Fantastic 4 2015 – Film Review

In this world of sequels, re-boots and prequels it is not hard for any of these movies, to get lost in translation. When a director is chosen to remake a film, things could go either way. He could give film fanatics an even better product or make them hate the film franchise all together.

Word on the street was that there would be a prequel or reboot of the Fantastic Four and with very little enthusiasm I waited for it to hit the big screen hoping that a younger generation of the Fantastic Four will outdo their predecessors. A couple of months later and it is clear that the 2015 version does nothing to the viewers but slaps them in the face. Talk about yet another rude awakening that some films are better left ‘un-sequelled’ or ‘un-rebooted’ for lack of a better term.
Watching the Fantastic Four 2015 is as heart wrenching and as frustrating as watching someone flogging a dead horse. No matter how or in what direction you hit it, it simply will not rise to the occasion and give you something more. It is literally all doom and gloom from the storyline to the actual tag line of the film.
“Change is coming” (sic)in the sense that we are about to experience being in an alternate dimension of the world. The film starts off by introducing the Fantastic Four, two of them as children with a knack for building robotic space ships and teleporting machines. Then suddenly they are teenagers and in come the other two members of the crew, one rude, egotistical boy with less bite than his bark and his genius step-sister who seems to be his biological father’s favourite.
The plot line is so nonsensical I have to re-introduce the cast just so you get it, so here goes. Four young adventurers, Reed (Miles Teller), Johnny (Michael B. Storm), Ben/The thing (Jamie Bell), and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebell) teleport themselves into an alternate world which alters their physical form in the most surprising ways, with the help of a washed-down scientist (Reg E. Cathey) who plays Dr Franklin Storm and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara). They also get super powers and they learn how to harness their powers to use them to do good and save the planet from a former friend turned into an enemy (Von Doom).
The characters lack chemistry which does not do so well for the storyline as they are supposed to be a team, one that makes you want to get in on the action and makes you wish you had super powers. Everyone is such an outsider, even the family unit acts like strangers, there is simply no bond among them. The storyline is not the only thing that is dark and gloomy about this film, the fight scenes are set in the most feeble of places.
Von Doom in the beginning first seems intimidating but that is all killed off sooner than one can say doom. Even when he wakes up as a villain his character lacks that evilness and self-centered attitude that makes one a villain. Instead he comes off as a puny guy with an ugly mask and the ability to zap things and fly.
One would definitely not be inspired by watching this film. The only thing I was inspired to come up with is what I deem is a more suitable tag line for the film.
“Beyond darkness, beyond fear, lays the Fantastic Four waiting to throw egg on your face.” There is no change here, no action, no suspense, no excitement. Well if there is, it’s for the worse.
Like many other directors and screenwriters the guys behind this film got lost in translation and gave viewers nothing but a ‘fantastic flop’. It takes way too long to get you interested. The new ‘Fantastic Four’ is nothing but a deplorable attempt at making a winning recipe into something that it can never be. Caution to the viewer, watch at your own risk.