Writer: Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater, Josh Trank (Screenplay) Stan Lee, Jack Kirby (Characters)
Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson
Plot: Four young outsiders teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Dark Origin Story Stuck Behind the Established Heroes
Story: Fantastic Four starts with a young Reed Richards dreaming of being the first person to teleport people. We continue to meet the young Fantastic Four with Ben Grimm also inside in Reed’s class who is from a dysfunctional family whoo helps Reed with his teleporter. Move forward 7 years and Reed (Teller) and Ben (Bell) have been working on improving the teleporter looking to improve upon the design.
Reed and Ben impress enough to get a full scholarship to the Baxter academy under Dr Franklin Storm (Cathey) where they meet his daughter Sue (Mara). Franklin calls to his former mastermind who started the idea Victor Von Doom (Kebbell) who would need to work with Reed to make this teleporter work. Franklin also has a son Johnny (Jordan) who has been pushing away from the idea. We know have the Fantastic Five, wait that isn’t the name of the film.
When the invention works Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor decide to use the device on themselves with only Sue running the controls, what the boys discover could be the biggest discovery in history but disaster strikes when Victor gets killed with the imploding planetary discovery.
The four surviving members of the team come back the learn they have new abilities, Reed gains stretching abilities, Sue can become invisible, Johnny becomes a human torch and Ben becomes the Thing. While Reed escapes the remaining members are used by the military as they look to learn more about the planet they visited.
When the team return to the planet they find Victor still alive but evolved into Dr Doom who decides to make the battle against the human race personal as they keep invading his own world and it is up to the Fantastic Four to save the say.
Fantastic Four is a film that all I have heard was bad things about but as I know nothing about the comic books and skip the first couple of outings the film tried I decided to give it a go. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed the most part of the film, I liked how the story was darker than the most of the Marvel Universe. With the start of the positive I will have to look at the negative too, I do feel like the ending was rushed and from what I understand Dr Doom is meant to be one of the big villains who got beaten way too easily. In the end this was an origin story to the next chapter of their story that has issues but isn’t as bad as it is being made out to be. (6/10)
Actor Review
Miles Teller: Reed Richards is the mastermind who gets the final details to teleportation down leading to him getting a chance to work for an institute. He stays loyal to his best friend but when he tests his own machine with his newly formed team he gains a new ability he can stretch. Miles gave a performance that could be talked about for years in Whiplash but this just feels very average from the young starlet. (5/10)
Michael B Jordan: Johnny Storm is the brash son of the man giving the men a chance to work on the teleportation devices, he ends up working with his engineering skills, but after going on the trip he turns into the human fireball. Michael gives a solid performance but he just doesn’t get the screen time he needed. (6/10)
Kate Mara: Sue Storm is working on the teleportation idea but doesn’t go on the mission into the teleporter, but she still gets effected by the consequences when she gains the ability to become invisible. Kate gives an average performance but I feel they make her character very plain giving her little to work with. (5/10)
Jamie Bell: Ben Grimm/The Thing is the engineer best friend from childhood of Reed who helps working on the teleporter but after the experiment he ends up becoming the Thing when the rocks become part of his structure. Jamie does a solid job but we don’t learn enough about him even though he is in the story from the very start. (6/10)
Toby Kebbell: Victor Von Doom/Dr Doom as Victor he works with the rest on the teleporter, but when he gets killed on the mission it isn’t the end of his story as he returns only to have evolved to, but he is a killing machine hell bent on revenge against the human race. Toby is fast turning into the go to guy for villains in franchises and I liked his version of Dr Doom, but we don’t see enough of it. (6/10)
Support Cast: Fantastic Four has a very comic book central military supporting cast that is easily forgettable.
Director Review: Josh Trank – Josh gives us a good build but too quick of a finish, but with all the talk about the troubles it is hard to give him a rating. (NA/10)
Action: Fantastic Four really doesn’t have much action until final fight which mostly feels rushed. (5/10)
Sci-Fi: Fantastic Four has a lot of technical talk which mostly goes over the head but it does work for the fields the characters are in. (7/10)
Settings: Fantastic Four has pretty much only a couple of settings, the lab and the random planet they end up going too, these actually work for how the film unfolds. (7/10)
Special Effects: Fantastic Four does improve on the special effects from the original, well the clips I have seen, the stand out here has to be The Thing creation looking very good. (7/10)
Suggestion: Fantastic Four is one for the comic book fans to try, as I am getting tired of the superhero genre it was nice seeing a dark film. (Comic Book Fans Try)
Best Part: It feels darker than most superhero films around.
Worst Part: Ends to quick.
Believability: No (0/10)
Chances of Tears: No (0/10)
Chances of Sequel: Left open for one but people have been slamming the film.
Post Credits Scene: No
Oscar Chances: No
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
Tagline: Change is coming.
Overall: Solid Comic Book Film That is Darker than Marvel.
Rating