Fantastic Four

... about the first family of Marvel Comics. A lot of the story lines and characters have been switched around "for a modern sensibility". Teenage genius Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and his high school buddy Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) build a working inter-dimensional matter transporter, which naturally brings them to the attention of Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his super-science team, who are attempting to do the same thing but on a larger scale.

Reed is brought into the research team, joining Storm's adoptive genius daughter Sue (Kate Mara) and hot-headed son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), as well as brooding genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor use the transporter to travel to the other dimension, where things go wrong, Victor is lost, and the others are brought back changed (Sue is also altered upon the return of the others). From here the story gets bad really quickly, as the government takes them captive, and some go on the run, and others fight with the army.

Suffice it to say, that as bad as the previous film adaptation went, this is much worse, and fails to get a single aspect of the story or the characters right, or even makes an interesting or compelling film for those who don't know the comic book backstory. This flopped hard at the box office, and plans for a series were thankfully scrapped. Also featuring Tim Blake Nelson. Directed by Josh Trank, although many stories of behind-the-scenes chaos and extensive re-shoots draw into question how much was done by whom. From 20th Century Fox.

Over the last decade, we have seen a number of superhero movies get a much needed reboot. After the atrocious Batman & Robin, Batman was brilliantly brought back to the big screen in Batman Begins. When the Spider-Man franchise hit an embarrassing rock bottom with Spider-Man 3, it was reinvigorated with the very likable The Amazing Spider-Man.

Eight years on from the dud that was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and it's time that Marvel's first family got a reboot. With a lot of rumours flying around about trouble on set and the studio not seeming to have total confidence in their product, could 2015's Fantastic Four do these iconic comic-book characters justice?

Reed Richards (Miles Teller) is a brilliant young scientist on the verge of discovering how to both transport matter to another dimension and bring it back. Recruited by Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey), Reed is given the resources and help, in the form of Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), to to finish what he started in his younger years.

When they finally crack inter-dimensional travel, Reed invites his childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) to travel to another world along with him and his team. An accident causes their physical form to drastically change. Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must learn to harness their powers and work as a team to stop Victor, who is hell bent on destroying Earth.

The one thing that stood out to me about Fantastic Four is just how unbelievably dull it is. For characters who have such a rich and colourful history in the comics, this really is a pretty drab affair. The film only has a 100 minute runtime however, it feels much longer, dragging its feet and feeling very tired right from the very start.

When a superhero movie gets less exciting after they get their powers, something is very very wrong.

I had some hope for this film and one of the main reason was down to the fact that Josh Trank was sat in the director's chair. Trank hit the big time with Chronicle, a film that combined the superhero genre with found footage. I can't express just how disappointed I am with Trank because everything about Fantastic Four is just so sloppy.

The story is weak, the script is cringeworthy and the special effects are average at best. It all culminates in one of the most boring finales you will ever witness in a superhero movie. Compared to what else you see happen in other superhero movies these days, it all looks and feels amateur.

Then there are the performances. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell are all young actors who have the world at their feet. They have each impressed in their own way prior to Fantastic Four but every single one of them has the range of the cast in Tim Story's Fantastic Four films and waste their talents in Trank's reboot.

Fantastic Four is a film very much out of time and place in today's market of superhero movies. Ten or fifteen years ago a studio might have been able to get away with it but not today. Audiences like to be entertained and with the competition offering much more excitement, I don't see audiences taking to this, at all.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this movie at all. I was a huge skeptic when the first trailer came out thinking it would be another FF movie chock full of cheesy one-liners and cartoony humor. In that respect, I was way off. Josh Trank's Fantastic Four is grounded in relative realism, showing what would likely happen if people did in fact crack inter-dimensional travel and brought back superpowers. It has a darker tone than the other movies and is a wildly different experience because of it. The characters are more relatable, their situations are more believable, and for a good part of the movie, it actually feels like you're watching the true Fantastic Four origin story unfold.

I can't blame Trank for the discrepancies I have with the movie because he is not at fault. Apparently the producers demanded reshoots which rear their ugly head about 20 minutes from the end. It turns from this relatively dark, stylish superhero drama to an overblown one-liner infested CGI-fest. Mind you, I was still pulling for the heroes the entire time, but the moments following, preceding and including the final confrontation are so forcefully rushed and haphazardly put together it completely disconnects you from what the first hour of the movie set-up. The climax is generic and lackluster, and the believable shaky chemistry the characters shared in the beginning of the movie becomes incredibly forced and awkward. The shift is so drastic it's as if they Frankenstein'd two separate movies together, making for one extremely disjointed watching experience.

Miles Teller and the rest of the cast have the benefit of being immensely likable. They worked well together and had palpable chemistry for a good chunk of the movie. Even Doom was fine. Once I got past the fact that it wasn't the comic book's adaptation of "Doctor Doom" and took him at face value as a sci-fi villain, I thought he worked wonders and actually posed a genuine threat to humanity. The CGI as a whole is great - a few moments will leave you scratching your head as in "was that really necessary?" but for the most part, the alternate dimension looks fantastic and the few fight scenes there are (literally only two or three) are executed well.

Again, these are simply hints of what the movie could've been. It's obvious Trank had a vision with this world, and it's a damn shame that we won't be able to see it in full effect. What we're left with is a promising set-up and a complete mess of a third act with potential bleeding out right up until the final frames. Fantastic Four is more realistic and immersive than the other two adaptations, but unfortunately not as fun as either. What we're left with is an exercise in "what could have been" and another superhero movie with promising aspects that simply did not click.

Unfortunately for everyone involved and especially the audience, the creators of this reboot had no idea what the F4 stand for, or what their stories should be about. This is rather dark, without charm or humor and totally ruins one of the greatest villains of Marvel comics. sure, the special effects are decent and there is potential for a somewhat good film here or there but the stereotypes and lack of an intriguing plot entirely ruin any chance of a redeeming movie experience. Very disappointing.

I was waiting for something to happen and then the movie was over.