Review: Fantastic Four (2015) Part 2
BKAllmighty So, here’s what on my mind after seeing‘Fant4stic’:IT’S WAY TO DARK AND GLOOMY
Not every superhero movie has to be ‘The Dark Knight’ in order to appeal to a modern audience, and certain superheroes just don’t fit the tone. The Fantastic Four is easily among the best examples. I mean, we’re talking about a team consisting of the burning man, Gumby, a pseudo-ghost lady, and a giant, orange, well… thing. Mixing that foursome with a Christopher Nolan-esque atmosphere doesn’t exactly fit together. And the movie really shows us that. And while there were a few really good intense moments, like when Reed sees Ben for the first time in his rocky form, the rest of the film feels like it’s lying to itself. You almost get the impression that the movie is trying to hide the fact that it’s a superhero movie. Remember the trailers? The ones that made everyone think it was trying to copy ‘Interstellar’? Well, now we know that it kind of was. If the movie, itself, doesn’t like what it is, how are we expected to like it? The effects of low self-esteem transcend beyond just people, I guess.
THERE’S BARELY ANY ACTION
There was a shot that was frequently used in the previews that showed The Thing dropping from a plane onto a battlefield of sorts, probably leading in to a scene of Thing-initiated carnage. Well, that never happens. We’re shown a few brief clips (seen through a monitor) that gives us a glimpse of what The Thing can do, and there are a couple other segments where we can see the other three’s powers at work in opponent-free testing rooms. But where’s the action? We’re bored to death by dialogue scenes that go on for way too long (and a lot of them are filled with science mumbo jumbo – which we don’t understand a word of) and get a total of roughly eight minutes of action at the end of the film. And, from what I read about online, there were apparently three big action scenes cut from the film. WHAT?!? And I don’t even know if I’d count the first scene on Planet Zero since the transformations were more horrific than anything else.
THE PACING IS TERRIBLE
This is probably apparent to anyone who read the full summary of the film above. We spend the entire first half of the movie in the first act anticipating the big transformation. The same goes for most origin story superhero movies (only it doesn’t take nearly this long to happen and the story is interesting enough (hopefully) for you to be satisfied with what you’re watching for the time). This movie just puts you to sleep. The things listed above contribute to this, of course, but when you’ve got a good enough story(which this superhero team has in the comics) you need to know how to spread it out evenly. Here, we meet Reed and Ben as kids, see them become friends, get introduced with the other main characters, build up the relations a bit, go to Planet Zero, see them get their powers, and then skip ONE YEAR LATER. That’s where things really went wrong. We were cheated out of seeing the characters really develop (and missed out on whatever interesting issues happen along their way to coming to grips with their new abilities). How are we supposed to relate to them when we’re kept out of the loop? Imagine how the first “Spider-Man’ would have been if we didn’t get to see Peter adjust to his new powers mid-way throughout the film and just skipped right from when he gets bitten by the spider to where he’s saving Mary Jane on the balcony (and then, only introduce the Green Goblin with enough time for him to destroy abuilding,vow to (insert evil plan here), and die). It’s terrible storytelling.
THERE ARE SOME REALLY OBVIOUS MISTAKES
Also, there are a few laughably bad continuity errors throughout the film (due to re-shoots that the studio insisted on filming months after the initial production had ended). You’ll likely notice that Sue Storm’s hair goes from natural blonde hair to a bright blonde wig out of nowhere. It amazes me that nobody on set said anything since it doesn’t exactly take a sharp eye to spot the difference. Also, when we “catchup” with Reed “a year later”, he’s grown some facial hair. Only in some scenes it’s completely gone – and then back again. Not that this inconsistency is pivotal to the story or anything but when easy-to-spot details like this are so blatantly missed how are we supposed to take the filmmakers seriously?
You know, I am really tired of thinking about this movie. Maybe I’ll write a Part 3 to this review some time or maybe I’ll just be like the movie and leave it unfinished. Either way, I doubt you want to read any more about it at the current time.
Plus, I have other movies to write about. This stupid thing took over a week to write (thanks to it accidentally deleting itself and to the busy few weeks I’ve had recently).
If you actually want me to write any more about this movie, leave a message in the comments below.
Of course, you can always check out some other online reviews if you're bent on reading more.
Thank you for reading this (partially, if not fully),
BK.