Fantastic Four Review – Not as Fantastic as We Want to Be

by Fanboy SEO · Published August 6, 2015 · Updated February 28, 2016

While I did see it early, I’ve been looking for the right words to say when I write down this Fantastic Fourreview. I didn’t want to sound like I was anticipating the downfall and I was mildly hoping the film would do good in some way. But let’s not jump the shark here.

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The film stars Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbel, Kate Mara and Michael B. Jordan. It’s directed by Josh Trank and released locally by 20th Century Fox, based on the comic book of the same title.

Here’s the trailer:

So OK here’s the thing. I didn’t loathe Fantastic Four. Yes I was disappointed on so many levels but it’s not detestable. Well maybe what they did to Dr. Doom was detestable but for other parts of the movie, it was serviceable particularly for the first and second arc. But when we reach the third arc, it all gets shot to bits.
Lets start with the good things in this Fantastic Four review. The movie is a great and refreshing look at reintroducing Fantastic Four, of course with a 21st century spin. In the comic book industry, this is called “Ultimate Fantastic Four”

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I thought the movie had a couple of ‘diamonds in the rough’. A little more honing and a little bit polishing and we could have seen a better film. Honestly I wasn’t expecting that I would like Miles Teller as Reed Richards but I did. Meanwhile I was hoping that we’d get more of Michael B. Jordan as Human Torch/ Johnny Storm but that didn’t happen. Kate Mara is such a cutie and while I’m still having a huge crush on Jessica Alba as Susan Storm I thought she was a competent Sue.

OK, now that’s pretty much all the good points that I have for FF. Now for the negative comments. I’m really sorry if you were expecting more from this review, I just can’t.

So anyway, Josh Trank did a poor job when it comes to the pacing of this film and we’re also given a very anti-climatic third act. Imaging watching a movie, a western, that kind of hints a big gun battle at the end and when we get to that point, it was shot lazily and poorly. That’s how I could describe that third act for Fantastic Four. Hell the fight scenes itself should not even be considered ‘fight scenes’ in the strictest sense.

Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm was a valiant effort on the studio’s part but it was such a big fail. He looked physically imposing when he’s all by himself but when you put him beside the other cast members, he looks so tiny. Ben’s not a tiny creature, this guy was described as being ‘built like a brick house’ and standing taller than other kids around his age.

And lets not get started on Dr. Doom.

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OH MY GOD! What have they done to the coolest supervillain ever?! Why does he look like Cobra Commander from the first G.I. Joe movie (the one with Joseph Gordon Levitt). What the hell are those powers? I mean c’mon! His powers come from not-Negative-Zone? Why did they downplay his intellect? It made me feel like the Julian McMahon Dr. Doom was better (and even that was something hard to say)

The fight was also horrible. It’s devoid of life and it felt rushed and like they didn’t even think things through.

If you’re waiting for some good dialogues, it won’t be found here unlike from the source material where Stan Lee and Jack Kirby continually ups the dialogue game with some great writing. One of the worst dialogues I’ve heard was this derivative of Bane’s dialogue from ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ about cities and ashes.

You can see where this is going. I’m not so fond of Fantastic Four but not in a vampires & garlics way. Let me just reiterate what made FF fail in my opinion: