Abary Reviews FANT4STIC; "The Franchise Is DOOMED"
The 4th Fantastic Four film was just released, but was it the 4th failure? Nope, because after watching this the 1994 film isn't looking that bad. Check out my spoiler-free (or spoiler-filled, nothing really happens in this movie anyway) review after the jump!
By Abary -
Aug 08, 2015 06:08 PM EST
When Fox said they were rebooting Fantastic Four, I, as well as a lot of you, were happy, mainly because of the simple fact that the previous films were terrible. But the farther this film got in development, the more fans started losing faith in the project. I really did want to look forward to this movie, but there was so much wrong right from the start. It was hard getting interested in a movie with so much baggage.
I had an open mind right from the start, but ultimately, I left really disappointed. I didn't hate the direction they were going with it, but the way they pulled it off was awful. After the childish Tim Story films, I was open to the idea of a darker Fantastic Four film. But I realized that you can't go dark with these characters, as it feels really... off. The movie kept switching tones throughout, it's clear that this wasn't Josh Trank's original vision, but a mix-mash of ideas from various people. Even if the film had stuck to one tone, it still wouldn't have saved it.
It's obvious they wanted to go a different direction, but in a world where we've seen six Batmen and three Spider-Men, it's not necessary to twist the story of the Fantastic Four to the point of them not even being recognizable when we've yet to see a definitive live-action take on them. The Fantastic Four never acts like the Fantastic Four, and not one of the stars feel like they're playing a character from the Marvel comic. They're all great actors though, don't get me wrong, but they're terribly miscast. I don't want to sound like one of those guys that say "Human Torch shouldn't be black!!!!!111one" but what is the point of changing his race just for the sake of trying something new? Yes, if a black actor is great as the character there should be no problem with changing their race, but Michael B. Jordon isn't even a good Human Torch in my opinion. He's a great actor, but he doesn't suit the role.
None of the changes that were made feel like they were made organically. It feels like they asked themselves, "how much can we change?" All the changes are made because they want to do something different, but it doesn't work. I know some are saying that the source material shouldn't matter because this is an adaptation and it's not the comics, and that's true to an extent, but if you're making a film based on a beloved property, that fans have been waiting years to see done right, why in god's name would you change every single thing until it in no way resembles the comics? If a change feels right because of the way you're presenting the story, that's cool, do what you need to do, but this movie isn't even a Fantastic Four movie!
And yes, maybe changing the source material shouldn't matter as long as the movie is good. Maybe you're right. However, the movie itself isn't even good! I'm not biased, trust me, I really wanted to like this movie. The first trailer shown had promise, even if it was a little too dark for a Fantastic Four movie. It still could have been good. But it's not. As I said earlier, the tone is all off, and the pacing is really slow. 90% of the movie takes place in a dark room. It feels like one really long bottle episode. Doctor Doom looked ridiculous, I mean, look at the image above! He looks like a silver C-3PO laced with Kryptonite! But as Quicksilver showed us, looks shouldn't matter. How was he as a villain?
Not very good! We've now seen three different Doctor Dooms, and honestly, I liked the one from the cancelled 1994 film the best. That's right, and the same can be said about a Fantastic Four adaptation in general! Yes, the writing was bad. Yes, the acting was bad. Yes, the effects were bad. Yes, the movie was bad. But it had heart, it had charm, and most importantly, it felt like a Fantastic Four movie. This reboot has poor writing, bland action sequences, boring scene after boring scene, and it's overall just a disaster! If you like the movie, that's cool, but I just can't like it. To me, it's one of those movies like Iron Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, where I simply cannot get into it. But those two movies were really liked by some people, so maybe you'll like this movie too. If you thought this movie might be good, please, go see it, you may like it, but if you were thinking this movie would suck from the beginning, chances are it won't surprise you.
I don't think anything about Josh Trank's FANT4SUCK is redeeming. The tone is way off, the actors don't resemble the characters they're playing, and the film is just not interesting in the slightest. This was supposed to be Fox's attempt to bring a more modern adaptation of Marvel's First Family to the big screen, but after the trainwreck that this was, the franchise is DOOMED.
Following Abary's epic scale of movie grading, this film deserves...
NOTE: I literally wrote this review in 20 minutes after having returned from the theaters mere hours ago and arguing with a friend over this film.
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