I was prepared to hate this movie. Everything about it screamed disaster. As a Marvel fan, I was annoyed that the story sounded unfaithful to the source material. I was skeptical of the cast looking not much like the classic characters I knew. I wasn't too impressed by the trailers (which, oddly enough, use a lot of footage not seen in the movie). Critics unanimously trashed the movie, so I assumed they can't all be wrong. Most alarmingly of all, even the director, Josh Trank, publicly complained about his own movie on its own opening day, absolutely confirming that this movie must be an absolute train-wreck. Even though I already knew it had to be horrible, out of curiosity, I had to see for myself just how bad it really was.
So I went to see it today. The opening sequence, when the characters were kids, wasn't so bad. So I thought maybe it probably gets worse when they grow up. As it went along, I kept expecting it to go completely downhill at some point. Maybe it goes sour when they get their powers. But it still wasn't bad. Maybe when the villain unleashes his evil powers, that's when it all falls apart. But no, Dr. Doom was actually kinda awesome. By the time of the big action scene at the end, I had to admit to myself I was really enjoying this. Dare I say it, this is actually a good movie! I have no reason to be biased about this. After all, walking into the theater, I fully expected a terrible movie.
So why does everyone seem to hate it? I have a few guesses: 1) For one thing, it's not faithful to the source material. This is not the Fantastic Four we've been familiar with up until now. The characters don't look like or act like previous incarnations. They're not the fun family of superheroes we all know. But this movie doesn't try to be faithful, it does its own thing and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
2) It's not as action-packed as the typical superhero movie these days. It's a fairly slow-paced movie. I guess this would disappoint you if you expected more fights and explosions throughout the whole thing. But this did not bother me, because I found the slow build-up of the story and gradually increasing intensity of the movie to be engrossing enough to keep me interested.
3) Fanboys and their attitude of expressing loyalty to one thing by unleashing rage at its competitors. Currently the general consensus among fanboys seems to be that Marvel/Disney "rulez," while Fox, Sony, and even DC/Warner Bros "sux;" so all the review scores tend to be skewed in Marvel/Disney's favor. How else can you explain the high review scores of those lame Iron Man sequels? Fantastic Four (2015), being a Fox property, unfortunately makes it an easy target for the Internet fanboy legions.
4) If there's a flaw that matters to me though, it's that, admittedly, some of the character relationships could have been better. The Fantastic Four are supposed to all have interesting dynamics with each other, but some of the relationships just weren't developed. For instance, I'm not so sure if Jamie Bell and Kate Mara even interacted with each other once throughout the whole movie. Also, we all know the characters Reed & Sue are supposed to be each others' romantic interests, but this was only barely touched upon in this movie. I guess these relationships were something to be explored in a sequel, one that doesn't look like it's gonna happen, considering this one's underwhelming performance and reception unfortunately.
"Easter egg" alert: The Human Torch has a Fire Flower from the Super Mario Bros hanging from his car's rear-view mirror. That was actually a pretty clever reference to throw in there for video game fans. Good job, Trank, or whoever thought of tossing that in there.
Concluding thoughts: I should know better by now than to trust the hive-mind of movie critics. Believe it or not, sometimes the hive-mind is wrong. Even if all the critics are haters, see it for yourself and make your own decision. I for one was pleasantly surprised by this movie and maybe you will be too.
So I went to see it today. The opening sequence, when the characters were kids, wasn't so bad. So I thought maybe it probably gets worse when they grow up. As it went along, I kept expecting it to go completely downhill at some point. Maybe it goes sour when they get their powers. But it still wasn't bad. Maybe when the villain unleashes his evil powers, that's when it all falls apart. But no, Dr. Doom was actually kinda awesome. By the time of the big action scene at the end, I had to admit to myself I was really enjoying this. Dare I say it, this is actually a good movie! I have no reason to be biased about this. After all, walking into the theater, I fully expected a terrible movie.
So why does everyone seem to hate it? I have a few guesses: 1) For one thing, it's not faithful to the source material. This is not the Fantastic Four we've been familiar with up until now. The characters don't look like or act like previous incarnations. They're not the fun family of superheroes we all know. But this movie doesn't try to be faithful, it does its own thing and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
2) It's not as action-packed as the typical superhero movie these days. It's a fairly slow-paced movie. I guess this would disappoint you if you expected more fights and explosions throughout the whole thing. But this did not bother me, because I found the slow build-up of the story and gradually increasing intensity of the movie to be engrossing enough to keep me interested.
3) Fanboys and their attitude of expressing loyalty to one thing by unleashing rage at its competitors. Currently the general consensus among fanboys seems to be that Marvel/Disney "rulez," while Fox, Sony, and even DC/Warner Bros "sux;" so all the review scores tend to be skewed in Marvel/Disney's favor. How else can you explain the high review scores of those lame Iron Man sequels? Fantastic Four (2015), being a Fox property, unfortunately makes it an easy target for the Internet fanboy legions.
4) If there's a flaw that matters to me though, it's that, admittedly, some of the character relationships could have been better. The Fantastic Four are supposed to all have interesting dynamics with each other, but some of the relationships just weren't developed. For instance, I'm not so sure if Jamie Bell and Kate Mara even interacted with each other once throughout the whole movie. Also, we all know the characters Reed & Sue are supposed to be each others' romantic interests, but this was only barely touched upon in this movie. I guess these relationships were something to be explored in a sequel, one that doesn't look like it's gonna happen, considering this one's underwhelming performance and reception unfortunately.
"Easter egg" alert: The Human Torch has a Fire Flower from the Super Mario Bros hanging from his car's rear-view mirror. That was actually a pretty clever reference to throw in there for video game fans. Good job, Trank, or whoever thought of tossing that in there.
Concluding thoughts: I should know better by now than to trust the hive-mind of movie critics. Believe it or not, sometimes the hive-mind is wrong. Even if all the critics are haters, see it for yourself and make your own decision. I for one was pleasantly surprised by this movie and maybe you will be too.