FANTASTIC FOUR: A Film Oozing With Wasted Potential

Fantastic Four is a film that people wanted to hate from the start. First, there was the controversial casting of Michael B. Jordan as the traditionally white character Johnny Storm; shortly following this was the discovery that Victor Von Doom was a computer hacker instead of a brilliant inventor; finally, there was the casting itself, which involved younger characters just finishing high school, whereas most adaptations of the story present the Fantastic Four as adults.

When thinking back to the failures of Fantastic Four, though, none of those controversies even seem to stick out as sore points. Instead, the film suffers from an uninteresting plot, poorly developed characters, and a rushed, anti-climactic final battle. While it may not be the complete and utter failure that most critics label it to be, it just had so much more potential to be something great.

Origin Story, Yet Again

The first act of Fantastic Four is actually much more engaging than expected. The story concerns Reed Richards (Miles Teller), who invents a device that opens a portal to another dimension along with his childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell). Their invention is noticed by Franklin Storm (Reg. E. Cathey), who had had similar success with a portal device, along with his children Sue (Kate Mara) and Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), and computer hacker Victor Von Doom (Tony Kebbell). So, realistically (not really), he decides to hire what are essentially children to build a larger-scale device in order to enter this dimension and study it.

Cue montages of working, followed by some lazy shots of the group bonding, followed by a really half-assed attempt to turn Dr. Doom into the film’s eventual villain. But in all honesty, although these beginning scenes did feel rushed, I actually was at least somewhat interested in the story by this point. That is, until the characters stepped into the device, and gained the powers that make them the Fantastic Four. From here, the film lost what little momentum it had, and like an avalanche, the rest came crashing down.

Beginning…End?

Josh Trank, who also directed the inspired found footage film Chronicle in 2012, seemed to be the perfect fit for Fantastic Four. After all, that film is also about people who unexpectedly gain powers, and focuses on how they learn to deal with them. What distinguishes the two, though, is a firm grasp of where Chronicle was headed, in addition to a truly sublime final act. Fantastic Four has neither.

For some reason, somewhere towards the middle of Fantastic Four, the film jumps ahead erratically, and we now have to catch up to the lives of these characters that we barely had enough time to get to know in the first place. Trank controversially blamed this on Fox Studios, who forced him to cut certain key scenes of the film. Though it’s never a good idea to blame the higher-ups, I could see there actually being some truth to this. The eventual result is colorless and uneven. However, this doesn’t necessarily make Fantastic Four into a terrible movie; it’s just one with chunks missing from it. If Trank eventually comes out with a Director’s Cut (I don’t see why he wouldn’t), I could see some of these gaps being reasonably filled.

The buildup to the film’s climactic finale is sometimes the best part of a superhero film. The recipe is easy: Good guys gain powers; good guys fall apart, but then come back together; good guys fight bad guy. Rather than stretch these very important scenes into a full-length film, though, all of these final pieces came in rapid-fire succession. The film’s finale is ripe with clichés, ridiculous special effects (does every movie have to have a sky-shooting blue portal?!), and some lame attempts at humor, including some iconic lines that are oh-so-predictably delivered. It is, unfortunately, too little too late.

The Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four are played by Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, and Michael B. Jordan. Individually, each actor has been highly acclaimed in both film and television. Teller and Jordan especially seem to be up-and-coming actors (watch Whiplash or Fruitvale Station as prime examples), with a bright future in the business. What seems to be missing from Fantastic Four, then, is not the actors’ lack of devotion or talent; it is just a complete misfired attempt by screenwriters Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg, and Trank himself to provide them with any interesting dialogue to work with. If you handed this script to three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, he probably still wouldn’t have been able to make anything interesting out of it.

As I mentioned earlier, the predicted flaws of Fantastic Four were not even on my mind while I was watching it. Turning Dr. Doom into a computer hacker rather than an inventor actually seemed to be an acceptable change, as it brought the character into the modern era. And having Johnny Storm portrayed as an African-American really did not seem to detract from the character. Making him empty and lifeless, with no sense of humor – that’s what made the character seem so boring. And throwing the characters together at the last minute for that final battle really gave no sense of deserved triumph. The film just hadn’t earned it.

Conclusion

Though the people who predicted the failures of Fantastic Four weren’t necessarily correct in their reasoning, they were correct in the eventual outcome. Josh Trank’s shallow film isn’t a complete failure, but it’s not really a complete film, either, which some would say is even more important. Though the talented cast at least makes the film watchable, it’s still not quite enough to make up for the complete lack of story structure or believable character development. I’m just fearful about what could possibly be done with these characters in future films; that is, if they are even going to make it past this haphazard first effort.

So what did you think of Fantastic Four? Let us know your thoughts!

Fantastic Four is currently playing in cinemas worldwide, but has yet to be released in some countries – check here for the release dates.

(top image source: 20th Century Fox)