Fantastic Four (2015) User Reviews

Fantastic Flop

[bartonj2410 · 3/10 · 5 August 2015]

Over the last decade, we have seen a number of superhero movies get a much needed reboot. After the atrocious Batman & Robin, Batman was brilliantly brought back to the big screen in Batman Begins. When the Spider-Man franchise hit an embarrassing rock bottom with Spider-Man 3, it was reinvigorated with the very likable The Amazing Spider-Man.

Eight years on from the dud that was Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and it's time that Marvel's first family got a reboot. With a lot of rumours flying around about trouble on set and the studio not seeming to have total confidence in their product, could 2015's Fantastic Four do these iconic comic-book characters justice?

Reed Richards (Miles Teller) is a brilliant young scientist on the verge of discovering how to both transport matter to another dimension and bring it back. Recruited by Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey), Reed is given the resources and help, in the form of Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), to to finish what he started in his younger years.

When they finally crack inter-dimensional travel, Reed invites his childhood friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) to travel to another world along with him and his team. An accident causes their physical form to drastically change. Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben must learn to harness their powers and work as a team to stop Victor, who is hell bent on destroying Earth.

The one thing that stood out to me about Fantastic Four is just how unbelievably dull it is. For characters who have such a rich and colourful history in the comics, this really is a pretty drab affair. The film only has a 100 minute runtime however, it feels much longer, dragging its feet and feeling very tired right from the very start.

When a superhero movie gets less exciting after they get their powers, something is very very wrong.

I had some hope for this film and one of the main reason was down to the fact that Josh Trank was sat in the director's chair. Trank hit the big time with Chronicle, a film that combined the superhero genre with found footage. I can't express just how disappointed I am with Trank because everything about Fantastic Four is just so sloppy.

The story is weak, the script is cringeworthy and the special effects are average at best. It all culminates in one of the most boring finales you will ever witness in a superhero movie. Compared to what else you see happen in other superhero movies these days, it all looks and feels amateur.

Then there are the performances. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell are all young actors who have the world at their feet. They have each impressed in their own way prior to Fantastic Four but every single one of them has the range of the cast in Tim Story's Fantastic Four films and waste their talents in Trank's reboot.

Fantastic Four is a film very much out of time and place in today's market of superhero movies. Ten or fifteen years ago a studio might have been able to get away with it but not today. Audiences like to be entertained and with the competition offering much more excitement, I don't see audiences taking to this, at all.

Really awful reboot of the superhero series...

[AlsExGal · 3/10 · 22 December 2022]

... about the first family of Marvel Comics. A lot of the story lines and characters have been switched around "for a modern sensibility". Teenage genius Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and his high school buddy Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) build a working inter-dimensional matter transporter, which naturally brings them to the attention of Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his super-science team, who are attempting to do the same thing but on a larger scale.

Reed is brought into the research team, joining Storm's adoptive genius daughter Sue (Kate Mara) and hot-headed son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), as well as brooding genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell). Reed, Ben, Johnny and Victor use the transporter to travel to the other dimension, where things go wrong, Victor is lost, and the others are brought back changed (Sue is also altered upon the return of the others). From here the story gets bad really quickly, as the government takes them captive, and some go on the run, and others fight with the army.

Suffice it to say, that as bad as the previous film adaptation went, this is much worse, and fails to get a single aspect of the story or the characters right, or even makes an interesting or compelling film for those who don't know the comic book backstory. This flopped hard at the box office, and plans for a series were thankfully scrapped. Also featuring Tim Blake Nelson. Directed by Josh Trank, although many stories of behind-the-scenes chaos and extensive re-shoots draw into question how much was done by whom. From 20th Century Fox.

An empty plot and nonexistent character development make this reboot of Marvel's iconic superhero quartet a pointless exercise in ignominy

[moviexclusive · 4/10 · 6 August 2015]

Just because you can do it doesn't mean that you should – and this wholly unnecessary and woefully terrible reboot of Marvel's most famous superteam is proof of that axiom. Say what you may about Tim Story's earlier cinematic adaptations, but as generic and middling as they were, they were at the very least entertaining. Unfortunately, the same cannot even be said of Josh Trank's back-to- basics origin story, which plays like a humourless retread of his debut film 'Chronicle' but on a bigger budget – and lest there be any doubt, it is far, far from fantastic.

Not that it doesn't demonstrate such promise; the first act which establishes the friendship between the visionary Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and his tough-guy longtime best pal Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) as well as the team dynamics between Reed and the other members of his research team – the equally brilliant Sue (Kate Mara), her hot- headed younger brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan), and malcontent genius Victor Von Doom (Toby Kibbell) – capably lay the foundation for what could have been a character-driven drama based on their clashing personalities. Indeed, after the boys sans Sue decide on a whim following a night of intoxication to put their teleporting machine to the test, how they respond to their newfound super-powers individually and as a team should be an organic evolution from how they were before.

Alas, Trank, who co-wrote the screenplay with 'X-Men' veteran Simon Kinberg and Jeremy Slater, doesn't quite know where to go from there. Rather than setting them on a course that would follow the perennial 'X-Men' theme of inclusiveness versus insularity against the rest of society, our teenage super-heroes are pretty much seen only in an isolated military facility where they are trained and from which they are deployed on covert operations overseas. While Johnny relishes the opportunity to be different, powerful and useful for once in his life, Sue and Ben are not quite so sanguine and participate insofar as there remains a possibility that the Government's research on them would yield some way of reversing their abnormalities. In the meantime, Reed has vanished off the grid, while Victor is presumed dead on the planet they had landed up on in the other dimension.

One senses a conscious decision on the part of Trank to eschew the usual superheroics seen in the recent profusion of Marvel and to a lesser extent DC comic book adaptations, but the middle act drags precisely because Trank never quite finds a compelling substitute. Johnny's potential conflict with Sue and Ben over the Government's exploitation of their super-powers never amounts to anything more than a playground squabble. The estrangement between Johnny and his father (Reg E. Cathey), whose Baxter Institute had overseen the ill- fated project, is under-cooked. And last but not least, Reed's guilt over his teammates' fates as well as his strained friendship with Ben seem to vanish as quickly as he is apprehended and brought back to the facility to aid them in version 2.0 of the same project.

Trank's intention of emphasising the tension within the quartet is evident and admirable, but is ultimately undone by a script that doesn't develop it in any substantive manner. Worse still, it leaves an audience looking for visual spectacle severely wanting, that not even a very busy third act manages to salvage. Doom makes an unsurprising return here as their common enemy, driven by a fusion of body and alien matter to cause global destruction and around whose defeat to ensure the survival of planet Earth becomes a rallying call for the team to unite despite their differences. It is one of the dullest and most unexciting finales we've seen in a Marvel movie, not least for the fact that it doesn't know how to collectively bring together their superpowers except in a tag-team fashion to distract their opponent.

It is also on the whole one of the ugliest comic book movies we've ever seen. The planet from which the quartet gain their powers is a barren rocky wasteland that has no character or distinction whatsoever, shrouded perpetually with thick grey clouds and given the even more nondescript name of 'Zero'. The energy that gives them their abilities appears as some slimy green goo that belongs entirely in a C-grade Syfy TV movie, while their powers – whether Reed's rubber limbs or Sue's telekinesis or Johnny's pyrotechnics or Ben's rock-covered body – look equally cheesy. It is no wonder too that the eventual showdown, which takes place almost entirely on the planet surface of 'Zero', doesn't play out any much better against such a bland setting, coming off even worse than any of the action scenes in its predecessors.

And certainly, this reboot is in no way better than Tim Story's earlier adaptations, no matter of its ambition of being a darker and more character-driven superhero piece. 'Chronicle' may have been a perfect calling card for Trank, but 'Fantastic Four' shows a young, inexperienced director completely out of his depth, absolutely justifying the advance bad buzz it had spent months battling. It is utterly embarrassing that a film about Marvel's most enduring creations is no better than a live-action 'Power Rangers' movie, but that's exactly the ignominy that this misconceived and badly executed excuse of a superhero movie has wrought.

As is typical with such origin stories, this one ends with the quartet 'stumbling' on their title as they admire their new home in Central City and reflecting on how far they have come. Ben aka the Thing describes their journey as "fantastic"; we're not entirely sure anyone of their audience shares the same sentiment.

That's all?

[gcharles-01612 · 1/10 · 16 December 2018]

I was waiting for something to happen and then the movie was over.

Very disappointing

[0U · 24 February 2020]

Unfortunately for everyone involved and especially the audience, the creators of this reboot had no idea what the F4 stand for, or what their stories should be about. This is rather dark, without charm or humor and totally ruins one of the greatest villains of Marvel comics. sure, the special effects are decent and there is potential for a somewhat good film here or there but the stereotypes and lack of an intriguing plot entirely ruin any chance of a redeeming movie experience. Very disappointing.

Offensively bad

[michaeljpfitzgerald · 1/10 · 6 August 2016]

I don't think you can make a movie like this unless you really, truly dislike the content - and harbor a great deal of enmity towards anyone who might like it. The effort necessary to get everything wrong, to miss every beat, to offend every memory that someone might have that would inspire them to go risk *another* attempt at this franchise; that has to come from a place of real disgust, I think.

What is amazing is how regularly that kind of pointed loathing seems to be given the reigns of properties that an audience really cares about.

Aside from the deep spiritual mistreatment - which is difficult, given how weird and wobbly the Fantastic Four are, to begin with - the pacing is poisonous, with the bulk of the film dedicated to what feels like an attempt at an involved origin story, but where the characters aren't really given anything to do, or to care about. In an attempt to avoid being explicit with motivations, I think, the characters instead limp around under the shadow of intentions - maybe Johnny is upset with his dad? Maybe Ben is looking for purpose? It's possible Richards spent his time in exile trying to help his friends? It's hard to say - better filmmaking could have answered these questions subtly. It didn't happen here.

This is a joyless, uninteresting movie, with a cast that looked like they were waiting for something else to start, and I don't understand how they could spend all that money on a movie that looks this bad - designs, to sets, special effects; it's all incredibly dated and generic. One of the worst movies I've ever watched.

A pointless reboot which fails to improve on the original film in almost every manner possible

[jimbo-53-186511 · 1/10 · 23 June 2016]

Based on a scientific project that Reed Richards (Miles Teller) has been developing (which can transfer matter from one dimension to another) the Fantastic Four use themselves as Guinea Pigs in order to transfer themselves to another dimension (in the belief that there is something in this other worldly dimension that will benefit their own planet). However, something goes wrong for our foursome during the transportation process and they end up with drastic physical transformations (some which are much more noticeable than others). Worse still, they tried and failed to save Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) and leave him behind believing him to be dead. Later on, a team go back to the other dimension and discover that Victor is still alive and bring him back to Earth in order to assess his condition. But Victor has no intention of staying on Earth and is determined to create a new world in this other dimension and will stop at nothing to achieve his objective. Victor has also suffered a physical transformation, but he has become much stronger and more powerful than his former friends and the Fantastic Four find that they must work together to try to stop him from carrying out his evil plans.

The film opens up with some promise whereby we're given an insight into how our illustrious foursome ended up becoming the formidable team that we saw in the earlier films. Despite a fairly promising beginning though this reboot completely fails to bring about a lot of the magic that we witnessed in the 2005 version of this film.

A big problem for me lay with the tone of the film; firstly it takes itself WAY too seriously and as a result it made the film quite boring to watch. When watching this it felt like I was watching a science documentary (with all its wordy geeky exposition) rather than what should be a fun comic book type movie. This brings me on to my next point 'What fun'? In the 2005 film (and the 2007 film as well) there was much more in the way of camaraderie between the cast making the film much more fun to watch. As a villain Von Doom isn't particularly well-developed here and I felt his motivations for world-domination were a little sketchy here - I criticised Von Doom's motivations in the original film, but compared to his motivations here they now seem more plausible in retrospect.

I appreciate that this is a reboot and therefore the filmmaker's are trying to put their own stamp on things (presumably that explains why Johnny Storm is black in this film and also explains why their powers have been attained in a different manner to the original film). The problem with this reboot is that they've failed to do anything to improve on the original film; the story isn't as interesting, the characters are much weaker and are poorly developed, there is no real exploration of their super powers (this was a big thing in the previous films and made sense as they were a big life-changing aspect for the foursome), but here they just kind of have the super powers and then that's it - off to destroy Victor Von Doom. The only real super power that is explored is that of The Thing and even that super power is exploited in a rather lame way.

The cast are another big problem with this film as they totally failed to engage with me (as well as each other); Miles Teller is really bland as Reed Richards (even more bland than Ioan Gruffudd was in the original films) which is surprising as he put in a very good performance in Whiplash 2 years ago. Kate Mara is very pretty, but she's terrible in this film (again probably worse than Alba was in the original films). Michael B Jordan tries his best as Johnny Storm, but he lacks the charisma that Evans brought to the role in the original films and as a result suffers badly in comparison. The Thing for me is probably the best character in the film, but he lacks the touching back story that we lay witness to in the original film and again suffers from not being developed sufficiently enough to make me really care about him here.

The ending is also poor and lacks any kind of intensity and tension and has the Fantastic Four doing 'the obvious' to wrap the film up.

All in all it's a very disappointing film where the serious tone is perhaps a bigger enemy to the film than Doctor Doom. It's big and bloated, but it's also boring, and lacking in both fun and imagination. I'd recommend giving it a wide berth.

FANTASTIC FLOP

[MadamWarden · 1/10 · 9 July 2020]

What a waste of money and CGI. Awful plot, zero character development, no chemistry between characters, zero humour, stupid stupid script. Don't waste your time!

Nothing really happened in this movie.

[mahmus · 2/10 · 31 March 2021]

They go to another dimention, they get their powers, then Doctor Doom shows up, they fight him and it's over. There's practically nothing else.

We never see them learn to use their powers, we never see them getting to know each other, we rarely see the four together for most of the movie. All of that is skipped. We're told it happened, but we never see it, only glimpses of it in the backround.

There's some good scenes. The cast is good. The effects are good. It is composed of scenes that belong in a good movie, but lacks all of the esential pieces to make it a good movie. The end result is just really bland and boring. It's not even worth getting mad about; It's just kinda sad.

Exactly what Fantastic Four is Scientist/Explorers

[mikalmoore-52642 · 7/10 · 6 August 2015]

It has a great story capturing all of the members of the Fantastic 4 as a person. They show their Love of science (Victor Von Doom, Sue Storm, Reed Richards), Recklessness (Johnny Storm), and Loyalty (Ben Grimm). While the origin story changed from them getting the power from cloud to "Planet Zero." The only knock is The ending that just kinda fell flat as they seemingly destroy Doom. At the same time seeing as they have had the sequel set for a while it did a tremendous job of setting up the next movie that will likely show a Reed-Sue Love story then. All in All a great movie that was marketed the wrong way. Trailers will have you thinking its an action movie but in fact it is a Adventure/Fantasy Movie and a very good one at that. The MAIN thing to know is that the Fantastic 4 are not the true definition of Super Heroes but more of Scientists and Adventurers.

Anything But Fantastic

[DTHCinema · 1/10 · 3 September 2016]

Fantastic Four (or as many call it Fant4stic) is a comic book movie starring Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Directed by Josh Trank, was produced by Twenty-First Century Fox, and has the run-time of 100mins (1hr40mins).

This is the 4th movie (and 3rd theatrical one) in the Fantastic Four Franchise. Now despite the hate i actually liked the last 2 movies in the franchise (Fantastic Four 2005 and Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer, please don't kill me). Now this Movie has been out for almost a year now but has still been getting much hate. To prove my point I would just like to say the movie has a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes which is tied for the worst rated superhero movie of all time. Let me just say I am NOT a professional critic, I just go to movies to have a good time(as shown with my liking of the old Fantastic Four movies) not necessarily to look for major flaws. However this movie makes that goal rather insufferable. Anyways here it is.

A lot of people give a pass to the acting simply because these actors have done good work in other movies. Personally I find this to be a terrible excuse. All of these actors such as Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller just seem like they have no soul throughout the entire movie. It's almost as if the whole time these actors had been forced into making this movie. Also the chemistry between them is just awful.

Now let's talk about the pacing. Simply put it I have no idea what they were thinking. Why would you make a Fantastic Four movie and have them do absolutely nothing the whole time except for that horrendous fight at the end. Now let me just say Superhero movies without much action can be done well (Batman, X-Men: First Class, etc.) but if your going to do that you have to having interesting conversations and a good origin story which this movie does not have in any way.

Speaking of origin stories, am I the only one who almost hated the first half as much as the second half. I mean I know a lot of people who say that the first half is pretty good and all I have to say is how. It's just a drawn out, overly dark useless story that EVERYBODY knows.

Then there's the tone, which let my question why did they think that make a dark and gritty reboot of Fantastic Four would be a good idea. Again let me just say, a darker story of a previously existing light heart movie isn't necessarily bad. But it has to have more reason then some executive saying "Hey The Dark Knight was popular let's make this just like that."

Then there's the part I was most regretting talking (or writing) about the Action and Effects. Let's get out of the way that Dr.Doom and CGI Miles Teller Face is awful. What I wanted to talk about was the action sequences (or just the 1 action sequence). To be honest it's the most cliché, predictable fight ever. Basically what happens is that Dr.Doom makes this ray thing that shoots into earth from the planet he's in and The Fantastic Four have to stop him. So they go into the other planet and try to fight off Dr.Doom separately and fail so they decide to team up and defeat him. What I hate about this fight (aside from it's predictable nature) is that the whole scene is shot in extreme darkness plus it's all out of frame so you can barely tell what's going on.

Last, I would like to quickly mention the forgettable score, the incredible amount of plot holes such as Dr.Storm going to a science fair for some reason, Dr.Doom magically making a cape, and Dr.Doom looking at people and killing them but not doing that for the Fantastic Four. Also just to say it is incredibly obvious Fox wanted to make some sort of MCU with this movie and set up an entire expanded universe around this movie when it cannot hold it's own weight as a good movie to do something like that.

Conclusion

Now as you could probably tell I do not like this movie, it has awful pacing, terrible effects,a rehashed story,and laughably bad action. While many have pointed out that Fox took over the project and made it a generic superhero movie. I agree with that but I still don't think the part that wasn't taken over was even passable. It was just Josh Trank redoing the exact same plot as the 2005 version but slower. But the worst part is that the whole movie is just a set up for more Fantastic Four movies with a set up scene every 5mins. This movie has been called by many the worst superhero movie ever and I will personally agree with that. At least Batman and Robin had an overly joking theme and never took itself seriously unlike Fant4stic which thinks it is going to be the Next Iron Man which could never happen because Iron Man actually made a good movie before setting things up. Overall i think the movie has too many problems to count such as bad pacing, no structure, and awful effects to even be close to recommending.

Rating

1/10

Unwatchable

Fantastically Misunderstood

[macdog17 · 8/10 · 11 August 2015]

I'm a little flabbergasted by the amount of chagrin this film has engendered. Going in I was expecting an unmitigated disaster comparable to "The Happening" but instead I got one of the most interesting Marvel movies released so far.

This a genuinely daring reboot, a film willing to explore the horror of having your body irreparably altered due to a terrible mistake. Pain and guilt and the reconciliation of these emotions are at the heart of this film and it's not often you can say that about a comic book adaptation.

After building what he thinks is a teleporter wunderkind Reed Richards is swiftly enlisted into the Baxter Institute by Dr. Franklin Storm after they meet at a science fair. Storm explains he has actually forged an inter-dimensional transporter and together with Storm's children, Sue and Johnny, and irascible former employee Victor they build a device that can facilitate the transportation of living matter to the new dimension.

During a drunken celebration of their achievement Victor slyly inveigles Reed and Johnny into joining him as the first human party to explore the new world. Reed calls on his old friend Ben who has supported him since they were children and together they venture forth into a planet that resembles a nascent Earth. Victor is entranced by an energy pocket and places his hand inside causing tectonic activity and eruptions. Sue realises what they are up to just in time to save them but she is caught in an explosion when they return.

What follows is a completely different take on the acquisition of "powers" than any ever before portrayed in the Marvel Universe. The doleful depiction of Ben ("The Thing") is both poignant and resonant. Reed's guilt, Sue's paranoia and Johnny's eagerness to "become" a weapon are equally jarring.

This is not a flawless film but it is memorable, no more so when Victor returns as a villain of pure monomaniacal malice. Modern cinema needs people like Josh Trank. I pray this won't be his last shot at big-budget movie-making.

Not as bad as everyone says.

[tonyrouse · 6/10 · 19 August 2015]

Fantastic Four 2015 is a good movie. Josh Trank show us a new view on Fantastic Four. This review going to be short but it contains the most important aspects. Movie wasn't bad, it was a NEW Fantastic Four and it's not as bad as everyone says. It is not a comics one at all, but it's good. One of the worse things is that Doom wasn't actually a true Dr.Doom, he was like a villain who appear as fast as he die, so I can say that there was only name of Dr.Doom. Movie was very fast. First part of the film was good, perfect, but second and third, when action starts to take place - that was too fast! 1 hour 40 minutes - it is not that time that gotta be in movie like that. Trank is a good director but must fight more for his projects. I vote 10 just because everyone think it is bad, but it's actually not. Go to the cinema and make your own opinion.

This movie is a waste of time

[suhel28 · 1/10 · 28 August 2016]

I began watching this movie with great anticipation, however, it really failed me within twenty minutes of it.

I still continued to watch it and thought that the movie would get kicked off now but the now never came.

The worst thing is that the invisible girl got her powers without going to space and that is so stupid because all my life I have been brought up seeing the girl in space and getting power, not outside of it.

More than an hour into movie and there is no action. The villain appears in the last thirty minutes, the fight lasts of 10 minutes and the movie is over.

Really a waste of time and money.

Eh how bad can it be... guess i will give it a shot....

[aznsteylez · 6 October 2016]

So I was contemplating if I should watch this a few months ago and I said no. The fantastic 4 looks like high school kids... WTH is this! It already looks horrible.

I came home from work today and wanted to watch a movie. There was nothing on so I decided eh fantastic 4. There's nothing else to watch, how bad can this be...

I just wasted 2 hours of my life I can't get back..... very disappointed.... I have never wrote a review on IMDb before, but this movie just did it for me. The 2005 movie was 10 times better than this, why would you ruin fantastic four..

Now This Is Some High Quality Crap!!!!

[isaiahwilson15 · 1/10 · 1 February 2016]

It is almost impossible to imagine that in 2015, as movie audiences experience the golden age of superhero movies that there can still be crap like this. Somehow, someway Fant4stic reaches into the depths of awful superhero movies, and takes the crown for being one of the worst superhero movies of all time. Lets start with the lack of story or even a simple plot. For starters, we really aren't even introduced to some resemblance of a plot until an hour into the movie, and even then the plot essentially boils down to Doom sucking a hole out of the earth to somehow build his own planet, which is completely bare. Considering that synopsis, I think it is almost safe to say that this movie doesn't even have a plot (or one that at least makes sense). OK so the movie doesn't have a "genuine" plot, that been the case with some other superhero movies. It should at least have some cool action scenes or provide some worthwhile visuals. Nope! I honestly can only recall maybe five minutes of some actual "action"' and even that was happening, it was absolute crap. There were multiple opportunities throughout the film to showcase their powers, especially in the scene with Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, but instead, all we are left with is crappy one-liners. Even in the last 10 minutes when we get the big battle, it ends up being a boring, uneventful, cliché, and yes crappy letdown. So we've got no story, no action, no villain (I won't even waste my time with Dr. Dumb), how about some witty dialogue or a couple of humorous scenes. Wrong again. In its attempt to be the Dark Knight of FOX superhero movies, Fant4stic is stripped of all the humor and campiness that at least made the earlier Fantastic Four movies watchable. Instead, we get a dark and surprisingly depressing film that doesn't evoke any sense of emotion from the viewer except for boredom. The jokes are laughable (except there not) and just about all the interaction between characters feels forced and inauthentic. OK. So by now you get the idea. Fant4stic is an absolute crap-shoot of a movie. A movie void of a plot, action, and OK dialogue doesn't even deserve to be called by its name, hence the Fant4stic's. It makes the earlier Fantastic Four movies look like The Avengers, and in the end, serves as an embarrassment to anyone associated with the film. And if you were wondering, yes, it is even worse than Batman & Robin. :0

Bruuutal

[wondiebar · 1/10 · 5 June 2020]

Kept waiting for it to get good. Nothing happens. Would give it a zero if I could. Casting doesn't make sense and the story line is confusing too. Just super super boring.

A Disgrace!

[shyluckjh007 · 1/10 · 4 July 2020]

Of all the comic book movies ever made, this was by far the most embarrassing. Stan Lee himself refused to appear in it, and he was the original creator. You don't even have to be a fan or familiar with the story to see all the obvious flaws. For the F4 fans, it wasn't even close to the same story. Casting wasn't thought through, the plot was too thin too often, and overall continuity was practically nonexistent. Any comic book fan can tell you what their least favorite superhero film was, but this one was just too horrible to make the "worst" list. Michael B. Jordan survived it, while everyone else should pretend they had nothing to do with making it.

Fantastic Four(2015) Review

[Spideyfan-963-246215 · 1/10 · 9 September 2016]

Fantastic Four(2015) Starring: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Tim Blake Nelson, Reg E. Cathey, Chet Hanks, and Tim Heidecker Directed By: Josh Trank Review CHANGE IS COMING. When I was a little boy around the time when I saw Spider- Man the movie from 2002 I also watched the 90s cartoon of Spider-Man on Jetex. Along with two other Marvel properties The Incredible Hulk cartoon and Fantastic Four. I was a big fan of that show I haven't seen it in a long time. But when they made the 2005 movie and I saw the trailer on the official website of the movie I got excited, saw the movie and I loved it as a kid and I still do. The sequel however the only good thing I could say for it at the time was Laurence Fishburne. I mean I know it was kind of hard to make a fantastic four movie with Galactus but ugh I just couldn't fathom what they did to him. Comic book movies are booming these days and it's a damn shame that this is the most recent entire to Marvel's first family. I like the 2005 movie but it's doesn't feel as Fantastic as the cartoon did. I have three perfect Spider-Man movies, I have five perfect Batman movie, I have four perfect Superman movies, I have three perfect X- Men movies, I have at least one perfect Hulk movie. But not one for Marvel's first family. What the hell?! Four young outsiders teleport to a dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy. They use their origins from the Ultimate line of comics and you know something Kate Mara was actually going to read the comics to learn about her character but a FOX executive said "No don't worry where going to use only the origin from the ultimate line, not any of the character aspect" yeah actors who want to be in comic book movies if a studio executive says that to you get out of the project because they're not like Kevin Feige where they are a walking encyclopedia on Marvel or a person who gives a crap about the movie, if they don't care why should you. In this movie their is a scene where Reed Richards one of the smartest minds in the Marvel universe who while may take an obsession in his work abandons Ben, Sue, and Johnny in the facility where they are being kept. Reed would never do that especially to Sue or Ben! Victor Von Doom one of Marvels most feared and powerful villains looks like absolute crap! His character is absolutely horrible as well he's an emo punk who's a stalker for Sue. But the thing that really grinds about this movie is the one thing that they had in the Tim Story movies they completely ignored in this film, do you want to know what makes the Fantastic Four standout in the Marvel universe aside from their villains, forget their villains for a minute, the most important thing they forgot about the fantastic four is............. THEY ARE A FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SCREW THIS MOVIE,IT IS THE WORST COMIC BOOK MOVIE AND ADAPTION I HAVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE!!!!!!

fantastic four = fantastic bore

[mman69 · 2/10 · 5 August 2015]

Terrible movie as previous reviewer writes the pacing is all wrong the characters are bleh you don't feel any attachment to them with them creating no chemistry.The middle section of the movie is drawn out while the climax feels rushed like the director went gosh where running out of time quick rap it up. After the recent awesome avenger movies and the Thors this felt like some hacked together 1990s offering.The story has so many gaps in it with supposedly super smart scientist doing super stupid things and Miles Teller playing Mr Fantastic is just a terrible choice he has no screen presence as a leader. Wait for DVD or what ever and let it go quietly in to the past .

Down But Definitely Not Out

[mrstagerlicious · 7/10 · 6 August 2015]

It's been 8 years since the 3rd attempt at making a Fantastic Four film, which left such a bad taste in the mouth of movie goers. Josh Trank and this new, young cast bring us back to the universe of the team. Was it too soon? That doesn't seem to be the case. Almost everything about this film tells us that they tried to separate themselves from the previous films, and I think they succeed when it comes to that. Let's take a look at differences.

New Director- Josh Trank brings us a new, grittier feel of the team we know and love. If you go into the theater expecting a fun, superhero blockbuster, then this movie will disappoint you. Trank gives us a different perspective of the team, starting them barely out of high school. From there, we take a journey into the race for successful inter-dimensional travel, and the emotional conflicts that go with it. For better or for worse, that is the main concept of the movie. Trank takes us through the lives of each and how they must intertwine to face each obstacle that lies ahead of them. Unfortunately, as soon as things start going downhill for our characters, the pace of the movie takes the same route.

New Cast- The new Fantastic Four: Miles Teller (Mr. Fantastic), Kate Mara (Invisible Woman), Michael B. Jordan (The Human Torch), and Jamie Bell (The Thing). - Miles Teller is a strong lead. As ridiculous as the script got at a few points, this kid can act his way around it, and make me buy the scene. They put a new take on the character as the boy genius, who still has a lot to learn. We see this knowledge appropriately define who he is as the movie progresses. - Kate Mara is a refreshing site to see after Jessica Alba's version of the character. this universe, she is a young scientist-to-be, that is smart. We actually see and hear her intellect. And thank you to the writers for having none of those stupid "invisible woman naked in the streets" moments. - Michael B. Jordan. This is the guy to watch in the movie industry. Every time he hit the screen, all eyes were on him. He took a poorly written scene, that coincidentally puts him with the rest of our team-to-be (earlier in the movie), and makes me believe it. - Moving on to the The Thing himself, Jamie Bell. As Ben Grimm, he has a close relationship with Reed. Their differences are astronomical, and yet it works. He was clearly not the focus of the movie, but had one of the most clear character arks. The one thing i didn't like was kind of like the Hulk in Avengers. The Hulk had trouble controlling his powers, but then conveniently could when it was needed. The problem I had here was less physical and more emotional. He spent a year hating Reed, and then all was forgiven without much effort. The script just didn't work in his favor for that part of it, but his performance was still good. - Toby Kebbell as Doctor Doom. As Victor, he was a good addition to the cast. Now real quick. When it comes to movie portrayals of characters, I am a strong believer that the writers of the movies can do what they want. It is their story. Their portrayal. If you are looking for the character from the comics, this is far from it. In the movie, he is terrifying, powerful, and mad. And though it may sound the same, its not. Just see it for your self. And when i say terrifying, I am saying to not bring your 5 year olds to this movie. They may have nightmares. It's a quick scene, but still. Doom is different, but I enjoyed it.

New Story- Keeping this part nice and short to avoid spoilers, it was interesting to say the least. As I said earlier, this is not your everyday comic book movie. This is more of a sci-fi thriller, that seemingly has hints of horror and action. The story starts out well, showing us who these characters are, and how they come to be who we know and love. The issue here, is that they built up some suspense and drama as we try to figure out what is going to become of our heroes, and I feel like it cops out from there. They would give us some tense scenes, and they would be too short. Then more poor dialogue would drag on for too long. It was kind of a tease to say the least. That same pattern would take us to the end of the film.

Conclusion: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, and their team really stood apart from the Tim Story Fantastic Four films. It was a different genre. Better cast. And there was no Mr. Fantastic dance sequence. The movie had pacing issues, and the script had quite a few weak points.

Great start. Shaky middle. Decent ending. 6.5/10

Laughably bad

[billyfriar97 · 2/10 · 6 April 2017]

This movie made the the 2005 version and its sequel look like Inception! I have rarely seen such appalling acting, terrible writing and poor storytelling all wrapped into one movie. Miles Teller, promising in Whiplash, was painful to watch and yet he still managed to be one of the better performers in this poor excuse for a movie.

We essentially see an origins story for 1 hour 25 minutes and then a 5 minute 'fight' at the end. Dr Doom was portrayed pretty terribly, not helped by the fact that we didn't see him until the movie had just 14 minutes to go. Compared to its two predecessors, which were charming, entertaining and humorous (albeit not perfect), this movie falls way, way short of every mark.

Don't see it!

What's so bad about this?

[Chiller7 · 10/10 · 8 October 2015]

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.

Not as bad as everyone is making it seem

[dustinnewman · 7/10 · 7 August 2015]

Everyone seems to be jumping on hate bandwagon so quickly. Yeah, the plot was weak and the character interaction was a bit forced. Yes, the characters themselves were not quite right (Victor Von Doom correcting Reed Richards comes to mind). And some of the CGI effects weren't the best (Sue's force field looks a bit too much like The Incredibles' version, Reed's shape shifting scene, the end battle scene, etc.) However, all that said, I don't think it deserves such a low rating and the epithet of "trash." It had an interesting semblance of direction and a unique take on the Fantastic Four beyond the typical bold superheroes angle. The addition of Johnny and Sue's father into the story definitely made the story more interesting to me than the previous movies, where I had never even thought of their father. His character was a good catalyst for the team. Overall, I think that it wasn't the best movie and that it had a lot of unseen potential in its concept stage, but that it's execution and production was a bit lacking. Not enough for its hate following, though.

Unfaithful to the original comic book.

[eyesore-87051 · 1/10 · 12 June 2016]

The movie industry is making mistake after mistake. It started with the first Spiderman movie. Parker gets unmasked apparently just to selfishly show the actor's face. So they sacrifice the secret that only the audience or reader was supposed to know. His true identity!

Then they really went off the deep end in Fantastic Four 2015. Trank was apparently PROUD he didn't follow the original comic book.

For the next FF, I think it would be good if they made the entire cast black. They could also have Sue and Johnny have an incestuous relationship while making Reed and Ben gay. I'm sure that would pack 'em in!

I seriously doubt I'll bother to go see another superhero movie. And I grew up with those comics. I used to get a kick out of them. But they've taken political correctness to the Nth degree and I'm not going to pay another dime to see any again.

This review probably won't pass the political correctness test, but that's OK. Then the industry doesn't find out about their mistakes until they go belly up. They deserve to be out of business for cranking out this kind of trash.