'Fantastic Four' - Movie Review

Fantastic Four

'Fantastic Four'
U/A; Sci-Fi/Action
Director: Josh Trank
Cast: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell
Rating:

There has been more written about 'Fantastic 4' and its behind the scenes drama than the actual script of the film. Everything that could go wrong with a big Hollywood film, went absolutely, horribly wrong. From the director being a terrible choice, to the script not being up to the mark, to the casting being all over the place, to the shoot being a nightmare, and the reviews finally pummeling the movie to the ground, this project was doomed from start to end. So with such a background, how bad is 'Fantastic 4' really? The answer - it's pretty damn bad.

'Fantastic Four'. Pic/Santa Banta

This reboot of 'The Fantastic 4' makes the 2005 and 2007 films look good, and that is not a compliment to the earlier films in any way. The thing with this movie, directed by Josh Trank, is that it becomes incredibly obvious that things went haywire during the shoot of this film, starting with Kate Mara in a fake wig.

The film actually opens in an interesting way - there's no action for the first half hour, the dialogue is slow and muted, there's a deathly blue tinge to the cinematography - it actually feels like a Cronenberg film. After the first half hour you're expecting the film to shift to second gear and really take off. That second gear never really happens - all we get is our heroes (Miles Teller, Michael Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell) are all entangled in a science experiment gone wrong, and turned into superheroes. They all for some reason fight a bad guy called Doctor Doom for five minutes, and the film ends.

Now the thing is, the superheroes in the film are inherently silly - one is a human torch, one expands infinitely, one turns invisible, and the fourth becomes a man made of rock. With such goofy characters rendering a movie in a super serious tone becomes a problem. What makes things worse is the injection of random jokes in the super serious scenario - it makes the watch even more cringe inducing. Most of the scenes from the trailers of the movie also don't show up in the final cut, which makes things all the more bizarre.

Ultimately there's no fun to be had in 'Fantastic Four', nor is it bad enough to be entertaining or unintentionally hilarious. It's a tedious, laborious watch and a scathing indictment of worst side of superhero filmmaking that has exploding in Hollywood. If anything, the big guys Warner and Marvel can watch this movie and learn what not to do.