Cinema Craze: Fant4stic (Trank, 2015)

Director: Josh Trank

Producer: Matthew Vaughn, Simon Kinberg, Gregory Goodman, Hutch Parker & Robert Kulzer

Writers: Josh Trank, Jeremy Slater & Simon Kinberg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rRoD28-WgU

Fantastic Four | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX

When it comes to the best and most famous superhero teams in media, one name that often comes to mind is the Fantastic Four. Debuting in 1961, it was only a matter of time before they became part of the MCU several months ago with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a surprisingly pleasant treat for the summer. In hindsight, however, it was more of a blessing than one might’ve originally believed. Since the idea of bringing the Fantastic Four to the big screen emerged in the mid-1980s, numerous filmmakers faced a bumpy road in faithfully adapting the team and their exciting adventures to the silver screen. But before First Steps came along, they were all executed to varying lackluster results. There was the unreleased low-budget The Fantastic Four filmed in the 1990s, which was made more as a way for the producers keep the rights to the four than as a genuine attempt at crowd-pleasing entertainment. There was then Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer from the mid-2000s, both directed by Tim Story and distributed by 20th Century Fox. Both were considered underwhelming by both critics and audiences despite being moderate box office successes, and a planned third film was ultimately cancelled. And then there’s 2015’s Fantastic Four or Fant4stic, as it’s so lovingly called.

Now, when I was in high school and starting to become the film nerd I am today, I was learning about films that were production nightmares for everyone involved, whether the efforts to make them were worth it or not. More often than not, Fant4stic was listed as one of the most infamous cases of this, despite only recently coming out. It was Fox’s second attempt at creating a successful film adaptation of the team in the hopes of possibly pairing them up with the X-Men somewhere down the line. The plan was to go for a darker/ grittier take on their origin story, which was a trend popular at the time thanks to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. In addition, the project was helmed by up-and-comer Josh Trank and starred Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Michael B. Jordan, and Toby Kebbell. But then, everything went wrong. Reportedly, Trank proved to be difficult to work with, Fox interfered due to concerns over the story’s tone, the budget was slashed, and the film itself underwent massive editing and reshoots that Trank wasn’t involved in. Now, the full story behind the scenes is too big for me to discuss without taking too much attention away from this review. So, I would highly recommend those interested in conducting their own research. But getting back to my story, I decided to check out the film to see how bad its reputation suggested it was. As it sometimes aired on FX, I recorded a showing and began watching it when I was free from homework. After about 40 minutes, I stopped watching, and it would be a while before I came around to finishing the rest. When I eventually did so, nothing about the quality had changed to the point that I was glad when it finally ended. And after returning to this film not too long ago, I can confidently say that Fant4stic is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. I don’t just mean this in terms of superhero films, but I mean this in terms of movies in general.

From the get-go, it’s clear that the filmmakers were trying to emulate the Dark Knight trilogy with the darker and grounded tone applied to Batman. But that tone worked for Batman as the character and his storylines are known for being (mostly) dark either in aesthetics or themes. With the Fantastic Four, however, it comes off as joyless and dull. The cinematography is ugly to look at. It tries too much to appear as hard science fiction, with the color palette consisting mainly of blacks, greys, and muted blues, that it ends up looking like a poorly shot TV movie. The visual effects themselves are nothing much to write home about, with many you’ve already seen in other sci-fi/superhero films, as well as some bizarre character designs, and poor green screen work with continuity errors in the reshoots. In some scenes, you can even tell which ones Miles Teller wasn’t present in and which ones Kate Mara’s wig is present. The film’s score by Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass, on the other hand, gives a sense of the action, wonder, and science the story was going for, especially in the tracks Glass worked on. For someone unfamiliar with superhero scores, his minimalist style blends well with Beltrami’s electronic music. It’s not as memorable as, say, Danny Elfman’s Spider-Man or Alan Silvestri’s Avengers themes, but it’s decent enough to listen to by itself. Aside from that one aspect, however, nothing about this film works from a production standpoint.

But the movie’s biggest faults lie with its characters and story. Even if you didn’t know what happened behind the scenes, you could tell something happened, as evident with the film’s pacing. The first act sets up the story at a snail’s pace as we follow the team trying to build a teleporter to another dimension. The middle act is essentially non-existent, as after the characters finally get powers, we jump to a year later, where their experiences with their powers are off-screen. And when the final act arrives, the fight with Doctor Doom is relegated to less than five minutes, which, by the way, is the only action scene in the movie. A couple of minutes afterward, the end! And without any scenes of real character development, the Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben in this version have no chemistry with each other, don’t play off each other in meaningful ways, and feel like total strangers with each other. The same goes for the villain, Doctor Doom, who in this version is a computer edgelord who persuades the characters to test out the teleporter while drunk (I’m not making that part up) pre-superpowers and decides he wants to destroy humanity for no reason post-superpowers. They come off less like the ones from the comics and more like bland characters who just happened to bear their names, a similar issue in 2017’s Justice League (not to be confused with Zack Snyder’s Justice League). The closest exception is Johnny Storm, who has some of the character’s trademark cocky attitude, but even then, he’s hampered by the poor writing. It’s a real shame because all the actors have many impressive projects in each of their filmographies. Here, they don’t get any moments to shine.

To conclude, nothing works with Fant4stic. It looks dreary. Its cast feels wasted. It’s lacking in the action department. Its pace feels too long and too short at the same time. Stan Lee himself doesn’t even make a cameo. But perhaps the greatest crime that this film commits is that it’s just downright boring. Say what you will about the prior film versions of the Fantastic Four, but at least they can be seen as entertaining in their own ways, with how they try to capture the comic book feel of the source material. Fant4stic, is a perfect example of how not to make a blockbuster. It’s a case where the making of the film is more interesting than the film itself. Superhero films can be light or dark, but if a filmmaker is going to decide what direction to take the story, they must understand the material they’re given and have a cohesive vision behind it. If not, everything will fall apart, and everyone will be disappointed with the results. Hopefully, Josh Trank will get a chance to redeem himself. His debut Chronicle showed he can make entertaining films as he applies the found footage angle with teen protagonists gaining superpowers. He just needs the right project to get his career back on track. If you are looking for a great superhero film to check out, I recommend looking somewhere else. First Steps finally gave the Fantastic Four the film treatment fans have been waiting for, and it’s just a shame it took this long to do so. Fant4stic really set the team back by a decade and put a big dent in their legacy. For a film based on a team as iconic as the Fantastic Four, it was anything but fantastic.