Fant4stic Post your review here! (Fant4stic Four)

[pr0xyt0xin]

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.

 

[sleekstereo]

*sigh*

Ok, I just came back from watching it. It's not great. It's not even completely good. It's ok.

Here is my issue, the film started off very strong. I mean I was sitting in the theater thinking "I don't know why critics bashed this so much, this is really interesting so far."

Then...the one year mark happened and everything went to ****.

It felt like I was watching a different film. The second half is not good. It's kind of terrible. It felt like the second half was shot by a totally different director.

Hell, I'm convince that the last battle scene was COMPLETELY reshot. Hell, you can tell by Kate Mara's hair being TOTALLY different from the trailer in the final battle compared to the trailer.

It's kind of depressing. This is a strong cast and you can tell they just did not give a **** by the end of the film.

I'm giving it a 5/10 because the first half is really good, but the second half is completely dog poop.

 

[LostSon88]

One of my favorite scenes was the reveal when Reed wakes up and sees himself along with the cuts to the other 3 as they recovered. It really sold the whole 'body disfigurement' angle that Trank was talking about and how horrific it would be to wake up and find yourself transformed in such a manner.

But after that scene when Reed took off, that's when the movie fell off the rails for me...

 

[Tony Stark]

This was probably the worst superhero movie I've ever seen & up there with the worst movies I've ever seen.

Nothing f***ing happened. There was no character development, no action, the acting is embarrassing, barely any plot.

This was the most disrespectful treatment of superheroes I've ever seen, yes even worse than the infamous Barakapool. Dr Doom got the blunt of it, this was as far away from the character of Dr Doom as possible.

Josh Trank can go f*** himself with trying to take the blame off of himself. The whole movie is a train wreck & it comes from the tone of the movie; this tone does not work with these characters! This is almost as bad as making an edgy movie about f***ing Monopoly or something.

0/10

High five dude! You me and Peter Travers all gave this turd a 0/10!

 

[Spider-Vader]

High five dude! You me and Peter Travers all gave this turd a 0/10!

My review might seem a bit immature but whatever, that's mostly how I think. This movie was a mess from beginning to end; there was no saving it after that cringey "It's Clobberin' Time" at the start of the movie.

The whole thing about gaining super powers being horrifying could've made for a good original movie, but it's not what these characters are about. No one working on this movie actually wanted to make a Fantastic Four movie.

Notice how all of the well received superhero movies stay mostly true to the source material, it doesn't take a genius to put two & two together.

 

[ironman_rick]

I liked the movie...... It was a different take on a SH movie.

But I can kinda understand why it is getting so much hate. When you pi$$ of the fans of a particular comicbook, the piss is gonna go viral. Well the fans have won this time.

Hopefully fox thinks of their next step carefully.

 

[roach]

It felt like I was watching a different film. The second half is not good. It's kind of terrible. It felt like the second half was shot by a totally different director.

Hell, I'm convince that the last battle scene was COMPLETELY reshot. Hell, you can tell by Kate Mara's hair being TOTALLY different from the trailer in the final battle compared to the trailer.

I have a friend who worked on the film and confirmed this is what happened.

 

[TheSpectacular]

I don't write up reviews often so bare with me

This film is awful, it really is. And it's not awful like Batman & Robin, where you can at least view it as a fun comedy. Fox saw The Dark Knight and must've figured; dark, depressing, gritty, and grounded, that's the way to make fantastic four. Sony tried the same thing with Spider-Man and it didn't work either. However, at least that bared respect to the source material.

Before I pack on more hate, I'll talk about the few things I did like. The cast did what they could. For what little of them was showed, Jaime Bell and Michael B. Jordan did good in their respective roles. Kate Mara as Sue, wasn't bad either. Toby Kebbel did good too. In regards to Victor, they did, for a bit, get his character right. He thinks he's better than everyone.

That's it. That's all the good this film has to offer. I consider everything else to be a train wreck. Miles Teller did not work as Reed Richards. Earlier parts of the film explore his genius, but the latter half of the film drops it. You also have moments where he's getting corrected by Sue and Victor. Reed Richards is supposed to be the smartest character in the marvel universe, he should not be corrected.
And while this is supposed to be a team film, the team aspect is hardly there. The X-Men films do better at showing team work. They band together at the end to fight Doom, however the "world is gonna end and we're the only ones who can save it" cliche rears its head once again. For all the comments on how this isn't your average superhero movie, it sure ends like one. Anyway, they're only a team, for literally the last 5-10 minutes. The band together to stop Doom and drop any motivation they had prior. Ben is angry at Reed for

Spoiler

abandoning everyone

, he for some reason goes with the group to fight Doom, and boom, he's a happy camper.
There is also a heavy case of Spider-Man Syndrome. As in, material that was prominently featured in trailers/TV spots being cut. Most notably an entire action sequence for the Thing. Others include lines such as

Spoiler

"We can use these powers to help people" and "He's the muscle"

Now onto the big one, Dr. Doom. For the umpteenth time, they have ****ed up Doom. All the standard "he shouldn't get his powers with the four" talk still standing. He looks awful. Even if it wasn't supposed to be Doom, it would look awful. Pre transformation, he was fine, but after that his motivation is puzzling. He either wants to be left alone on Planet Zero or he wants to destroy the world. The final fight with him left more to be desired. The four get their butts handed to them separately, Reed gives the little league pep talk and the four......kinda team up to fight him. It's very underwhelming, and considering that Doom literally killed people with his mind earlier, makes no sense.

Bad film after bad film, Fantastic Four is the property that just won't give up when it should. The future of this franchise is uncertain but if this is the direction they choose to continue, then the franchise is doomed. 2/10

 

[psylockolussus]

So I watched this again. And I don't think it was really as bad as Elektra and in my opinion, Elektra is better than Batman/Robin, Catwoman and Jonah Hex. Like I said before, pre-1-year later scenes, were alright. I didn't mind if it was slow or lacked action. The only thing that I would improve on that is, Doom's thing with Sue, it wasn't explored at all.

The scenes with the Thing and the Human Torch being used by the government as weapons, they could have explored that more which would mean more action and possibly more superhero-ish scenes. Like Ben going to a hq of a terrosist group and saving hostages and civilians. Human Torch destroying missile attacks from terrorists. And Sue could infiltrate a country with nuclear weapons and then those three would end up in news and will be seen as heroes by the public. I just think they did not make the most of it as those three being used by the government as weapons. I also liked that Sue was against to the fact that the government were using them as "tools" and giving them orders to do because thats not Fantastic Four. I also wish Sue/Johnny had more interaction with Ben.

I also don't get why they cut so many scenes especially the ones that required visual effects (like Sue making a big force field in the room, Ben jumping off the helicopter, Ben throwing a piece of metal inside his room). I don't know if its gonna make things better but in hindsight, Fox are probably wishing the film was longer and they didn't cut so many scenes especially the ones that were shown in the trailers and TV spots especially this as worse as it gets when it comes to film's public reaction. I also noticed that this film had two editors, the other one (who wasn't edit Chronicle) was probably hired after the reshoots. Then Reed going rogue should have been explored more, because I was really meh on that part though I really liked the shapeshifting thing he did.

The last 20 minutes like the moment Doom came back to Earth, they should have redone all of it. Like maybe there should have been a funeral ceremony for Franklin. Then we see Doom in Planet Zero plotting his next attack on Earth like making a black hole to swallow the Earth... those last 20 minutes just happened so quickly and there was no build-up to Doom's attack. And I also wish, that the four actually said the words "Fantastic Four" especially now that there's not gonna be a sequel anymore.

Anyway now, I think I'll rank this below Daredevil (2003). All the Spider-Man, MCU and X-Men films (minus Origins) are above this one in my ranking. I'm not yet sure if I will rank this below than the Tim Story's FF films, because those were cheesey as hell despite having more charm and being more playful. I prefer this over Origins Wolverine, Hulk 2003, the Blade films, the Ghost Rider films and the Punisher movies.

 

[Mr.T]

Just took the family to see it. I don't think it's as bad as the 9% I've seen on RT, but it isn't a great movie. My 2 cents:

-I absolutely loved the route they went with the origin. The whole negative zone thing was done really well, IMO. Everything up that point was fairly decent.

- Doom's character stunk, period. He also looked ridiculous at his introduction and even more ridiculous with his fused suit. Will anyone ever get Doom right in my lifetime???

-Didn't even notice the Storm race thing. Still don't see why this was such a big issue.

-As everyone else has pointed out, the special effects are very subpar. They were decent in some parts but horrendously bad in others. Surprised to see a $100 million dollar film look as bad as it did in some spots.

-The tonal shift was noticeable the 2nd half of the film. It just felt off.

-The film was boring. I literally was yawning after about the negative zone sequence.


The movie started on a decent road and kinda went off the beaten path. As with all bad films, you just wonder what could've been if Fox had really wanted to make a good movie. I'm not going to put all the blame on Trank, but Fox not hiring someone who loves the source material may not have been the best route to go. It's painfully obvious they didn't like what he wanted to do with the FF4 and hacked an already bad movie up to their liking in post production. You can't put lipstick on a pig....

4.5/10

 

[Deaths Head II]

The first half is okay. Not great, not bad, but okay. It has clunky dialog and moments and is somewhat boring, but it's alright buildup. I was kind of interested in seeing these characters come together and seeing the actual events that create the FF. Unfortunately the only characters I really liked were Ben and Reed. The Storms all felt largely one dimensional while Doom is just terrible. Even aside from it not being comic Doom, I just thought his character was super boring, even pre transformation. They could have done something with him being part of the team before he turned evil but he's pretty much a *****e that just has a crush on Sue. There's very little camaraderie among the team in general aside from a few clunky scenes between Reed and Johnny.

The second half is just embarrassing. I definitely agree with people saying it feels like a different movie as it becomes an ugly CGI extravaganza after an excessively grounded first half. The aspect I was most interested in, the body horror, is effective in the few scenes it's in. But the tone of the movie is just too all over the place for it to really do much besides make the film feel super jarring. Juxtaposing the goofy final fight with the unsettling transformation sequences just highlights that fact. I also will admit Doom's early scene is bit creepy but the fact he's so powerful in those scenes also highlights how terrible the ending is.

I don't think the Josh Trank version would have been amazing but it seems like it would have been an a bit more unique. It was never destined for greatness but it would have found an audience. This Fox-edited final version is something no one can really love. Not people who wanted to see Josh Trank's vision nor people who wanted to a see something closer to the FF than what Josh Trank was aiming for. I am glad Fox made this film in such a unique way that it wouldn't appeal to any audience. They truly could not have messed this up any better. I can't wait for the rights to revert.

4/10

 

[DarKush]

I had posted my thoughts on another thread before I saw this one. I will say this movie isn't as bad as the critics say it is. It's not as good as the Story films, but it was a decent comic book origins movie.

Some of the things that I think it lacked was humor and a sense of fun. And the film was missing the character dynamics for the Four. We also didn't get enough action period or seeing the Four in action enough or doing super heroic things enough. But the cast itself was fine. The story needed work.

 

[DCnightwing23]

There was enough humor and chemistry here.

-Reed and Grimm at Grimms place, Reed looking for a power converter.
-Reed and Grimm shared several brother relationship type of scenes, and the backstory was pulled right from the Ultimate comic book where Reed needs Grimm ad Grimm needs Reed for school
-Reed and Grimm again, this time at the science fair together displaying their mini teleporter.
-Reed and Grimm, Reed keeping Grimm updated on the progress of the work he's doing at the Baxter building, the selfie he sends him was funny. And again it just build this whole big brother little brother relationship between them, something Grimm didn't have with his older brother when we see them together. So that worked really well.
-Reed and Sue Storm share two note worthy scenes, one in the library, I thought that scene had both actors working really well together to convey that there was something potentially there between them
-Reed and Sue again, this time in the lab working together to finalize the first teleporter, laughing together and having a good time. This is where we see there is clearly something there between them, I felt this come across as a natural progression.
-Reed and Johnny, introducing themselves to one another went well, and they ended up working together in the lab well.
-Reed, Johnny, and Victor, talking to one another after hours and discussing the how they dont want to end up like the people before them never getting credit for their work, this scene was really well done and made sense, and you could feel for them and them wanting to be the ones to go into the teleporter.


In the first two thirds of this movie there was a sense of humor ad fun here. All these people were coming together to build and finalize something that would change things in a big way. You get that sense of almost a careless fun, where the they almost don't understand what they were inching closer to. It didn't feel forced, and anything up until the final few minutes of the movie where all of a sudden the team is joking with one another and laughing it up. We didn't see that built upon. So it did come across as forced there. But to say this movie was too dark? I don't think so. There are elements here that worked well being darker, like when they go to Planet Zero for the first time and barely escape. And Reed to see everyone around him either appearing to be dead and begging for help. That scene played really well, I loved that scene. And it was right inline with where Trank wanted to go to with the whole sci-fi/body horror elements to this interpretation of the 4. The whole 1 year later felt like it came from some other director, most likely just the studio. And that's where things got messy. Trank left me feeling absolutely awful for Franklin Baxter being so concerned with his kids, and more so with Grimm seeing Reed escaping and begging for help again and feeling like his friend/brother is abandoning him.

Point being, the first two thirds of this movie did have a sense of humor and fun, but it also had heart to it as well.

 

[MadVillainy]

So I guess I can break my complaints down in 2 parts:

As a fanboy
-Doom. Just turrible. Weak motivation. Terrible look. His powers were all over the place
-I know it's the start of their story but all of the 4's powers were pretty tame/meh. I dont think i ever saw a really cool instance
-Alot of out of character moments. Im not a huge fan of FF, but Im pretty sure Johnny wouldnt be cool with being a military weapon and Im pretty sure Reed wouldve abandoned his friends like that.
-Sue was pretty lame. No personality, didnt go on the mission, just really lame
-Scientists were Prometheus level stupid
-"It's clobbering time" being something Ben's d*** brother saying.
-Thing's voice sucked
-The team dynamics were so crappy. I didnt feel like I was watching Fantastic Four until the last 10 minutes.
-Reed and Sue "romance" tease wasnt good

Standard complaints
-Pacing was terrible
-It was pretty boring
-Doom was a really weak villain.
-So many storylines were developed and dropped. Doom being in love with Sue, Reed being on the run, etc.
-Was it ever explained why Johnny resented his dad so much? Did I miss it?
-Going on with that instead of Johnny kinda being a lovable, but cocky a-hole like RDJ's Tony Stark, Cruise/Maverick in Top Gun he was just an a-hole. Not funny or interesting.
-They're on the run for 18/19, Reed was on the run for a year, Ben became a weapon...no mention of their parents? This is a nitpick I admit, but it just kinda bothered me
-Ben was not developed well. I mean none of them were, but Ben in particular. I didnt get a good sense of who he was before the transformation or after really...
-Sue (along with Ben) was really devoid of personality.
-Action was lame. Honestly the coolest scene to me, despite how terrible he looks, was Doom walking down the hall unleashing on people. On another note, Im always surprised how violent PG13 movies are allowed to be nowadays from Cap throwing a soldier into the propeller to this. Oh well.


There were very few good things about this:
-I thought Teller was really good as Reed. He wasnt the comic version i know, but he was still really good. I dont care what anyone says about the Esquire review or how "*****ey" or "punchable" his face looks; Teller is a dope actor. From Rabbit Hole, Spectacular Now, Whiplash, to this he has been great.
-That last scene with the 4 in Central City or wherever was good.
-The scene when they first return from Planet Zero up until Reed is sedated in the lab was a really great scene

But those weren't enough to save this film. Not even close. This honestly isnt the worst CBM I've seen ha ha. I would put this above Catwoman, Elektra, Green Lantern and Ghost Rider...so that's something.

I blame FOX for this and I blame Trank for this. They shouldve done better.

Trank's idea honestly wouldve been much better fitted for a Chronicle sequel than FF

 

[The Guard]

Yup. There's humor, it's just sort of a quiet, casual humor.

 

[BatsDC]

I saw this movie today.

I regret it. I really, really, really regret it.

It sucked.

 

[Loki882]

The first 20 minutes or so are alright and there's kernels of good ideas here. But then it goes to Hell pretty quickly:

-The whole sequence of events that leads up to the accident was lame.
-The cast has no real chemistry.
-The characters are barely sketched out.
-Doom is HORRIBLE. His look, his plan, his motivations, EVERYTHING is godawful.
-Some of the effects/CGI looked really dodgy.
-I HATE that

Spoiler

Sue was sidelined for key events.
-The time jumps were in some of the worst spots possible.

-The pacing is terrible.
-It's so serious and dour that it's a slog to get through (the X-films may be serious overall, but they have some fun/humor still).
-The "mixed family" thing between Sue, Johnny, and Dr. Storm could have been interesting, but nothing is really done with it.
-

Spoiler

The characters spend big chunks of the film apart from each other.

-The climax, such as it was, was really rushed.
-

Spoiler

NOTHING HAPPENS!! It's ALL buildup (and not good buildup) with no real payoff. It's like a ninety-minute trailer for a (maybe) better sequel that will probably never happened now.

As far as positives go, well the cast does their best with what little they're given and some of the David Cronenberg-type body horror stuff is suitable creepy/nasty. But that's about it.

 

[combocaz]

The Film lost me at 1 year later. 3 out of 10

 

[Val_Zod]

The one thing I can say about this film is that it is not a structurally sound movie.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 suffered a similar problem, that instead of having a standard 3 act structure, it had a collection of disconnected scenes.

FF has 1 big 1st act, then a 20 minute 3rd act. The first act is serviceable as a mediocre scifi film beginning. It is long, and you only get the bear minimum of characterization, with mostly Reed and Johnny benefiting from that time.

Sue and Ben are utterly wasted throughout the movie. Ben is basically a sad existence throughout. Poor home life, utterly ignored, and resorts to being a weapon for the government. Now nothing wrong with having a character with misfortune, but I'm not empathizing at this, rather just thinking "put this guy out of his misery". Sue is has no character arc, and is a none entity. The closest to an arc we get is of her being objectified by the narrative as just a trophy girl, and even that isn't done right, as the "love story" introduced is quickly disregarded after the accident.

The poor casting choice is visable, as none of the actors, as talented as they are share any chemistry. The best performance from the film is by Miles Teller, only on the basis he has the most material to work with. To add to that, this is not an ensemble, as Fantastic Four should be. Reed is no questions the main character, and the story follows him, atleast t'ill the half way mark where the film goes virtually nowhere.

By the half way mark, the 1st act concludes, and begins the utter disaster that's the 3rd act. Doom is just a arbitrary antagonist with no arc to speak of. And the final battle is a cinematographer's nightmare. Its something you'd expect from a direct to dvd film. Luckily, I only saw it from a blurry quality, but it was clear enough for me to see the poor job done. I can only imagine how bad it was for people seeing it on the big screen.

All in all, FF is not the worst Superhero film I've seen, but it is by far the one which gives the most sense of nothingness after viewing, rivaled only by Superman Returns for me. Thankfully the film is only 90 minutes long, but even then feels like an eternity. I hold no desires to see it ever again.

2/10

 

[samsnee]

So is everything before the "1-year mark" decent? From what I've read, after that is when it seems like Fox took over. I'm just wondering if the poor second half just left a sour taste. Of course it doesn't really sound like the first half was a F4 movie either.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The first half at least sounds interesting though. Think there was a good movie in there at some point, I will see for myself when I go see it.

 

[MadVillainy]

So is everything before the "1-year mark" decent? From what I've read, after that is when it seems like Fox took over. I'm just wondering if the poor second half just left a sour taste. Of course it doesn't really sound like the first half was a F4 movie either.

not necessarily. At least not to me. But it did get a lot worse after that.

 

[Erzengel]

First viewing: 7/5 out of 10
Second viewing: 8 out of 10

Anyway now, I think I'll rank this below Daredevil (2003). All the Spider-Man, MCU and X-Men films (minus Origins) are above this one in my ranking. I'm not yet sure if I will rank this below than the Tim Story's FF films, because those were cheesey as hell despite having more charm and being more playful. I prefer this over Origins Wolverine, Hulk 2003, the Blade films, the Ghost Rider films and the Punisher movies.

So do you have a revised score?

 

[VictorDomashev]

not necessarily. At least not to me. But it did get a lot worse after that.

It was not bad by any means. But between the movie going so fast & very quickly after 1 Year Later. Sending another team back to Planet Zero 15 minutes or so after 1 year later. They find Victor & bring him back. The movie is over 20 minutes or so after that. Basically any good will the first half might have had. Is taken away by everything after 1 Year Later. You are left with an empty WTF feeling after it ends

 

[Loki882]

Yeah, plus they skip over a lot of potential interesting character stuff. The movie is actually too damn short for what I think that we're intending to do initially. It's what, 90 minutes long?

It's like "ok, this isn't great but it's got potential. Lets see where it goes." And then it goes, NOWHERE!