Film Review: Fantastic Four (2015)

In 2010s, it became hard to escape the impression that Marvel Comics represented a money-making machine for Hollywood, meaning that the screen adaptation of every Marvel comic, even the most obscure, was destined to be a hit. However, even before events like the mass cancellation of Marvel series on Netflix began to call that notion into question, there were cases where a Marvel comic brought a Hollywood studio a shameful flop at the box office instead of a smash hit. Of all Marvel comics, the one that can most "boast" of this is the Fantastic Four, one of the classic and extremely popular creations by the legendary Stan Lee about a team of superheroes, which has so far received four cinematic incarnations and, in the process, not once achieved the success typically associated with superhero films today.

The first version from 1994, filmed in a low-budget production by Roger Corman solely to preserve the film rights, practically ended up in a bunker and is today considered one of the most obscure films of modern Hollywood. The second version from 2005, which represented a much more serious attempt at adaptation in Fox's production, received poor reviews and modest commercial results, somehow managing to limp along to a sequel before Fox executives decided on a reboot—the third film delivered to cinemas in the summer of 2015.

The film's plot begins when two gifted boys—Reed Richards and Ben Grimm—attract the attention of Professor Storm (Reg E. Cathey) with their teleportation experiments, who recruits them into his elite research institute where they meet several other equally talented children. Many years later, the now-grown Richards (Miles Teller) and Grimm (Jamie Bell), together with Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) and Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell), manage to build so-called quantum gates leading to another dimension, namely the so-called Planet X. One night, angry that NASA plans to send astronauts there as the first people, they decide to go themselves, but the expedition does not end well. Victor von Doom remains trapped on Planet X, and the four young scientists become genetically altered, acquiring new superhuman powers—Richards can stretch, Johnny Storm can ignite and fly, Sue becomes invisible, and Grimm is transformed into an invulnerable man of rock. The four must face the fact that these transformations have permanently changed their lives but have also brought them under the government's thumb, which intends to continue experiments on them. This includes creating new quantum gates and a new expedition to Planet X. There, however, Victor von Doom awaits them, who not only survived but also developed telekinetic powers and a desire to destroy humanity.

Fantastic Four underperformed at the box office, but that, in fact, did not come as any great surprise, considering it was exposed to negative publicity before its premiere, largely related to stories about director Josh Trank's clashes with Fox producers. These were confirmed by Trank's tweet in which he trashed his own film, accusing the studio of altering it beyond recognition through reshoots and re-editing. Although it is not the first case of a director going "one way" and his parent studio going "another," it is rare today for the split to be so spectacular, meaning its reflection could be so easily found in the film itself.

Fantastic Four, at least in its first part, looks like a fairly good or at least ambitious film. It seems likely that Trank, hired for this film because of his short but effective found-footage superhero film Chronicle, sought to make the new Four as different as possible from the previous version by steering it into the genre waters of horror. The new film is no longer a breezy story about a superhero family saving the world, but a story about a group of young but arrogant scientists who endanger themselves and the world, causing monstrous physical changes in themselves. However, this darker tone apparently did not suit Fox executives, so drastic changes were made to make the film more conventional and accessible to audiences. These interventions are particularly evident in the second part, which seems exponentially weaker, with a bad impression further reinforced by details like poorly made wigs that destroy scene continuity. Yet, the main problem is above all in the screenplay, which tries to give the audience yet another routine origin story, sacrificing the distinctiveness and believability of the characters, and the final showdown—which again boils down to an orgy of CGI effects—vanishes from memory very quickly. And the same can be said for this film, which is anything but fantastic.

Ten years later, Fantastic Four received its fourth cinema adaptation in the form of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a reboot set in a retro-futuristic 1960s. While its box office left much to be desired, critics were much more favourable, thus making the failure of the 2015 Fantastic Four even more complete.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)

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