I like Ang Lee's Hulk, but I hated the set-up in Fantastic Four almost as much as the screwed-up finale. Thing is that during the set-up none of the characters, except Doom, come across as interesting whatsoever. Not engaging, not symapthetic, not fleshed-out...nothing. Also what#s up with the passage of time in the film? The kid in the openinjg grows up to be Miles Teller within seven years? With what hormones?

Also, in the beginning Reed works in his garage with old computers, suggesting a late 90s, early 2000s setting, but seven years later there is Instagram and Kate Mara takes pics with her new smartphone.

Complaining is more fun than praising.

Love is simple.

Lecter and Trixster's accounts have been conglomerated into one

It says the prologue is set in 2007. Young Reed clearly has older technology because he has salvaged it.

Still doesn't explain how he grew into Miles Teller, who certainly doesn't look only seven years older than his young version.

It is not the best child-actor-to-adult-star transition in the history of cinema, to be sure, but I am rather numb to these inconsistencies. David Lean's Great Expectations is one of the best films of all-time, and it is rather absurd when it cuts from 14-year-old Anthony Wager as child Pip to 38-year-old John Mills as young-adult Pip.

I'm happy for you Excel, finally a Marvel film that truly sucks, but not even in a fun way like with Batman and Robin

Saw it today at an early morning showing and eventhough I only paid 5 bucks I could have easily waited to rent this to watch at home. It's not godawful, but it is a bad movie plain and simple. Now, there were a few things that I actually liked such as the 80's/Amblin style beginning, the subtle body horror references, and even the look of The Thing or how he was used as a military weapon didn't bother me. That's pretty much where all the likes stop though because the rest of the movie is shit. The dialogue is terrible, the effects range from decent to downright awful, the cast never attempts to capture the fun/family dynamic the Fantastic 4 are suppose to have, and worst of all the movie is just so damn dull and boring. Michael B. Jordan is one of the most charismatic, likeable, young actors out there and somehow they even manage to waste him in this movie. However, nobody is as mistreated or wasted in this as Toby Kebbell's Victor Von Doom. The guy disappears after the first 40 or so minutes and you almost forget about him until he gets shoehorned into the climax at the last second. Also, what the fuck was up with that climax ? I mean everything was so dark and badly lit and I still don't understand how they figured out to beat Doom and if he's really dead. It was all just pointless buildup to a sequel that's never going to happen anyways.

Well, I tried to go into Fantastic Four with as open of a mind as I could. Perhaps there would be some intriguing ideas underneath the layers of trouble between director Josh Trank and the studio. However, having seen the film that nearly everyone is calling a mess, I have to concur that it is, indeed, a mess. To Trank's credit (insofar as I can say "credit"), the film travels further and further off the rails with each passing minute and the third act doesn't make a lick of sense, which suggests that Fox's last-ditch attempt to salvage the film with re-shoots succeeded only in making it worse. However, it's not exactly in tip-top shape before the third act, either. The pacing is decidedly uneven (the incident, the characters' development of their powers, and the final showdown with Von Doom all feel rushed after the very protracted setup that leads up to it), no one seems particularly interested in what's at stake, and despite all the time spent on setup and the talents of the cast members - all of whom deserve much better - none of the relationships between characters feel even remotely believable. There's no debating that Trank takes the material in a darker and grittier direction than it has previously gone onscreen, but it's just not effective; even the Cronenbergian horror fails to land because the acting and directorial approaches are too dull to elicit any palpable sense of horror. Ironically, Fox's attempt to revitalize the franchise after Tim Story's films goes so wrong that it makes those two films - which were nothing special, but also weren't this drab and messy - look better by comparison.

D+

This one’s for you bradley.


Fantastic Four is the superhero movie I’ve been waiting to see for years. It’s the inverse of Marvel’s tired, transparent act. Josh Trank brings his own vision to make a film about people that has superheroes in it, not a “superhero film”. It feels genuinely fresh and unique to itself.

F4 takes its characters seriously. It lets them contemplate about who they are and the consequences of what they’ve done. When they become the Fantastic Four, there’s also a sense of loss that the person they used to be is gone. All are complicit in each other’s fates from Reed’s ego, Victor’s hatred for authority and digust at the thought of them winning, Sue loving science too much to see its dangers, Johnny Storm’s adrenaline seeking and Ben’s blind faith in Reed instead of seeing him as the flawed human he is. Even after they become superheroes it feels like a film about scientists thanks to the time it allows them to work in the lab and relish in the science they are gifted at.

Visually this impressed me with plenty of inspired moments. I loved the first trip to the other dimension and scenes like the horror as Victor’s helmet is filled with the green lava and they lose him. Or when Reed wakes up and sees the burning Johnny on fire and his own disformed limbs. Dr. Doom feels threatening wrecking some carnage in the lab on earth and enacting some gruesome deaths, although I do feel the climax in his dimenson does feel too CGI. The Thing, the Human Torch and Sue’s powers looked fantastic to me. The Thing’s size, intensity and anger make the Chiklis version posted in David’s clip on the last page look like a complete joke. The Human Torch and Invisible Girl’s powers were often visually beautiful and I enjoyed the view of them all flying in her bubble towards the institute once back on Earth. Trank’s hand felt confident and inspired enough that I want to watch Chronicle when I get the chance.

For criticisms, Franklin Storm felt like a C rate Samuel L. Jackson/Morgan Freeman hybrid and had too many lines. I assume he talked more than Johnny. It also feels too underdeveloped on the relationship work between the F4 which I assume is a highlight of the comic books. When characters talk to each other most of it is about their work, not about each other. Many of the scenes are individual-driven. They could’ve gotten to know each other more and likewise given us more development for us to know them. My suspicion is the cutting room floor had those missing development and relationship building scenes in an attempt to bring its talking scenes to action scenes ratio closer together. Part of me wonders if the entire fight with Dr. Doom in the other dimension was thrown in late at the studio’s pushing. For me it would’ve worked fine if the climax ended with Dr. Doom leaving back to his own dimension alone after his killing spree and wrecking the lab, giving a speech about needing to be ForeverAlone on his own planet while the F4 say noez Victor don’t go we luv u. Thus his transformation establishes him as a heel/babyface tweener that's set-up for a big role in the sequel. Instead we get It's Clobbering Time.

Overall while not perfect, this just feels inspired in a way I haven't felt about the vast majority of superhero films this era

Geez, Shack, sometimes...

Good attention to detail there.

I blame Rex Reed for having too good a name

One def. gets the sense that there was a much much better film somewhere in there; it;s like the hate MOS gets but actually being true.

LOL

LOL, worst superhero flick ever.

Move aside Batman and Robin, you have been defeated.
This doesnt evend eserve an F.

fox really fucked this film

But Trank helped to put on the condom.

The first 45 minutes or so of this actually aren't terrible. There are a few missteps here and there (Johnny Storm's introduction is super rushed for example) but for the most part it's pretty enjoyable and I liked the focus on character development. However, once they visit Planet Zero and actually become superheroes this thing just goes completely off the rails, culminating in one of the worst and most unintentionally hilarious final action sequences I've seen in a long time. Everything is beyond rushed and the acting goes from decent to downright dreadful. Dr. Doom's reintroduction makes no sense. The actors aren't really to blame - they're saddled with bad material. Michael B. Jordan has nothing to do - I think he might have about 15 lines in the whole movie. Kate Mara is fine even though her wig is atrocious. Miles Teller is miscast but does his best, and Jamie Bell does well with what is again an underwritten role. It seems like Josh Trank was planning on making a movie that was well over two hours and due to studio interference it was edited down to an hour and a half. The bad buzz is definitely justified. C-

it's fantastic!

Fantastic Four

Well that was boring. There is a severe lack of anything happening. For the first 60 minutes (of a 100-minute film), you don't see any action. I guess that in total the actual Fantastic Four as we know them are on-screen for about 15 minutes. Maybe less. I feel that this film should have been condensed into an origin segment of a much larger film, but to make a whole film just for this was a complete fucking waste of a movie. I assume they were hoping that this would be the first one in a franchise therefore they thought it was acceptable to make it a more muted affair, but they fucked up - you need to make it entertaining! The effects are fine, the script certainly is not. Doctor Doom is relegated to about 3 minutes - and defeated pretty easily. Teller, Jordan, and I guess Bell, are fine, and I would like to see more of Teller in this role. But this whole "other dimension" thing just didn't work. The 2005 movie is so, so, so much better. Oh, and Kata Mara is fucking awful - so wooden. Fantastic end credits tune, though.

D+

I liked Reed Richards. He was sort of awkward and direct. Such a science nerd that he has little grasp of social codes. Teller caught that pretty well.

Victor von Doom was awful, though. Not a patch on Julian McMahon's 2005 one - which was brilliant.

Not sure where to begin. It isn't good anyway. I didn't watch the previous 2 FF films, but can't believe they're worse than this. Fantastic Four is definitely trying for a more serious super hero angle, although not abandoning jokes all together. The jokes aren't bad per se, but they just don't mix well within the setting of the film. The acting of everyone is bad, it all feels very wooden, no effort seems to be put in it. Doom looks very plastic, and despite his immense powers doesn't feel threatening at all. There simply isn't anything good about this film.
I thought the Reed and Ben growing up story wasn't inspiring, and felt like the stuff B-films are made of. What I did like was the presence of the individual actors, they seem really well cast, but none deliver a satisfying performance. Also, the film and the story development did have my curiosity, even it was poorly executed.

D

Really? Not even...