By: Caden H. Hollander
The Fantastic Four is directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) and stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Toby Kebbel. The film is a reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, and is about five young scientists that find the key to inter-dimensional travel. However, when they attempt to travel between dimensions, many things go wrong. While one person is trapped in this dimension, the four others get insane powers: being able to stretch your body, being able to fly and light yourself on fire, being able to turn invisible, and to be a large "Hulk" sort of person made of rocks. So, this film had not been getting good reviews whatsoever, so I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane going into the theater. Just a fun time with some cool action set pieces and some fun witty banter. That hope is now long gone, replaced with a new one: That I don't have to see a Fantastic Four 2.
The Fantastic Four is directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) and stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan and Toby Kebbel. The film is a reboot of the Fantastic Four franchise, and is about five young scientists that find the key to inter-dimensional travel. However, when they attempt to travel between dimensions, many things go wrong. While one person is trapped in this dimension, the four others get insane powers: being able to stretch your body, being able to fly and light yourself on fire, being able to turn invisible, and to be a large "Hulk" sort of person made of rocks. So, this film had not been getting good reviews whatsoever, so I wasn't expecting Citizen Kane going into the theater. Just a fun time with some cool action set pieces and some fun witty banter. That hope is now long gone, replaced with a new one: That I don't have to see a Fantastic Four 2.
To start, the film had only ONE action scene, which was the climax of the movie. Because of this, there was a ton of milling around throughout the first two acts with barely any action, and too many unnecessary plot points that didn't need to be hit. There was a plot line with Reed Richards (Teller) that was ridiculous and DID NOT progress the story along whatsoever. The film was also poorly edited, with sloppy cuts and unnecessary edits. Also, the movie skipped over the real origins of the characters finding their powers, which was PRETTY MUCH what we were interested in seeing. Also, the villain, Victor Von Doom, was 100% forced and did not even show up until the very end of the film. There was one action sequence where the four were battling Doom. There should've been more action, and Doom should've been introduced earlier in the film.
And as for the action sequence, it was a total mess. The four were basically "taking turns" trying to hit Doom, and I nearly felt like yelling at the screen "ATTACK HIM ALL AT ONCE!" This is basic logic! However, while the movie was pretty bad, there were a few upsides to the film. The origin story (first 45 mins of film) was really cool, and at a much higher level than the rest of the movie. Also, the scene when Doom arrives on Earth for the first time is really cool, with this great eerie feel to it. Not to mention, the design and visual effects were really well done, with The Thing looking absolutely amazing compared to other Fantastic Four incarnations. All of the powers did look cool, and were handled well. Even Doom towards the end of the film looked really cool.
Overall, I would not recommend seeing The Fantastic Four. It is not a good movie, but unfortunately had aspects and possibly potential to be a great film, but the final edit of the movie wasn't great. There were some bright spots, but it was weighed down with plot holes, unnecessary plot points and barely any action in a summer blockbuster. In the end, The Fantastic Four deserves a C. It was not a great film, and one I would not recommend. Alright, so what did you think of The Fantastic Four? Comment below and let us know what you thought of the film!