Why Fantastic 4 Sucks

Why Fantastic 4 Sucked

DISCLAIMER: This review is solely saying that this movie sucks. If you don't like reading, then turn back now.

1. Story

I was going to summarize this film in my own worlds but it's not worth it so I'm taking the Wikipedia summary and inserting little tidbits here and there.

Friends Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) have worked together on a prototype teleporter since childhood, eventually attracting the attention of Professor Franklin Storm(Reg E. Cathey), director of the Baxter Foundation, a government-sponsored research institute for young prodigies( not just the apartment of the Fantastic 4 in this film like in the comics). Reed is recruited to join them and aid Storm's children, scientist Sue Storm and the somewhat rebellious Johnny Storm ( who is of course played by the black guy), into completing a "Quantum Gate" designed by Storm's wayward protégé,Victor Von Doom (still not the evil emperor of Latveria in this film), who begrudgingly agrees to help due to his unrequited feelings for Sue (as if this plot-line worked in the other two Fantastic 4 movies).

The experiment is successful, and the facility's supervisor, Dr. Allen, plans to send a group from NASA to venture into a parallel dimension known as "Planet Zero"( because apparently The Negative Zone was a way too silly name in a film where there's a stretchy guy and Dr.Doom). Disappointed at being denied the chance to join the expedition, Reed, Johnny, and Victor get drunk and along with Ben (who they called up so that he can be where the plot demands him to be) use the Quantum Gate to embark on an unsanctioned voyage to Planet Zero, which they learn is a world filled with otherworldly substances. Victor attempts to touch the green-lava like substance, causing the surface they are in to collapse and the ground to erupt. Reed, Johnny, and Ben return to their shuttle just as Sue brings them back to Earth. Victor is left behind after he falls into the collapsing landscape. The machine explodes, altering Reed, Johnny, Ben, and even Sue (who didn't even go to the other dimension) on a molecular-genetic level, affording them super-human conditions and abilities beyond their control: Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue can become invisible and generate force fields of energy, Johnny can engulf his entire body in flames and fly, and Ben becomes bigger and develops a rock-like hide which gives him enhanced strength and durability (and one line to say for the rest of the movie..."Reed help me"). They are then placed in government custody and confinement to be studied and have their conditions and abilities tested. Blaming himself for the accident, Reed escapes from the facility (cause that's what good friends do).

One year later, Reed, now a fugitive, is located in Central America by Sue and captured by Ben, who has become a military asset along with Johnny and Sue. Johnny and Sue have been outfitted with specialized suits, one of which Reed later receives, designed to keep up with their conditions and abilities and to help them stabilize, control, and contain their abilities. Reed is brought to Area 57(no seriously this isn't a joke), where Dr. Allen conscripts him to open another portal to Planet Zero in exchange for giving Reed the necessary resources to find a cure. Arriving in Planet Zero, Dr. Allen's explorers find Victor, who has been fused to his spacesuit and can now control the elements, as well as having telekinetic abilities, and bring him back to Earth. Believing the human race needs to be destroyed so he can rebuild Planet Zero in his image( no seriously I'm not joking), Victor kills scientists and soldiers in the base including Dr. Allen and Professor Storm and returns to Planet Zero using the Quantum Gate, with Ben, Johnny, Reed, and Sue in pursuit.

Now dubbing himself "Doom", he activates a portal on Planet Zero using a structure he made while in the realm ( with what materials we don't know), that begins consuming the landscape of the Earth( don't worry the dangerous machine starts off destroying earth quickly, but slows down for the convenience of the plot). He is confronted by the four and, after the worst action scene in comic-book-movie history, Ben punches Doom into the portal's energy beam, disintegrating him, while Johnny closes the portal. Returning to Earth, the group forces the U.S. Government to give them a new base of operations (cause that's how life works). They decide to use their powers to help people and adopt the mantle of the "Fantastic Four".

Source Material

The idea of dimensional travel being the means of them gaining their powers is not a far-fetched one. It was done very similarly in Brian Michael Bendis's Ultimate Fantastic Four, which this film takes several elements from. However, Ultimate Fantastic Four was a thematically darker approach at the characters that wasn't exactly impressive for lovers of the original 616 version of the characters. (In case you don't know: The 616 is the main continuity of all Marvel comics. Ultimate Fantastic Four is an alternate reality allowing it to have creative differences). The only issue is that Ultimate Fantastic 4 in known for stripping the series of the very fun that made it a hit with comic-book readers. Noting that the Ultimate Fantastic 4 was a controversial incantation of the characters, is it really a smart decsion to adapt that version of them into a feature-film.

Consistency

This film is very sloppy and often disregards things that were established 5 minutes ago. For example, Dr. Doom emerges from Planet Zero and walks the halls exploding people's heads by looking at them. This sounds awesome, but it is never used ever again when it could have easily killed the Fantastic 4. As a matter of fact, Kate Mara's hair even goes from brown, to dirty blonde, to blonde between shots. Reed and Ben are established as childhood friends but they barely share any scences together. There's even a laughable moment where Dr. Storm claims Johnny can build and fix anything, even though he blew out his car's engine racing in the scene right before it. In the final action scene the team is getting schooled by Dr. Doom as he defeats each member one by one. Suddenly Reed blandly recites a generic and horribly written pep-talk and they all work as a team perfectly from there to defeat the threat. HOW FOX HOW!!!!!! From here, the audience is supposed to believe that the four are close friends when the actual conversations between the characters are very rare. The worst thing to do with a film about a team is to string together a bunch of scenes of each memeber alone. If they are a team, they should be be together interacting so that the audience can actually see them grow together.

Dialogue

Most of the dialogue in this film is just awful. A cringeworthy moment comes when Victor says a statement about earth and Sue responds with "gosh Dr.Doom". Another stinker comes later when Reed attempts to talk down Victor. Victor responds "there is no Victor...only Doom". Last but not least is the bad pun at the end when they are thinking if a team name where The Thing says "it's fantastic". Reed quickly responds "guys I've got it". These are just 3 examples, but assume that every line not said by Reg E. Cathy is bad. Often the dialogue is confusing or awkward.

Action

A blockbuster shouldn’t be a two hour action scene but also shouldn't be boring. This film fails to establish a proper equilibrium between exposition and action as the final action scene leaves a lot to be desired. The action scene should be the icing on the cake as the events prior should culminate into a final action set piece. I’m almost certain that Big Hero 6 had a more engaging and better executed final action scene than this film. In the last ten minutes of this film, the Fantastic 4 are defeated easily trying to save Franklin Storm. They then decide to travel into Planet Zero to defeat him while he starts up his world-ending invention. Doom’s reasons for destroying Earth remain muddled as the film makes no effort to explain them. As a matter of fact, Doom inexplicably becomes a diabolical psychopath within a brief 3 minutes. When they reach Planet Zero, each team member takes turns charging Dr. Doom only to knocked back down. Finally after realizing the obvious ( that they have to work together), they defeat the once seemingly unstoppable Doom by distracting him long enough for Ben to punch him into his own machine. After the film ended, I sat for a few minutes questioning if the film actually ended that way. Behind me a little boy excalimed "that was fun" and I was almost compelled to freak out. Disclaimer: No children were harmed in the making of this review. As a matter of fact, one action scene that was shown in the trailers featuring The Thing isn't even in the film. The film is so lackluster in the action department, that it seems unfinished.

Doom

Look…we know that Dr.Doom isn’t exactly the easiest character to adapt for a film. He’s the evil emperor of the fictional Latveria, mad-scientist, and sometimes wizard who does evil in a metal suit and green cloak. However, this film’s incantation of the character is just awful. Once again, the screenwriters make Doom a bitter man who turns to evil because he can’t have a relationship with Sue. Doom has always been shown as a dangerous and intimidating villain in the comics and is merely shown as a spoiled brat in this film. Also, the film attempts to establish him as a major threat when he emerges from Planet Zero only to have him defeated 8 minutes later. A villain of this stature should not be a throwaway character for one film. He is Reed Richard’s arch-nemesis and this should be done in the film. The film also makes no effort to develop Victor’s transformation into a villain. He just returns to our dimension as a psychotic killer with no reasons why. Not since Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine has a character been handled this poorly.

Depressing

Quite simply, this film is depressing. The Fantastic Four have always been very fun and strange characters but this film attempts to show them in a modern setting. The comics have been beloved for the family dynamic of the team as readers were even able to find interest in the team’s home life. This may sound slightly corny but the main goal of Fantastic Four comics was to have fun. Thematically a Fantastic Four film done right should have the same tone and wit of Pixar’s The Incredibles with added elements of science. The audience should love these characters and feel connected to their experiences.The film even tries to explain Ben’s famous catchphrase “It’s Clobberin Time” in the most laughable way. One scene early on shows his older brother beating him up while reciting the famous line. Way to suck the fun out of catchphrases Fox.

Those involved in The Film

Days before the film opened, director Josh Trank took to Twitter claiming that the studio had meddled heavily in the making of the film sabotaging the film process. He claimed that had Fox let him make the film the way he wanted, it would have gotten way better reviews. While this has been confirmed as true by many individuals that worked on the film, part of the blame can be attributed to Josh Trank as well. There were many reports during the filming of Fantastic Four that claimed Trank was unprofessional, and hard to work with. The actors even showed very little interest in the characters. Months ago Kate Mara claimed that she had not read the comics and that the film would be very different from the comics. This angered many comic fans as they took to social media with vicious uproar. At the time I interpreted these statements very differently. Often actors go by what is established by the screenwriters and director when devising their character. Actors have neglected reading the source material and performed well before. However with the outcome of this film, it became evident that this was a way bigger problem than it seemed months ago. In interviews, the cast struggled to give any information about their characters and the film, almost coming off like they were disinterested. Perhaps they knew that this film was going to inevitably bomb. This almost becomes clear as most of the cast phones it in, providing lazy and uninspired performances. This is partially the fault of the screenwriters as they don’t give the four young talented actors very much to work with. With so many issues circling around the film, it should have been clear earlier on that this film would be a disaster.

All in all, if you're looking for a fun action film to see with the family, see Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation.