Fantastic Four (2015)
4:41 PM
Change is Coming
The next reboot of Fantastic Four is directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) and stars Miles Teller (Whiplash, Divergent), Michael B. Jordan (That Awkward Moment, Chronicle), Kate Mara (127 Hours, Shooter), Jamie Bell (The Adventures of Tintin, Jumper) and Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time). "Four young outsiders teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy". Can this next reboot of Fantastic Four be better than the last one?
What a horrible surprise this movie was! I had hopes for Fantastic Four but they fell apart as soon as it started - it was definitely NOT fantastic! This is my least favourite superhero movie since Man of Steel. There are so many things wrong with it - I now understand why moles in Hollywood were saying bad things about it even when it was in the post production stay. If you do choose to see Fantastic Four, do not have high hopes or any hope at all - that might lead to you actually enjoying it.
So where to I start - well the first thing is that the first half of the film is so poorly edited that it went from a generic comic book movie to a film where you actually had to pay a lot of attention. Don't start thinking that it is intelligent, the little things you have to pay attention to are whether the character is the same character because of a sudden appearance change or whether it is the same day because of a sudden cut to a whole new location. Toby Kebbell plays Doom and in his first scene, he is very scruffy and then his next, he has had his hair cut much shorter and looks completely different! I don't know if little scenes were cut out during post but come on...you wouldn't just have a character who is blonde and is then ginger so why do it with length? Issues like this made the film feel very sloppy and lazy.
Another issue is that the film is extremely slow - it takes over an hour to do what the original films did in 10 minutes. Ok, those films had their problems but come on, who wants to watch an hour of scientists not really do much and then only have about 40 minutes of actual superhero time?!? This definitely was an origin story. What I liked about AntMan is that they didn't take too long creating the hero whereas with this, it took forever. I also found the film extremely boring - the lines were very generic and even when action was occurring, I just didn't care due to the acting (more on that in a minute) and it just wasn't great - the characters went to a new dimension which should be supercool but I just didn't care at all.
There was also a lack of character development. Yes, we are told that the reason the Storm family is diverse is because Sue is adopted but thats it? This would have been a perfect opportunity for the audience to connect with Sue and learn about her troubled past but no, it was just 'yeah, I was adopted'. We do learn a little about Reed Richards and Ben Grimm thanks to a super pleasant (sarcasm) opening sequence with child actors. However, no other characters are developed in the slightest.
I have to say, the film wasn't even nice to look out - sometimes with films like this (Jupiter Ascending), you can at least rely on talent and the visuals - the visuals in this felt like they were taken directly out of a computer game. There didn't seem to be much depth to the dimension which made it feel like it was just a green screen backdrop - no believability at all.
Ok, on to the acting which should have been something to rely on right? No. I feel that this bunch are probably the most miscast and uncharismatic superheros out here. You'd think Reed Richards would be amazed when he sees his invention come to life - is he? No. You'd think they'd care more about the fait of the earth. Do they? No. Miles Teller did show glimmers of good solid acting but he was generally not great. Yes, it was nice to see some diversity in a superhero film but I feel Michael B. Jordan also lacked charm. Kate Mara was also very bland. The only member of the team I could tolerate was Jamie Bell (in human form) - I didn't like him at all as The Thing. There was one scene in the movie that I did really like which was when Doom returned from the dimension and basically started killing everyone - this is when the action actually kicked in and the tension kind of developed. I thought Toby Kebbell did an ok job but someone could have done better. However, the award for the worst actor in Fantastic Four goes to Reg E. Cathey - he has a voice for maybe trailers or villains - but he was just terrible. I didn't believe anything he said and he didn't seem to care about his children (despite his lines). Apart from Cathey, I do believe that this cast were underused and not able to show their talent due to a poorly written script.
Even though there is literally no build up, every superhero film ends with a big end battle - with Fantastic Four, it just happens - I had to ask the person I was watching it with whether this was the end scene - they didn't know either. The battle also didn't feel very threatening to earth even though it was. I just feel that it was just a big let down.
Fantastic Four is Marvels worst film in a very long time. Ok, its not completely theres but they probably won't trust Fox with any more of their properties other than X-Men and Deadpool which looks promising. Teller, Jordan and Mara are uncharismatic because their talent is underused by a stupid script. Fantastic Four isn't visually pleasing and is probably the slowest superhero film ever. I will have to give it that it has moments of goodness and is actually watchable. Fantastic Four is definitely not Fantastic. Oh and because you probably won't be able to look out for a sequel, look out for Fantastic Four on the worst of list of 2015 :)
2 STARS
D
What did you think of FANTASTIC FOUR? Will they ever be able to do the comics justice? - COMMENT BELOW
Fantastic Four completes the 2015 Summer Movie campaign.
See You Soon!
What a horrible surprise this movie was! I had hopes for Fantastic Four but they fell apart as soon as it started - it was definitely NOT fantastic! This is my least favourite superhero movie since Man of Steel. There are so many things wrong with it - I now understand why moles in Hollywood were saying bad things about it even when it was in the post production stay. If you do choose to see Fantastic Four, do not have high hopes or any hope at all - that might lead to you actually enjoying it.
So where to I start - well the first thing is that the first half of the film is so poorly edited that it went from a generic comic book movie to a film where you actually had to pay a lot of attention. Don't start thinking that it is intelligent, the little things you have to pay attention to are whether the character is the same character because of a sudden appearance change or whether it is the same day because of a sudden cut to a whole new location. Toby Kebbell plays Doom and in his first scene, he is very scruffy and then his next, he has had his hair cut much shorter and looks completely different! I don't know if little scenes were cut out during post but come on...you wouldn't just have a character who is blonde and is then ginger so why do it with length? Issues like this made the film feel very sloppy and lazy.
Another issue is that the film is extremely slow - it takes over an hour to do what the original films did in 10 minutes. Ok, those films had their problems but come on, who wants to watch an hour of scientists not really do much and then only have about 40 minutes of actual superhero time?!? This definitely was an origin story. What I liked about AntMan is that they didn't take too long creating the hero whereas with this, it took forever. I also found the film extremely boring - the lines were very generic and even when action was occurring, I just didn't care due to the acting (more on that in a minute) and it just wasn't great - the characters went to a new dimension which should be supercool but I just didn't care at all.
There was also a lack of character development. Yes, we are told that the reason the Storm family is diverse is because Sue is adopted but thats it? This would have been a perfect opportunity for the audience to connect with Sue and learn about her troubled past but no, it was just 'yeah, I was adopted'. We do learn a little about Reed Richards and Ben Grimm thanks to a super pleasant (sarcasm) opening sequence with child actors. However, no other characters are developed in the slightest.
I have to say, the film wasn't even nice to look out - sometimes with films like this (Jupiter Ascending), you can at least rely on talent and the visuals - the visuals in this felt like they were taken directly out of a computer game. There didn't seem to be much depth to the dimension which made it feel like it was just a green screen backdrop - no believability at all.
Ok, on to the acting which should have been something to rely on right? No. I feel that this bunch are probably the most miscast and uncharismatic superheros out here. You'd think Reed Richards would be amazed when he sees his invention come to life - is he? No. You'd think they'd care more about the fait of the earth. Do they? No. Miles Teller did show glimmers of good solid acting but he was generally not great. Yes, it was nice to see some diversity in a superhero film but I feel Michael B. Jordan also lacked charm. Kate Mara was also very bland. The only member of the team I could tolerate was Jamie Bell (in human form) - I didn't like him at all as The Thing. There was one scene in the movie that I did really like which was when Doom returned from the dimension and basically started killing everyone - this is when the action actually kicked in and the tension kind of developed. I thought Toby Kebbell did an ok job but someone could have done better. However, the award for the worst actor in Fantastic Four goes to Reg E. Cathey - he has a voice for maybe trailers or villains - but he was just terrible. I didn't believe anything he said and he didn't seem to care about his children (despite his lines). Apart from Cathey, I do believe that this cast were underused and not able to show their talent due to a poorly written script.
Even though there is literally no build up, every superhero film ends with a big end battle - with Fantastic Four, it just happens - I had to ask the person I was watching it with whether this was the end scene - they didn't know either. The battle also didn't feel very threatening to earth even though it was. I just feel that it was just a big let down.
Fantastic Four is Marvels worst film in a very long time. Ok, its not completely theres but they probably won't trust Fox with any more of their properties other than X-Men and Deadpool which looks promising. Teller, Jordan and Mara are uncharismatic because their talent is underused by a stupid script. Fantastic Four isn't visually pleasing and is probably the slowest superhero film ever. I will have to give it that it has moments of goodness and is actually watchable. Fantastic Four is definitely not Fantastic. Oh and because you probably won't be able to look out for a sequel, look out for Fantastic Four on the worst of list of 2015 :)
2 STARS
D
What did you think of FANTASTIC FOUR? Will they ever be able to do the comics justice? - COMMENT BELOW
Fantastic Four completes the 2015 Summer Movie campaign.
See You Soon!
1 comments
I was looking forward to warch this film not hoping but assuming that finally someone realized that the first two movies were crap and wanted to fix it and make some justice to the comic. Why would anyone reboot the series if not to make a better one? After reading this review my hope has proved to be naive and is now shatered to bits. I will most likely spare myself the pain to watch it. I am however very indignant to see that noone is capable of doing somthing decent with The Fantastic Four. Next time they try, if I don't see Mr Nolan, or at least Mr Singer directing it, I will just ignore it.
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