Since I’ve started this site, I’ve written a lot of reviews. In case you missed some of my earlier ones, I would like to share an older review of “Fantastic Four” which originally appeared here.
After having travelled to an alternate universe, four outsiders gain superhuman powers that have altered their physical form in amazing ways. Reed Richards (Miles Teller) can now stretch and twist his body at will. His best friend Ben Grimm (Jaime Bell) has gained immense strength. Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) can control and project fire. His sister, Sue Storm (Kate Mara) can manipulate light to become invisible and has telekinetic abilities. Together, they must come together to battle a former friend Doctor Victor Van Doom (Toby Kebbell) who now poses a threat to Earth.
I have never seen any of the previous Fantastic Four films beforehand but I was aware of how they were received. I will just come out right now and say it, this film is not very good. I was surprised by how boring it was. Nothing really happens until near the end which is too late because you’ll probably just not care by then. I understand that this film is a reboot but you shouldn’t spend most of the time doing the rebooting. Most of the time was spent setting up things for the end. Unfortunately the setup here is all bad as the four main actors have no chemistry whatsoever. They never quite spend anytime with one another or even really interact with one another at all as most of this is done off-screen. You’re never able to get emotionally invested in any of them. Kate and Johnny have few scenes together and when they do, their interactions imply nothing more than a friendly relationship. I did not buy Reed and Ben being friends either. Ben only comes on late so he does not have too much interaction with the rest of the team and he never really spoke with anyone other than Reed. Because of this lack of bond or chemistry between the actors/characters, the final act becomes void of any emotional depth and you don’t get much of a sense of accomplishment. The special effects don’t represent a film in 2015 either but I’ll let you see those for yourselves. The main villain of the film Van Doom is silly looking with powers that defy all realms of sense because he could simply do anything. His plan just came off as random because we did not get to know to learn too much about him since he is absent for the majority of the movie. This was a shame because I actually liked him and I wish I could have seen him a little more. Perceptive viewers will notice subtle differences during the film’s final act as it was reshot so little continuity errors will be evident and what also made it obvious that it was reshot was how it did not fit with the rest of the movie tone-wise. What disappointed me was that I felt the actors just didn’t try and that came across while watching it. I heard that the only reason this film was made was so Fox could retain their film rights to the Fantastic Four before they returned to Marvel in 2016. I have three words for them, Let them go.
Score: 4/10
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.