Quickie Review:
Genius young scientist Reed Richards (Miles Teller) builds a teleportation device to another dimension. After visiting the other dimension a tragic accident leaves the four young outsiders with shocking new abilities. As an old threat comes back, the four must team up to face Doom (Toby Kebbell) together. Fantastic Four is a failure on multiple levels. The characters are underdeveloped, the pacing is completely off, the villain is generic and bland, the story is lacking, and most importantly it is not fun. Fantastic Four is so dull, with little redeeming qualities that it may cause you to think that the previous attempts at this franchise were actually decent in comparison.
Full Review:
What happened!? I was among the few in my group of friends who was genuinely excited and was rooting for this new incarnation of the Fantastic Four. It has a great cast, writer, and director, all the essentials to make a good movie but somehow, almost nothing clicked.
It is a pity that the movie didn't work considering the cast. They were the one decent aspect of the entire movie. Despite the occasional awkward dialogue, at least they gave it their all to their respective roles. In fact they may be the reason why in the first 30mins I thought "this isn't so bad, what was all the fuss about?" Of course, I spoke too soon because the movie randomly starts to lose track of its own plot.
Where do I even begin with the negatives? I am not an avid Fantastic Four comic reader but even I know that they are supposed to be a family. At no point did I feel them sincerely bonding with each other. Near the end they throw a couple of punches together for about a minute, and that apparently constitutes as teamwork. It all felt contrived, only Reed and Ben's relationship was believable and that's because we see them together as kids in the beginning of the movie. Other than that it makes no sense why these four would be working together. And that's not something I should be questioning!!!
Then the pacing, or lack there off. The problem is that the purpose of the whole movie is to setup the characters of the Fantastic Four for the next movie. So there is no coherent storyline. It is just stuffed with filler scenes of people sitting in front of computers, people deeply brooding, or lame practice montage to fill the run- time till the villain shows up.
As for the villain, first of all, the character design for Doom is horrendous. He looks like a crash test dummy with a burnt curtain on his head. He has one of the shallowest motivations for being villain. Then, in a typical dumb villain style, is almighty powerful that he can literally blow people's heads with his mind but will refuse to use this power against the heroes. Because you know, you don't want to make things too easy for yourself right?
The biggest sin of this movie is that it feels like the film studio and creator are ashamed at even the idea of Fantastic Four. These characters in comics are colourful and have funny banter with each other. But the filmmakers were so concerned about coming off campy that they went unnecessarily dark to the point that even the characters don't embrace their hero names. We live in a day and age where audiences are embracing a talking tree, gun-toting raccoon, and a guy who controls ants. So show some pride in the fact that you are the Fantastic Four! Or at least fake it so we feel less ashamed of watching this fantastic disaster.
Everything that could go wrong with this film, went wrong. There was so much potential, and you see glimpses of that in the first 30- 45mins of the movies. But then the movie quickly divulges into a meandering plot that concludes with one of the most abrupt endings in recent times. You better off watching the 2005 or 2007 Fantastic Four movies and I can't believe I am saying that.
Genius young scientist Reed Richards (Miles Teller) builds a teleportation device to another dimension. After visiting the other dimension a tragic accident leaves the four young outsiders with shocking new abilities. As an old threat comes back, the four must team up to face Doom (Toby Kebbell) together. Fantastic Four is a failure on multiple levels. The characters are underdeveloped, the pacing is completely off, the villain is generic and bland, the story is lacking, and most importantly it is not fun. Fantastic Four is so dull, with little redeeming qualities that it may cause you to think that the previous attempts at this franchise were actually decent in comparison.
Full Review:
What happened!? I was among the few in my group of friends who was genuinely excited and was rooting for this new incarnation of the Fantastic Four. It has a great cast, writer, and director, all the essentials to make a good movie but somehow, almost nothing clicked.
It is a pity that the movie didn't work considering the cast. They were the one decent aspect of the entire movie. Despite the occasional awkward dialogue, at least they gave it their all to their respective roles. In fact they may be the reason why in the first 30mins I thought "this isn't so bad, what was all the fuss about?" Of course, I spoke too soon because the movie randomly starts to lose track of its own plot.
Where do I even begin with the negatives? I am not an avid Fantastic Four comic reader but even I know that they are supposed to be a family. At no point did I feel them sincerely bonding with each other. Near the end they throw a couple of punches together for about a minute, and that apparently constitutes as teamwork. It all felt contrived, only Reed and Ben's relationship was believable and that's because we see them together as kids in the beginning of the movie. Other than that it makes no sense why these four would be working together. And that's not something I should be questioning!!!
Then the pacing, or lack there off. The problem is that the purpose of the whole movie is to setup the characters of the Fantastic Four for the next movie. So there is no coherent storyline. It is just stuffed with filler scenes of people sitting in front of computers, people deeply brooding, or lame practice montage to fill the run- time till the villain shows up.
As for the villain, first of all, the character design for Doom is horrendous. He looks like a crash test dummy with a burnt curtain on his head. He has one of the shallowest motivations for being villain. Then, in a typical dumb villain style, is almighty powerful that he can literally blow people's heads with his mind but will refuse to use this power against the heroes. Because you know, you don't want to make things too easy for yourself right?
The biggest sin of this movie is that it feels like the film studio and creator are ashamed at even the idea of Fantastic Four. These characters in comics are colourful and have funny banter with each other. But the filmmakers were so concerned about coming off campy that they went unnecessarily dark to the point that even the characters don't embrace their hero names. We live in a day and age where audiences are embracing a talking tree, gun-toting raccoon, and a guy who controls ants. So show some pride in the fact that you are the Fantastic Four! Or at least fake it so we feel less ashamed of watching this fantastic disaster.
Everything that could go wrong with this film, went wrong. There was so much potential, and you see glimpses of that in the first 30- 45mins of the movies. But then the movie quickly divulges into a meandering plot that concludes with one of the most abrupt endings in recent times. You better off watching the 2005 or 2007 Fantastic Four movies and I can't believe I am saying that.