The history of Fantastic Four on screen has been a negative one, with the most positive thing anyone ever said about them being: "They are definitely movies that exist". Still, Fox has gone ahead with a reboot, banking on fresh faces and a new and upcoming director at the head.
Now right from the get-go, this movie was a trainwreck, with unconfirmed reports of things happening behind the scenes that were just... crazy. With reshoots happening and review embargos laid down it was safe for any fan to say that if this movie was even half decent then a true miracle had happened.
Unfortunately, this is not true.
The movie opens with a serviceable set-up that follows Reed Richards and Ben Grimm while they're children as Richards strives to create his teleportation device. This section has clear influences from the Ultimate comics with a few designs looking as if they were lifted straight from the pages. Once the time jump is made to today, the movie kicks into gear as a science project gone high budget.
While this is happening we are gradually introduced to the main characters that will guide us through the rest of the film. Michael B. Jordan is particularly fun at times as Johnny Storm and Miles Teller does what he can with the Reed Richards role, but ultimately this movie suffers from bad narrative and writing with studio interference being a thick presence in the air.
One particular stand-out moment though is when some of our main characters head into the N-Zone (Planet Zer0 or whatever) and are thrown into a crisis that changes and evolves them both physically and mentally. For this short ten minutes or so, I began to build hope for what the rest of the movie could be, but then the movie skips forward a year in time and we are left to fill in the blanks on any kind of character development.
Odd scenes placed here and there serve only to disjoint the narrative and just when you think a scene might be going somewhere the main focus drives somewhere else. But lo-and-behold the villain has returned. While his costume leaves something to be desired at least he... Wait. Movie's over. What you might've just garnered is that this movie's third act is incredibly rushed, with barely any actual character depth or weight to it.
Ulimatelly, this movie suffers from inconsistent tones and studio interference. While it may not have been the studio's fault, (heck, they might have made it better), Fantastic Four is simply not the movie any movie-lover would enjoy. The actors do their best with what they're given but in the end, you can't fix something that has little passion behind it.
Look, I know this review could probably have more to it but I just can't think of anything else to say, probably give this movie a miss. Wait 'til dvd or something...