After 8 years of waiting for another Fantastic Four movie, the reboot directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) was something that no fan ever admitted into seeing due to the nature of how the movies cast, direction and possibly script is being mishandled by the long hated movie studio 20th Century Fox. It wasn't till back in Febuary where I was lucky enough to actually withness the movie first hand with my wife and son as a special sneak peek.
THE GOOD
So what is the good behind this movie? Does it exist, do these characters have good moments? And the answer is simply
YES. Lets start with the beginning, for those of you who believe Reed is a grocery store clerk, he isn't. You actually do not know anything about his occupation other than he is brilliant and has built genius inventions that caught the eye of the Baxter Instituition. While working on teleportation in the beginning of the movie with young Reed & Ben doing the experiment you see in trailers, it turns out that same invention is what Reed has always achieved in life was crossing over to another dimension, pretty much being the next Neil Armstrong, or Christopher Coloumbus minus the rape and slaughtering.
The picture I have to the left is when he is actually invited to go to the Baxter Institute. Before this moment you are introduced to a lot of their personalities, when I mean personalities I mean the four in general. While every character may look different from their comic book counterpart, they're likeable but also have this certain chemistry and bond that was sorely lacking in the Tim Story movie. It gives you this vibe of not to actually feel like "HOLY SHIT, I GOT COOL SUPERPOWERS" but "HOLY SHIT, WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO ME!?!?" vibe instead. They all feel like these powers are truly sicknesses, where as in the Tim Story movie their feelings towards are explained in one sentence by Reed once or twice and never mentioned again. Hell its even implied Reed wanted to be a superhero. Here, there is none of that till the third act of the movie.
While a lot of that is going on, you of course are going to have the one person who does not believe in the project at all, cut to Harvey Elder who is the CIA liason of the project. While he does play an asshole, you don't get that hint of villany that is present with the character in the comics. Although he does mention an island (Easter Egg?), anywho, you have him who does not agree with what has happened and pins the blame all on Franklin Storm. Another great actor in this movie who believes in the four. All of them do a good job at the script that was presented to them but what about Doom?
As for Doom, he wasn't a terribly written character, but they could of done a lot better. Is he as terrible as the past two movies? Absoulutely not, in fact of being obvious exact opposite he really is a big threat to the Four. As for his plan, his plan is to obtain all knowledge of other universe and dimensions, which is why he looks the way he is. The Negative Zone has not only changed the way he looks but has made him a freak of nature. While the route does fit the movie, it just feels very bland to have what caused the F4 to get their powers have it happen to Doom. While of course written better, it still makes little to no sense to have that idea ingrained in audiences head that he too was part of the accident.
What I can say though that a lot of the action and special effects truly hold up. Well......somewhat. You have to remember, watching this through a rough cut is kind of hard to review what is seen and what is not seen. The Thing at times was of course not finished and some parts he looked almost done. Doom did not have the green outlines on his body and The Human Torch didn't look as intricate as he does in trailers right now. Even the score with some of it using Ottmans classic and the theme song sounding like something from Danny Elfman. So I'll skip to the bad, is there any bad? To all you Marvel Studios fans, YES.
THE BAD
Now what is the bad in this movie? So far it seems I am praising it right? Well some moments do seem a bit forced, especially the third act. For some reason, like in the past two F4 movies, the third act seems nothing more but the same old bullshit. Villain arises, villain almost kills the four and the four actually stand up and defeat. Sure I did a plotline of the first movies final battle, but this final battle is a mixture of the first two movies final battle. Minus of course the Super-Skrull moment, but it has those moments from both those movies. Not to mention how what the experiment they have created is nothing more than what marks the end of the world as well.
What I can say about it as well, is that it does end quick as well. It does run at 2 hours, but for some reason I feel as if I didn't really learn that much. Of course you can argue the movie is different from the last two in many ways, but sometimes it sort of does feel the same except it has a much more tragic feel to it. It not only feels contrived but it also feels some what weak to add an origin story all together. Which is why pacing is sometimes an issue in this movie, everything happens a little to fast like the original film. I know you do need to have that in a superhero movie nowadays, but their character moments are often clouded because it rushes to the big moments. Its sad because a lot of the big moments, could be the characters. Instead we are hurrying to the training, hurry to the battle of Doom, hurry lets show some end of the world escapades again. It's sad because a lot of the big moments is how hard they tried to work with these characters while also trying to respect who they were by building their origin.
OVERALL
The movie is not even close to being horrible. In fact, it really is on borderline of really good and great. The biggest achievement of this movie is them trying to create characters that you care about, and that was the biggest goal of this movie. It wasn't to execute the direction, but to make sure these characters can be likable to audiences. Now of course, a lot of Marvel fanboys will hope and pray it fails but if you do keep an open mind it is an intriguing vision of the Fantastic Four that not only gives you a movie with good action and heart, but it for sure does not feel like a tragic drama at all.
For people who actually considered giving this movie a chance, I trust you do so. I know it isn't like the comics, or hell even the Ultimates even; but it does something truly unique for superhero movies. I don't believe it sent it back, but it honestly sent it forward into possibilities for other superheroes movies.
3.7/5