Doctor Doom.

It's always Doctor Doom. Sigh.


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Over on IMDb the user base was a bit harsh, giving the film a 4.3/10. It was even more harsh over on Rotten Tomatoes where critics scores tallied up to a whopping 9%.

I don't think it totally sucked, but it did feel a bit underwhelming, capped off with a ton of crazy action in the end.

I don't mind that I waited until it came to HBO, but I wonder when Fox will get the story right about the most popular comic title that Marvel used to have.

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In case you wonder why I used the phrase "Credit for director," that's because this was a huge production for Josh Trank, whose previous credits was the small but great indie film, Chronicle. But that was a film he was able to pull together himself. While working for Fox, apparently he did not do well with the huge amount of oversight that comes with making a huge movie under Fox. According to the popular version of the rumors, he fell apart and another executive producer stepped in to finish making the film and Trank made such a mess of things that Disney, who had tapped him to direct one of the Star Wars films, removed him from the job.

I think what we get in this version of FF is Trank's vision in the beginning and the last act of the film was hobbled together to finish the story off.

But that's my guess why the tone felt different between the first two thirds of the film and the last.

As far as his take on the issue:

"I want to do something original after this because I've been living under public scrutiny, as you've seen, for the last four years of my life, and it's not healthy for me right now in my life. I want to do something that's below the radar."

Other trivia about the film includes...

"Disapproved of his movie Fantastic Four (2015), because he had no Final Cut. By the end of 2014, Trank had a finished version of the film, which was disapproved of by the producers. Reshoots were ordered and done in early 2015."

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuV4BCYv-YY

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Star-Wars-Spinoff-Director-Josh-Trank-Was-Fired-71234.html

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2503633/

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