Movie Review – Fantastic Four

It seems like only yesterday that the Fantastic Four’s characters looked quite different. Oh that’s probably because the last two movies of the franchise are still fresh in my head. Well scrap those memories and move forward as the reboot train continues to barrel through movies like the Kool-aid guy goes through walls. Oh yeah! This time around it’s director Josh Trank’s turn to try to get these comic book characters on the same level as other Marvel movies. Trank chose to go with a younger cast in the hopes of building something that can grow and spawn several sequels if successful.
Young Reed Richards was an intelligent, albeit awkward, kid from an early age. He had the propensity to learn and push the envelope of science. So much so that he was an outcast from both his peers and even his elders. He did however, develop a relationship with one kid who ended up becoming his best friend through the years. Ben is kind of an “other side of the tracks” kid but in this case opposites attract. Reed was always the brains but if needed, Ben was the brawn and sort of a rock for Reed to lean on. A pet project of Reed’s becomes the focal point of Fantastic Four as its ultimate purpose is to transport an object from point A to point B. Unbeknownst to Reed, there are others working on this same concept and their paths inexplicably intersect.
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) gains new resources which allows him to work with other great minds in order to achieve this scientifically astounding breakthrough. Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), Sue Storm (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) work together alongside Reed to achieve interdimensional teleportation. Upon having a successful test of the process things start to go sideways ending with an accident that changes each person in unimaginable ways. This also includes Reed’s bestie, Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), who isn’t even officially part of the team but became involved due to Reed’s urging. At this point of the film is when the Fantastic Four as we know them start to take shape while gaining the abilities that the audience has been patiently waiting for.
Rarely have I had to labor so hard to get through a movie, and a Marvel movie at that. Fantastic Four started off interesting, moved to somewhat compelling but then somewhere along the way it just jumped off of the track and morphed into a spectacular mess. The initial origin story was a nice touch but everything was dragged out so much that you’d think Reed’s long stretchy arms had something to do with it. Yikes. And by the time everything comes together to reach the film’s apex aka “hey there’s Dr. Doom finally” it was over. Yep, just like that. Done! There’s nothing glorious or redeeming about this reboot. It was just a lot of work to get five characters introduced. I call that a Fantastic Chore.
There were early whispers of the Fantastic Four crossing paths with the X-Men at some point down the road in a future movie since 20th Century Fox owns the rights to both. They have to be thinking twice about that move right now. I mean you’ve got storied franchise on one side that has kept audiences coming back for more each time around. Then on the other, you’ve got a franchise that didn’t get it quite right back in 2005 & 2007 so it was eventually scrapped and retooled into what you see before you today. And this is worse! Don’t buy into the hype with the snazzy commercials and trailers. Money will be made on curiosity alone but I don’t see how they can go forward with a sequel unless someone steps in to seriously retool the crew side of things. See it if you dare but be warned, not even Stan Lee wanted to show his face in this one, unless his character was invisible the entire time. Hmmmm….