10 years ago Batman Begins introduced the term ‘reboot’ and became the shining example of how to introduce audiences to a character and their world. Marvel have since spoiled us with the overall quality of their MCU. It’s been a golden age you might say.
Fantastic Four is proof that the genre is still capable of creating a stinker. The well-documented production issues were a huge warning. Director Josh Trank had a tweet clearly aimed at supposedly meddling FOX execs hastily deleted.
However you cut it though, a cinema visit is rarely a cheap experience. I can review a film on what it might have been. Based on the final film, I can’t suggest that you spend your hard-earned money on watching Fantastic Four.
Broad brush strokes give us no reason to invest in these future heroes. The first act starts out thoughtful, though there even large plot holes to found here.
The second act may have been where the film picked up, if there was one. What little story there is gets tossed aside as the second act strains to give us a villain and a fight. At this point Fantastic Four, which was middling already, devolves into straight-up trash.
Infuriatingly there may be something better buried in here somewhere. The cast is a fine one, who all show in glimpses what they could have done with their roles. Add this to the horrifying changes to their bodies plus the threat of weaponisation and this film could have made a mark in ways that the MCU films can’t.
The final scene gives us the horrifically corny set up of a new base as the team figure out a name for themselves. But they didn’t any of it! FOX clearly thought audiences would just roll over and take it. Sure, the hunger for comic books films is huge, and the business case is compelling. You need to actually make a decent film first though.
A waste of acting talent, as well as two hours of my life, Fantastic Four is an immensely frustrating experience that amazingly fails to improve on previous incarnations.
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