Les 4 Fantastiques

Over the last decade, we have seen a number of superhero movies get a much needed reboot. After the atrocious Batman & Robin, Batman was brilliantly brought back to the big screen in Batman Begins. When the Spider-Man franchise hit an embarrassing rock bottom with Spider-Man 3, it was reinvigorated with the very likable The Amazing Spider-Man.

Eight years on from the dud that was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and it's time that Marvel's first family got a reboot. With a lot of rumours flying around about trouble on set and the studio not seeming to have total confidence in their product, could 2015's Fantastic Four do these iconic comic-book characters justice?

Reed Richards (Miles Teller) is a brilliant young scientist on the verge of discovering how to both transport matter to another dimension and bring it back. Recruited by Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey), Reed is given the resources and help, in the form of Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), to to finish what he started in his younger years.

When they finally crack inter-dimensional travel, Reed invites his childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) to travel to another world along with him and his team. An accident causes their physical form to drastically change. Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must learn to harness their powers and work as a team to stop Victor, who is hell bent on destroying Earth.

The one thing that stood out to me about Fantastic Four is just how unbelievably dull it is. For characters who have such a rich and colourful history in the comics, this really is a pretty drab affair. The film only has a 100 minute runtime however, it feels much longer, dragging its feet and feeling very tired right from the very start.

When a superhero movie gets less exciting after they get their powers, something is very very wrong.

I had some hope for this film and one of the main reason was down to the fact that Josh Trank was sat in the director's chair. Trank hit the big time with Chronicle, a film that combined the superhero genre with found footage. I can't express just how disappointed I am with Trank because everything about Fantastic Four is just so sloppy.

The story is weak, the script is cringeworthy and the special effects are average at best. It all culminates in one of the most boring finales you will ever witness in a superhero movie. Compared to what else you see happen in other superhero movies these days, it all looks and feels amateur.

Then there are the performances. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell are all young actors who have the world at their feet. They have each impressed in their own way prior to Fantastic Four but every single one of them has the range of the cast in Tim Story's Fantastic Four films and waste their talents in Trank's reboot.

Fantastic Four is a film very much out of time and place in today's market of superhero movies. Ten or fifteen years ago a studio might have been able to get away with it but not today. Audiences like to be entertained and with the competition offering much more excitement, I don't see audiences taking to this, at all.

Fantastic Four started catching my eye in the casting stage. Seemingly not giving a damn about the source material, it was refreshing to see those kind of balls especially from Marvel. While I welcome Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch, I wish I could say the same thing about the rest of the film. Fantastic Four is merely a reboot that loses its steam after the first act. Coming in at just over an hour and a half, the film is a rushed piece of reject summer movie drab. The characters are paper thin and about 10 years too young for their respective roles. The visual effects are far from stunning, especially The Thing, whose transformation into the ghastly beast is something closer to a PS2 game than an actual film with a $100 million price tag. Miles Teller proves here that his performance in Whiplash is truly a fluke. As Mr. Fantastic, he struggles to sound like he knows what he is talking about. Perhaps a little more rehearsal time and a little less focus on that cheap looking silver streak in his hair could have benefited him. Kate Mara as Susan Storm is about as idiotic as it can get. Mara is a great actress, there's no other way about it but Kate Mara as Susan Storm is terrible and borderline embarrassing. The biggest shock here in this film is where all the controversy started...Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch. Jordan's ability to be a badass likable gear head is insanely good. He's the best part of this film by far. If there is anyone that could single handedly carry this film on their back, it is him. The film overall is too dark for Fantastic Four and too shallow for Marvel which leaves it drifting somewhere between ridiculous and not necessary...and at times, both. If there's any movie to see this summer, I can assure you, Fantastic Four is NOT it.

Unfortunately for everyone involved and especially the audience, the creators of this reboot had no idea what the F4 stand for, or what their stories should be about. This is rather dark, without charm or humor and totally ruins one of the greatest villains of Marvel comics. sure, the special effects are decent and there is potential for a somewhat good film here or there but the stereotypes and lack of an intriguing plot entirely ruin any chance of a redeeming movie experience. Very disappointing.

... about the first family of Marvel Comics. A lot of the story lines and characters have been switched around "for a modern sensibility". Teenage genius Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and his high school buddy Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) build a working inter-dimensional matter transporter, which naturally brings them to the attention of Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his super-science team, who are attempting to do the same thing but on a larger scale.

Reed is brought into the research team, joining Storm's adoptive genius daughter Sue (Kate Mara) and hot-headed son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), as well as brooding genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor use the transporter to travel to the other dimension, where things go wrong, Victor is lost, and the others are brought back changed (Sue is also altered upon the return of the others). From here the story gets bad really quickly, as the government takes them captive, and some go on the run, and others fight with the army.

Suffice it to say, that as bad as the previous film adaptation went, this is much worse, and fails to get a single aspect of the story or the characters right, or even makes an interesting or compelling film for those who don't know the comic book backstory. This flopped hard at the box office, and plans for a series were thankfully scrapped. Also featuring Tim Blake Nelson. Directed by Josh Trank, although many stories of behind-the-scenes chaos and extensive re-shoots draw into question how much was done by whom. From 20th Century Fox.

They go to another dimention, they get their powers, then Doctor Doom shows up, they fight him and it's over. There's practically nothing else.

We never see them learn to use their powers, we never see them getting to know each other, we rarely see the four together for most of the movie. All of that is skipped. We're told it happened, but we never see it, only glimpses of it in the backround.

There's some good scenes. The cast is good. The effects are good. It is composed of scenes that belong in a good movie, but lacks all of the esential pieces to make it a good movie. The end result is just really bland and boring. It's not even worth getting mad about; It's just kinda sad.