Reviewed: Fantastic Four

Reviewers criticised the movie for not having any soul and were underwhelmed by the poor script and unlikeable characters. The fans were even more unforgiving. They had waited an eternity to finally get one of the most popular comic book series on the big screen only to be bitterly disappointed.

The Fantastic Four comic debuted in November 1961 and was the first Marvel Team created by the legendary Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. So naturally, if this film didn’t do justice to the original comic creations then there was the fear that word of mouth would drive potential audiences away.

Having said that, the film was actually a commercial success and was one of the top grossing films of that year with box office takings of $330,579,700. Which was enough to bring out a sequel in 2007 with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The film also introduced a certain Chris Evans as the Human Torch, who went on to star as another Marvel hero Captain America.

In the next Dimension

A decade on from the first Fantastic Four movie we have now been given the opportunity to see how the comic book team should have been portrayed in the cinema with director Josh Trank’s 2015 re-boot.

With the World wide hunger for anything Marvel hitting the screens these days, how could this re-boot version possibly go wrong? For a start this is not a Marvel Studio production but is in the stable of Twentieth Century Fox. That’s no bad thing though. Just look at the success rate of the X-Men franchise with more movies lined up until 2017 and possibly beyond.

When I went to the screening of Fantastic Four (2015), I found myself whispering out load “Please be good, please be good.” The early teaser trailers and the announcement of the cast caused much concern with critics, as many people thought the actors playing the four lead roles were too young for a start.

The Human Torch and Invisible Girl

Well I’m sure by now you are thinking ‘OK!..well thanks for all those interesting facts and figures but what’s it all about and is it any good?’

The new film takes us right back to when Reed Richards (Owen Judge & Miles Teller from Whiplash) meets with school friend Ben Grimm (Evan Hannaman & Jamie Bell) and the friends must be around ten years old. Reed is a slightly annoying child prodigy who even at this age has pretty much invented how to send matter to a different dimension by using old pieces of car parts taken from the junk yard that Ben’s trailer trash family own.

Reed Richards

Fast forward 7 years and Reed and Ben are exhibiting their science experiment at a Baxter institute event and they come to the attention of Baxter Scientist Frankland Storm who just happens to be working on matter being transferred over other dimensions for the institute.

Frankland and his daughter Sue Storm (Kate Mara from House of Cards) soon to become invisible girl offer Reed a scholarship to the Baxter institute. Ben for some reason also tags along even though he lives in a trailer park and has no science education. It’s at the institute that they meet another young and rather moody brainbox by the name of Victor von Doom, (Toby Kebell Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) who as fans will know will become Dr. Doom and has some history with young Sue.

The last link in the chain is Franklands son Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan from Chronicle also directed by Josh Trank) soon to become The Human Torch.

Ben Grimm AKA Thing

Reed, Sue, Victor and Johnny work on the dimension project until it’s ready for a trial using human guinea pigs and naturally the four want to be the first to experience dimension travel.  Ben at this point is back at his trailer park.

As usual the Government bad guys want to use the device for military purposes and veto the youngsters making the first test. However, not to be deterred the young scientists get drunk and decide to travel in the machine but Reed wants his buddy Ben to join them. So he phones him up and he travels to the institute puts on a space suit and climbs on board with the other guys.

Sue Storm

This is all quite odd as they willingly accept Ben even though he has had no training and has no idea about science but they all seem to be OK with this. This background story of Ben’s is an odd decision for the writers to make because in the comic books Ben Grimm is a qualified pilot, which would sort of make sense.

Long story short, something goes wrong in the dimension and Victor Doom is swallowed by some electrical entity and the others return home a lot more different than when they left. Oh! And Sue who was left behind at the command centre also experiences a change which is transmitted through her control panel into her body back in our dimension..

There are quite a few changes from the original movie and even the comic books.

Johnny Storm AKA Human Torch

For a start in the comic and earlier movie the Four are travelling through space in a rocket ship to investigate some cosmic energy clouds whereas the other dimension is a new twist.

I also had preconceived ideas about the new movie particularly with them being so young but then again there is probably a new younger audience that wouldn’t be bothered by these facts. Let’s face it, we all thought Matt Smith was too young to play the iconic TV Doctor but turned out to be one of the most popular actors to be at the helm of the Tardis.

In fact as a stand-alone sci-fi film it’s not too bad but it had a lot to live up to with the title of Fantastic Four. Once again the characters are not likeable enough and the film is also a very slow burner. I know it has to set the scene again but it’s nearly an hour before the Four get their special powers and become Fantastic.

Some of the effects work very well and I have to say that the creative team show off their skills by being completely transparent. This is done by showing how well they have mastered CGI by having Reed retract his elastic arms without any clothes on. You just see his naked torso and arms and the effect is quite cleverly executed.

Fox have also assembled (no pun intended) a great cast of fine actors with Miles Teller fresh from his magnificent turn in the sleeper movie of 2014, Whiplash.

My only query was the choice of Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm who is the only one of the Fantastic Four who is permanently stuck with his superpower, which in his case is to be a rocky hulk forever. He isn’t grumpy enough and as the actor Jamie Bell he spends much of his time as a CGI character and he has a lower distorted voice so it may just as well be any actor.

I must admit I was hoping for more and once again the characters are not likeable enough to care about.

It’s certainly no Guardians of the Galaxy which opened with an action scene and just got better and better as the film went on. And even the recent Ant-Man has you on the edge of your seat.

Let’s hope that the next Fantastic Four installment will up its game.

I give Fantastic Four a Foker On Film Three out of Five stars for trying.

Certificate 12A

See trailer below: