Fantastic Four had all the requirements to become an iconic reboot of the legendary superhero group from Marvel Comics but instead, it ended up as a calamity.

The original Fantastic Four movies '€” Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) '€” had received some harsh criticism in their days. The current reboot from 20th Century Fox was supposed to be some kind of retribution and the things on paper for the movie looked so promising.

The reboot features Miles Teller as Reed Richards or Mr. Fantastic. Teller, as we all know, is one of the best young actors of his generation. His performance in the highly acclaimed Whiplash gave him cult status. He is not one of the best looking actors out there but he can definitely act and bring any type of character to life.

To support Teller, Fox brought in Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm or The Human Torch, Kate Mara as Susan Storm or Invisible Girl, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm or The Thing and Toby Kebbell to play the main antagonist Victor von Doom.

These young stars have all been known for their acting credentials in highly critically acclaimed movies, whether from small independent studios or big ones.

This five star cast played under the direction of 31-year-old Josh Trank, who had also received critical acclaim for his directional debut in Chronicle, a science fiction thriller, in 2012.

With this line up of young and upcoming superstars and crew, it is fair to say that the general audience and Marvel fans had high expectations for the Fantastic Four reboot.

The reboot could have been a movie that stands vis-a-vis with Disney Studio'€™s Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the finest superhero movies of all time. Considering the fact that Fantastic Four'€™s franchise rights belong to a studio that is not concerned too much with family friendly entertainment like Disney, the movie could have even included a much needed edginess to appeal to an older audience and Marvel fans.

But that was not what happened. The reboot was an utter failure that made the original Fantastic Four movies even better than the reboot.

The original movies, no matter how bad they were, had a proper narrative structure. The narrative was equally divided between a beginning, middle and end. The reboot, however, has no structural sense whatsoever.

The new Fantastic Four tries to give an interesting twist by telling the story of the superhero group from a different perspective and angle than that of the comic book. Here, Trank introduces the main characters '€” Reed, Susan, Johnny and Ben '€” during their teenage years. In the comic book, traditionally, the Fantastic Four members all obtain their superpowers during their adult years.

Reed along with his best friend, Ben, manage to create a homemade teleporting machine and almost blow up their high school during a science fair demonstration. Although they are disqualified from the fair, a top scientist by the name of Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his adopted daughter, Susan, is impressed with Reed'€™s invention and offer him a scholarship and all the facilities needed to build a functioning teleporter to another dimension.

Reed, with the help of Susan, Johnny and Victor, needless to say, successfully build the teleporter. They are, however, disappointed by the fact that NASA astronomers would be the first one to use it to visit another dimension.

To ease the disappointment, the boys decide to get drunk and in this tipsy condition, they decide to invite Ben and use the teleporter themselves and things go wrong, especially for Victor who is somehow swallowed by a greenish lava in the other dimension.

After the massive accident during their unauthorized trip to another dimension, the boys and Susan, who also suffers from radiation in the other dimension when the boys return, become freaks of nature.

Reed can now stretch his limbs, Susan can turn invisible and create force fields, Johnny can ignite his body in flames and while Ben suffers the worst mutation of them all by becoming a gigantic pile of stones in humanoid form.

To get to this point, Trank consumes almost an entire half of the running time. Despite this massive amount of time used to introduce characters and their relationships, there are no dynamics or strong emotions expressed or conveyed by the actors. They all act as if they just want to finish a scene as soon as possible and get the hell off the screen.

When even talented young actors can be so boring, you can imagine what happens with the older ones. Franklin is a movie character that deserves to be taken out due to his endless collection of lame clichés, such as '€œunited we are strong'€.

The man, who is supposedly playing a core role in bridging the dynamics between Reed, Susan and John, ends up as a character that can only turn heads because he has a funny shaped forehead.

The pace of the movie does not even pick up after the main characters get their superpowers. The action and fight choreography look as if they were taken from a cheap B martial arts movie from the 1980s. The action goes further downhill and finally hits rock bottom in the final battle with Dr. Doom, which is supposed to be the climax of any superhero movie.

Fantastic Four, now in theaters, teaches all of us one thing '€” even the most promising lineup of Hollywood talent can disappoint.

Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox

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Fantastic Four (20th Century Fox, minutes)
Directed by Josh Trank
Cast: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey

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