Post your review here! (Fant4stic Four)

[Dark Raven]

Definitely only serviceable. It wasn't like the first act was riveting or anything. It was a bore fest with everyone very flat and the film very slow moving.

 

[Quasar]

I will likely finally watch it this weekend. But in the meantime, I have a spreadsheet I use to compile review scores and convert them all to a 5 star scale. This is how it turned out for Fant4stic:

Roger Ebert's site: 1.5 out of 4 stars
Christianity Today (don't ask): 1 out of 4 stars
JoBlo: 3 out of 10 stars
IGN: 5 out of 10 stars
Film Threat: N/A (offline due to unsuccessful kickstarter campaign)
Rotten Tomatoes: 9% (at the time of my spreadhseet calculation)

Average score: 1.5 out of 5 stars

 

[Erzengel]

IGN was generous.

 

[KarkClent]

I saw this last weekend. I am not at all familiar with the comics and have only seen bits of the previous two movies on TV, so I have really no expectations for what a Fantastic Four movie should be.

I enjoyed most of it up until they got their powers. It was pretty subdued and most of the cast was pretty flat, but I actually appreciated that. It was a nice change of pace from most modern action movies. It made me anticipate the moment when they would get their powers and the movie would take off. Thinking back on it, though, Reed was the only character with anything approaching depth. Everyone else was a combination of cliches and shorthand. Even most of the science stuff seemed like lazy techno-babble. Still, I was with the movie.

Then they get their powers and the movie falls apart. Actually, right before they get their powers the movie starts to fall apart. I can accept that they got drunk and made a rash decision to go to the other dimension on their own, but they make like three more horrible decisions immediately after they get there (repelling down a cliff into an alien landscape, investigating the green energy, then just deciding to stick their hands in it). The body horror stuff could have been interesting, I guess, but it wasn't particularly pleasant to sit through. No matter, though - they immediately disregarded it.

I can't even really judge anything after 'One Year Later' because it was so obviously cobbled together from scraps and reshoots with almost no connection to the rest of the story. The ending was hilariously weak. The actors obviously just stood in front of a green screen speaking generic dialogue and they left it to the VFX people to fill in the blanks.

But it was not as horrendous as it could have been. It's just that the sparks of ambition and originality from the first act are snuffed out immediately when the movie should have been getting exciting.

 

[Quasimod0]

So I just got back from seeing this. I started to watch a cam version of it yesterday, but I felt guilty about that so I stopped at about 15 minutes in. Today I saw it in the theater, matinee showing thankfully.

So the first hour or so is okay. The script and acting is decent enough, but I kept hearing people say, "The first hour is actually really good!!". It isn't. The first act is serviceable. Every character is as dry and flat as a wooden board in the desert. The dialogue is borderline cliche' (many times it crosses that border). No character has any sort of likeable personality save for Reed Richards at times. When they showed little glimpses of his nerdy "quirky" personality, it was nice. But most of the time he was just a mumbly boring character. Johnny was a boring stereotype character, Victor was a clearly evil young man, and Ben Grimm was just there. Sue gets the shortest end of the stick. In a movie full of boring characters, she is the most dull and lifeless of them all.

The best part of the first act is the "body horror" stuff (which I still don't even feel like belongs in an F4 film). I was pretty into it when they were getting their powers, and it was even a bit freaky at times. However, that only lasts for a little while before we're back to the bore-fest.

And that's just the first act. The second (and final) act, brings the movie waaay down. I don't even want to get into it. The best part of the whole second half is the scene where Doom is walking through the halls. He was legitimately scary for a little bit, before going back to being a bargain bin CBM supervillain with absolutely no motive. Why does he want to destroy the world? His motives are hardly even touched on.
The final action scene is one of the worst I've seen in a CBM. It was so boring, and none of the F4's powers are used creatively. Then we get to a super-cheesy tacked on ending, that did not feel earned at all. It could have been okay if we got some sort of team building, and chemistry between the characters, but nope. And then the movie is just over. This felt more like a TV episode than an actual feature length film.

So yeah, this was not a good movie. It had some decent parts, but absolutely nothing great. Even MOS had more fun and personality than this.
I feel like this cast could have made a pretty great version of the F4. They were all fine in their roles but had absolutely nothing to work with. There are teeny hints of some good team building in the first act, but nothing ever really comes of it.
I'd give it a 4/10

BTW, the editing in this film is terrible. Scenes jump from one to another without any sort of smooth transition.

 

[onDgrind]

Ok, i have just finished seeing the movie, and i gotta say why so much hate? Sounds like people just wanted the movie to fail, which is unfair. I've been a huge FF4 fan since the 80's , still got lots of FF4 comics stashed away. I was expecting a train wreck and up to the end i just couldn't see it. Only things i didnt like was The Things CGI and voice, Johnny being black (I'm black myself),Dooms look , even though Doom looked really unstoppable. Honestly after the movie ended,i felt like i wanted to see where they go from here ,cause i really enjoyed it. The movie for me personally was better than MOS,TTDW,GL. It gets a 7/10.

 

[Eddie]

Ok, i have just finished seeing the movie, and i gotta say why so much hate? Sounds like people just wanted the movie to fail, which is unfair. I've been a huge FF4 fan since the 80's , still got lots of FF4 comics stashed away. I was expecting a train wreck and up to the end i just couldn't see it. Only things i didnt like was The Things CGI and voice, Johnny being black (I'm black myself),Dooms look , even though Doom looked really unstoppable. Honestly after the movie ended,i felt like i wanted to see where they go from here ,cause i really enjoyed it. The movie for me personally was better than MOS,TTDW,GL,TIH,CATFA. It gets a 8/10.

This did not get bad reviews from over 90% of critics because they wanted it to fail. The vast majority simply thought it was a bad movie.

Hell, one of the cast members (heavily rumored to be Miles Teller) thinks it's a bad movie, and basically said as much to Trank.

 

[kguillou]

Ok, i have just finished seeing the movie, and i gotta say why so much hate? Sounds like people just wanted the movie to fail, which is unfair. I've been a huge FF4 fan since the 80's , still got lots of FF4 comics stashed away. I was expecting a train wreck and up to the end i just couldn't see it. Only things i didnt like was The Things CGI and voice, Johnny being black (I'm black myself),Dooms look , even though Doom looked really unstoppable. Honestly after the movie ended,i felt like i wanted to see where they go from here ,cause i really enjoyed it. The movie for me personally was better than MOS,TTDW,GL. It gets a 7/10.

It gets hate because quite frankly its an unfinished movie. I personally thought the movie wasn't terrible because of its strong first half but the last half is INCREDIBLY rushed and you can tell it was terribly edited with lots of footage left out. I maintain that if FOX finds a way to put some of that extra footage back in, if the movie is even 20 minutes longer than it would be a very solid film. There is no act 2, and Act 3 ends way too fast. I REALLY, really hope there's an extended version coming, I'd be very willing to give this movie a second chance with an extended cut.

 

[starscream22]

Does 0 out of 5 stars due to "Not worth watching" count as a review?

I think it does since "Not interested" is an option on RT.

 

[Quasar]

So I watched it. The first part was pretty dumb. Kind of funny how Ben was kind of big as a wee kid, then apparently didn't grow another inch his entire life. Of course Reed and Ben suck so much with their high school experiment that they don't even remember to bring along the object they're meaning to transport. (To make way for some of that subtle humor that The Guard is such a fan of, I guess). Hilarious that Dr. Storm is hanging out at a high school science fair in Oyster Bay. Sue with her pattern recognition, even recognizing the pattern in Reed how he wants to be famous (which he denies). Too bad her pattern recognition didn't actually help her out in predicting they would go on the drunk fest trip for fame. Not sure who put Sue in charge of the suits, but apparently she had full authorization because she must have made the suits to the guys' measurements (Dr. Richards also seemed to be on board as he was surprised when Agent Mole made the "surprise" decision to have trained Nasa people undergo the actual trip.) As for the experiment itself, first you have Reed, who apparently finished the machine, all by his lonesome, then instead of actually telling anyone, decides to take a nap at his computer. So then instead of actually testing it, they bring in all the suits to witness the very first testing (insanely stupid). Then when they run the test and it disappears, everyone's applauding (even though they'd managed to send stuff to the alternate dimension before), then when they bring it back (what was actually the new property being tested), crickets.

Then we get the middle deal, where Reed has a bungie suit... why? Never explained, that I saw. Ben comes for him with dudes, and Reed's stretching all over the place, not just arms, but some body contortions too. What is the bungie suit actually doing? Sue uses her pattern recognition to find him, when actually it just boils down to him telling her he liked the book 20,000 Leagues Under the See. No actual patterns involved. Kind of interesting in that Ben has absolutely no relationship with anyone as he only knew Reed. The only person he interacts with is Agent Mole.

Final act. Doom, WTH. What are his powers? On earth, he pops heads and blows up doors. In the other dimension he's basically Terrax the Tamer. Johnny runs around a corner and throws a blind fireball. Oops, not Doom. "My bad!" Ok, moron. FF fight Doom, who seems to know what all their powers are for some reason. Doom has the upper hand, then the FF get some knocks in. "Is Doom dead?" "No, because the thingie would stop if he was." "He's stronger than each of us!" Didn't you just think you'd killed him? Why do you suddenly think he's stronger than you? Then Reed comes up with the great teamwork plan. Distract Doom, then let Thing punch him. Wow, great plan. I think Torch and maybe IG did something to him afterwords, but couldn't be certain. Once Reed came up with THE PLAN, details didn't really matter anymore.

I have to think the GA have to feel incredibly duped. The movie is absolutely nothing like any of the ads or tv spots. Nearly every scene is either cut from the movie or tied to another scene out of context. I was dying to see the scene at the end of the first teaser where Reed dramatically... stretched his arm? Maybe? Oh well, guess we'll never know.

 

[psylockolussus]

I think a post-credits scene would have helped a little... because I watched this 4 times and for every screening, a lot of people stayed through the credits.

 

[onDgrind]

If the movie wasn't based on FF4 and just some original concept, i bet it wouldn't have got so much hate . Its not the worst movie out there, i enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Mad Ones]

If the movie wasn't based on FF4 and just some original concept, i bet it wouldn't have got so much hate . Its not the worst movie out there, i enjoyed it for what it was.

I saw the movie open to changes to the source material and still gave it a bad review. It used a tone that ranged from boring to uncomfortable to tell a generic story badly. If this wasn't a Fantastic Four movie it would have been better because there wouldn't be a reason to shoehorn Doom, "it's clobbering time," and other lazy attempts at connecting the movie to the comics.

 

[RAE072]

If the movie wasn't based on FF4 and just some original concept, i bet it wouldn't have got so much hate . Its not the worst movie out there, i enjoyed it for what it was.

Why would the general audience care if it was an FF movie or not?

They hated it too, what little of them showed up to watch it.

 

[Drz]

If the movie wasn't based on FF4 and just some original concept, i bet it wouldn't have got so much hate . Its not the worst movie out there, i enjoyed it for what it was.

It wouldn't have received this much attention that's for sure, but it was still mismanaged by FOX which is why it's having such a poor reception.

I still haven't seen Ridley Scott's Moses for example because i'm still hoping FOX would make a director's cut.

 

[Dark Raven]

It probably still would've received a very low RT score even if it weren't FFINO but Chronicle 2.

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

My review is better than expected doesn't deserve the hate it has. I would put it in the 30% on RT it definitely didn't deserve single digits. For me it fell a part when Doom returned, that's when it became a lame wannabe comic book movie, something the CW would throw together on Smallville.

 

[Val_Zod]

My review is better than expected doesn't deserve the hate it has. I would put it in the 30% on RT it definitely didn't deserve single digits. For me it fell a part when Doom returned, that's when it became a lame wannabe comic book movie, something the CW would throw together on Smallville.

You are being far too lenient. The film has no second act, and no character building. The first act was boring, but could have led to something, but once they went the 1 year later route, the film completely fell apart. There was no need to continue watching the film, all apparent character building from the first act was abandoned. And the less we say of the last 15 minutes, the better.

 

[Erzengel]

So it should be somewhere in between FF and FF2 which are 27% and 37%? I think even 30% is still pretty bad especially with how good CBM have been.

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

So it should be somewhere in between FF and FF2 which are 27% and 37%? I think even 30% is still pretty bad especially with how good CBM have been.

I agree it is pretty bad it can't compete with most if not all modern comic book movies, all I'm saying is it is nowhere near as bad as Dragon Ball Evolution which has a 14% or Dylan Dog which has an 8. Even though I can tolerate it and liked somethings about it I can see why thr majoriry would not....but the amount of hate it has is astonishing. Yes I honestly would put it between the first ones; actually I hated those more.

 

[Kelly]

Ok, i have just finished seeing the movie, and i gotta say why so much hate? Sounds like people just wanted the movie to fail, which is unfair. I've been a huge FF4 fan since the 80's , still got lots of FF4 comics stashed away. I was expecting a train wreck and up to the end i just couldn't see it. Only things i didnt like was The Things CGI and voice, Johnny being black (I'm black myself),Dooms look , even though Doom looked really unstoppable. Honestly after the movie ended,i felt like i wanted to see where they go from here ,cause i really enjoyed it. The movie for me personally was better than MOS,TTDW,GL. It gets a 7/10.

And how did you come to this conclusion. Did people not explain themselves well enough here? Most everyone here have given very extensive reasons, examples, etc of why this movie was such a failure. I'm not sure how you can say that its just because people "wanted it to fail" when it failed miserably with ALL AUDIENCES types, people like you, people like me, comic book fanboys, people who have never read the comics, etc...AND critics slammed it, so ALL of those people just wanted it to fail?

 

[Val_Zod]

I agree it is pretty bad it can't compete with most if not all modern comic book movies, all I'm saying is it is nowhere near as bad as Dragon Ball Evolution which has a 14% or Dylan Dog which has an 8. Even though I can tolerate it and liked somethings about it I can see why thr majoriry would not....but the amount of hate it has is astonishing. Yes I honestly would put it between the first ones; actually I hated those more.

Does it matter, though? We're arguing whether this film is worst than the bottom of the barrel. Regardless of how bad it is, the main consensus is that this is another failure for Fox, and their 3rd when we live in a golden period of the genre. So while you can argue the film itself did not deserve the hate, the point is Fox still failing with this Franchise, and fans are sick of it, especially now when there is a studio who has proven it is more than capable at delivering with the FF.

P.S: I personally will take the Story films, for atleast they have 3 acts, and a semblance of an arc for some of the characters.

 

[MydnightPhoenix]

@Kelly I don't know why critics slammed it so hard especially more than true monstrosities like DBEvolution.

Best fantastic four movie hands down!

Okay that's not really a compliment, and i didnt mean it to be. I'm holding firm at 5/10.

It was sort of entertaining up until the trip to the other dimension. It does indeed fall apart there. So many of the scenes/lines seem to have been done in one shot and could have been fixed with reshoots. CGI was broken in some areas. I liked the body horror stuff.

- Doom for everything awful about him was fairly scary at first which was fun. About even with Story's version.
- Susan sucked through and through. Somehow still better than Alba.
- Reed was hit or miss (mostly miss) but better than Gruffudd.
- Johnny was fine. No better or worse than Chris Evans.
- CGI for the Thing was cool, not perfect but cool. Needed some shorts. Was Jamie Bell even in there? The voice sucked. Shoulda brought Chiklis in for at least the voice.


Like I said, 5/10. Half of all movies in existence are better than this, half are worse.

My rating is also 5/10, but I really disagree with Chiklis he was one of the worst things about the first movies. I agree Mara was better than Alba, she was mostly bland but I could buy some of what she was selling. I really like Miles as Reed though, I can understand people saying he wasn't really Reed. We didn't see a lot of his intelligence nor why he would be the leader of this group.
For me the film free falled when Von Doom returned.

 

[Eddie]

Your 5/10 is still negative, that would have the same weight as a 1/10 on Rotten Tomatoes, and you've really just shown that the crap film deserves its rating. Again, Rotten Tomatoes scores are not the same thing as aggregating the scores themselves and averaging them. It got a lower score than DBE because a lower percentage of critics gave it a pass. Simple as that. (I vaguely remember some critics giving DBE a mildly positive review simply because it was amusing enough for a younger audience)

 

[Kelly]

@Kelly I don't know why critics slammed it so hard especially more than true monstrosities like DBEvolution.


My rating is also 5/10, but I really disagree with Chiklis he was one of the worst things about the first movies. I agree Mara was better than Alba, she was mostly bland but I could buy some of what she was selling. I really like Miles as Reed though, I can understand people saying he wasn't really Reed. We didn't see a lot of his intelligence nor why he would be the leader of this group.
For me the film free falled when Von Doom returned.

Maybe because it was a really bad movie?

I'm not going to slam the actors, they worked with what they were given....I see none of this as their fault. The writing, the editing, the reshoots, led to a bad movie. Bad movies happen....all the time. This was simply one of them.

I have never seen DBE, and I find comparing one bad movie to another much like comparing bad apples with bad oranges.