Fantastic Four
Year: 2005
Director: Tim Story
Starring: Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd & Julian McMahon
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 25/04/23
Director: Tim Story
Starring: Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd & Julian McMahon
Runtime: 106 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 25/04/23
Following the success of the first two X-Men and Spider-Man films in the early 00’s, the superhero genre was set to burst in the mid-00’s with a whole bunch of Marvel’s catalogue of heroes set to hit the big screen. Few prospects were as exciting as 2005’s Fantastic Four. One of the most popular Marvel properties, fans were hopeful that director Tim Story would be able to replicate the success that had been seen with Bryan Singer’s X-Men films, now that it had been proven that a team-up formula can work if approached from the right angle. With all eyes on Marvel’s first family, it was tough to look away when it all came together in a car crash of a film.
Bankrupt and in desperate need of funding, Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruddudd) and his friend Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) turn to their rival, Dr. Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) to fund their research into cosmic energy. Victor agrees which sees the launch of a space expedition led by Reed. Along for the ride are Victor, Ben, Reed’s ex-girlfriend Susan Storm (Jessica Alba), and her brother Johnny (Chris Evans).
When they’re all exposed to a cloud of cosmic energy their DNA is altered, giving each other them unique powers. As they learn to harness their powers, and repair their strained relationships, they become media sensations and Doom begins to lose his mind.
Bankrupt and in desperate need of funding, Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruddudd) and his friend Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) turn to their rival, Dr. Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) to fund their research into cosmic energy. Victor agrees which sees the launch of a space expedition led by Reed. Along for the ride are Victor, Ben, Reed’s ex-girlfriend Susan Storm (Jessica Alba), and her brother Johnny (Chris Evans).
When they’re all exposed to a cloud of cosmic energy their DNA is altered, giving each other them unique powers. As they learn to harness their powers, and repair their strained relationships, they become media sensations and Doom begins to lose his mind.
Fantastic Four feels like a B-movie that’s been given the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster. The story is threadbare and moves at a million miles per hour as it struggles to give each member of the team sufficient screentime. The entire story hinges around each member trying to understand how to control their powers, bot none of them actually every try to learn how to do that, they just suddenly work it out when the plot calls for it.
The majority of the film is spent on Ben struggling to come to terms with his physical transformation which Johnny dubs, ‘The Thing’. Made entirely of rock, Ben strikes fear into anyone who looks at him, and given his short temper, this means Ben often flies off the handle (usually because of Johnny) leaving Reed and Susan to fix it. When the story doesn’t focus on Ben, it tries to put Reed and Susan’s rocky relationship under the microscope, but it never gets more than skin deep, leading to a resolution that feels crowbarred in and unearned.
Victor gets worrying little development considering the amount of screentime he has. I know this is based on existing material, but literally the first shot of the guy is him bathed in shadow at the end of a long boardroom table with a monolithic metal V above his head, this is show immediately after Reed refers to him as Victor Von Doom in the most sinister way he possibly could. I mean, a child could have written something better than this. As the film goes on his motivations are confusing and vague as to why he wants the ‘Fantastic Four’ out of the picture, which means the moment the third act rolls around he dons a metal mask and hooded robe and just decides to fight them in the middle of the street. I’m writing this directly after the credits started to roll and I’m struggling to remember what actually happened in the film, that’s how bland and uninspired the whole thing is.
None of the performances are good. They all sound so melodramatic, and the way the dialogue is written makes it sound so forced that they’d feel better situated in a telenovela than an action movie. Evans provides the slightest sliver of comedy every now and again, but most of the time he’s just an arrogant jerk. It’s tough to care about the story when all of the characters are this unlikable.
Fantastic Four is garbage, plain and simple. It attempts to slot itself into the same market as X-Men and Spider-Man without any of the charm, ingenuity, or talent it took to make those films possible. It’s entirely forgettable, and the few action sequences that do appear are completely unfulfilling. There are, surprisingly, worse superhero films out there, but rest assured that this is definitely one of the worst superhero films of the 00’s. Perhaps the Human Torch should just burn it and we can all promptly forget it ever existed.
The majority of the film is spent on Ben struggling to come to terms with his physical transformation which Johnny dubs, ‘The Thing’. Made entirely of rock, Ben strikes fear into anyone who looks at him, and given his short temper, this means Ben often flies off the handle (usually because of Johnny) leaving Reed and Susan to fix it. When the story doesn’t focus on Ben, it tries to put Reed and Susan’s rocky relationship under the microscope, but it never gets more than skin deep, leading to a resolution that feels crowbarred in and unearned.
Victor gets worrying little development considering the amount of screentime he has. I know this is based on existing material, but literally the first shot of the guy is him bathed in shadow at the end of a long boardroom table with a monolithic metal V above his head, this is show immediately after Reed refers to him as Victor Von Doom in the most sinister way he possibly could. I mean, a child could have written something better than this. As the film goes on his motivations are confusing and vague as to why he wants the ‘Fantastic Four’ out of the picture, which means the moment the third act rolls around he dons a metal mask and hooded robe and just decides to fight them in the middle of the street. I’m writing this directly after the credits started to roll and I’m struggling to remember what actually happened in the film, that’s how bland and uninspired the whole thing is.
None of the performances are good. They all sound so melodramatic, and the way the dialogue is written makes it sound so forced that they’d feel better situated in a telenovela than an action movie. Evans provides the slightest sliver of comedy every now and again, but most of the time he’s just an arrogant jerk. It’s tough to care about the story when all of the characters are this unlikable.
Fantastic Four is garbage, plain and simple. It attempts to slot itself into the same market as X-Men and Spider-Man without any of the charm, ingenuity, or talent it took to make those films possible. It’s entirely forgettable, and the few action sequences that do appear are completely unfulfilling. There are, surprisingly, worse superhero films out there, but rest assured that this is definitely one of the worst superhero films of the 00’s. Perhaps the Human Torch should just burn it and we can all promptly forget it ever existed.