Each summer blockbuster movie season, there has to be the
whipping boy, the one film that everyone seems to want to fail, even before it
has finished filming. Since the growth
of the internet, and everyone thinking their opinion is the one that matters when
it comes to film making, this has become infinitely worse. This year the dubious status has befallen the
attempt by Fox and Director Josh Trank to reboot 'Fantastic Four'. To start with, there has been a general
perception that, as they couldn't get these characters quite right with the
first attempts, perhaps the rights would be better back with Marvel Studios
(who, in contrast, have yet to fail to find the right way to put their
characters on screen). As well as that,
the two previous (and widely derided) films are still fresh in most people's
minds, adding to a sense of pessimism that they'd get it right. Side-stepping the completely dumb casting controversy, since talk emerged earlier this year of re-shoots, and
confirmation that Trank and the Studio hadn't seen eye-to-eye (leading to him
quitting a planned Star Wars Anthology spin-off movie), the knives have been
out for this one in a big way. But
still, I went in to this film with an open mind; I wanted the nay-sayers,
doubters and haters to be wrong, I really did.
I wanted this film to succeed, and give us the definitive adaptation of
these characters fans want to see.
Unfortunately, while the film is by no means a disaster, it is pretty
mediocre: a superhero film that wants to focus on drama, and a sense of body
horror, but doesn't pull off the 'super' or 'team' part when the story needs it
to.
Rather than the classic Stan Lee version of these
characters, this film is mostly inspired by the post-Millennial Ultimate
version, which has a younger team of scientists undergo changes, gaining
super-human abilities, as a result of cross-dimensional travel. The film starts off with scientific prodigy
Reed Richards (who will become the stretching Mr Fantastic) as an 11 year old
boy, telling his class his ambition to teleport a person from one place to
another. He becomes friends with Ben
Grimm (who becomes rock 'monster' The Thing), whose family owns a scrap-yard,
helping him with parts to make his first attempt at a teleporting machine. The film fast-forwards 7 years, and the pair
(now played by Miles Teller and Jamie Bell respectively) are teenagers,
presenting Richard's latest attempt at the machine at the county science fair. This catches the eye of scientist Professor
Franklin Richards (Reg E. Cathey), and his adopted daughter Sue Storm (Kate Mara), who it
transpires have been attempting to use similar technology to make
cross-dimensional teleportation a reality - and Richard's machine is the key to
not only sending, but bringing something back from the parallel dimension. Joining with disenfranchised and cynical
former protégé or Professor Storm, Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebble), and the
Professor's rebellious son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), they successfully crack
return travel between dimensions. When
the team of youngsters decide to be the first people to make the trip, before
NASA takes over the project, things go wrong - Von Doom is left behind, assumed
dead, and the others return with bizarre physical abnormalities. However, the Military sees a use for their
powers, sending them on covert missions, whilst promising to find a cure for
their conditions.
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| Don't let the smiles fool you - the Fantastic Four don't seem to find much of what happens in this film particularly 'fantastic'... |
It's pretty clear that Trank and the Studio had two
different visions for this film, and unfortunately they don't gel. The Director seems to have wanted a
character-driven dramatic approach to the subject, whilst the studio wanted
typical superhero blockbuster fayre, to set up a franchise and allow for
cross-overs with the X-Men franchise.
The first half of the film, which shows the characters forming
friendships as they work on the dimensional crossing, is the most successful
part of the film - Trank shows the same flair for getting a believable and
easy-going camaraderie out of his cast as he did in 'Chronicle'. This aspect of the film starts to unravel
once they make their fateful journey across dimensions, largely due to some
plot decisions that don't really make sense character wise - but are there as a
reason to give certain characters their 'powers' later in the film. After this, apart from a couple of scenes
which manage to capture the 'body horror' tone Trank was going for, the plot
becomes tepid, and tragically the lead actors begin to look lost in their own
film. It is a waste of the cast - separately
each actor has demonstrated in other work (films and/or TV) what they're
capable of, but once they powers and special effects come in to play they look
as though they are struggling to convey how they should be reacting to it all.
Speaking of special effects, they are frustratingly
inconsistent throughout. Whilst The
Thing and Human Torch are well portrayed and look as realistic as possible,
other parts don't; there's a terrible CGI monkey, for example. The alternate dimension is well portrayed, if
a bit on the drab side, until some pretty poor looking green ooze-stuff starts
erupting. The stretching effects on Reed
Richards are inconsistent too; it's clear that Weta (who handled the effects on
this film) could have done with more time to complete certain shots - but they
were only given less than a year from principal photography to get them
done. The film does suffer as a result.
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| While this version of Doctor Doom is more powerful and dangerous than the previous take, it is still a massive failure to properly put the character on the Big Screen. |
The final act proves the film's biggest Achilles heel, as
it shoe-horns in an 'end of the world threat' that seems tonally out of place
with what's preceded it; it relies on some characters making snap judgements
that, again, aren't consistent with their previous attitudes/behaviour; and by
wasting Doctor Doom. Why is it Fox don't
seem to be able to grasp how to bring this character to the big screen? In the first half Kebble manages to make Doom
seem more than a one-note, scenery chewing villain (unlike the previous films'
version), but when he returns from the alternate dimension he has become the typical
'mad' villain, who wants to destroy the world as he has clearly 'gone insane'. They manage to make him more threatening and
genuinely dangerous than the last version - he actually racks up quite a body
count - but considering this character is the most famous of all Marvel
villains, arguably, he is given little to do (apart from, mainly, recite some pretty
awful dialogue), and the threat is resolved with shocking ease by the Fantastic
Four. When the film goes for its CGI
fuelled action set-piece it is almost completely weakened by feeling out of
place with the tone of the rest of the film, and by dispensing with the film's
only threat in an almost inconsequential matter.
Despite their best efforts, it's really clear that Fox
simply do not know how to handle Fantastic Four, nor the potentially
outstanding villain they have in Doctor Doom.
Marvel have shown that it is possible to capture the pulp and fun side
of their characters while bringing some real story-telling heft to them. Fox needs to embrace this aspect of the
Fantastic Four, and they definitely have to embrace the almost operatic scale
of Doctor Doom's story. It's hard not to
imagine Marvel Studios doing a far better job of incorporating Doom in their
on-screen universe - such a big character, and significant threat, deserves to
be set up over multiple films, as they have been doing with Thanos;
establishing his power, the massive threat he poses, but also the tragedy in
his background that motivates him.
It's not likely Marvel Studios will get Fantastic Four, and
therefore Doom, back soon, as it is likely this new take on comic's 'first
family' should do well enough at the box office to enable Fox to retain the
film rights and proceed with a sequel. I
sincerely hope, however, that they will acknowledge the struggle they are having
realising these characters, and talk to Marvel Studios for creative assistance
- the same way Sony have done with Spiderman.
Whilst this film is nowhere near to being a dismal mess like 'The Amazing Spiderman 2', neither does the dramatic approach carry enough weight to
give the film a slightly redeeming feature, like the heroic failure that is Ang Lee's 'Hulk'. In the end it's a
mid-level comic book superhero flick that, despite its aspirations, is on the
whole forgettable. I wanted to like this
film, but it seems like it needs to be third time lucky for the Fantastic
Four....
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