FANTASTIC FOUR DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: THE FANTASTIC FOUR make a triumphant return with Marvel's next generation of heroes - four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate universe, their physical forms altered in shocking ways. Their lives changed forever, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm must harness their incredible new powers and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy, the infamous Dr Doom.

MOVIE REVIEW:

Except for the X-men franchise, Fox is known for messing up practically every Marvel property it owned. From Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil to Gavin Hood’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine to this huge disaster called Fantastic 4.   

It all started pretty well with Fox intending to reboot the Fantastic 4 property before Marvel takes it back and the hiring of Josh Trank coming off the success of Chronicle, an original indie superhero movie which was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful.  Then rumors start to swirl when there wasn’t much publicity despite being a tentpole title. Before you even know it, the bomb has exploded.

Before we actually thrashed the entire affair, Trank’s version (or whatever is left of it) of the renowned comic property has an overall grounded feel. The science sounds legitimate enough, the tone far more serious than the Tim Story’s versions and factor in the slightly improved CGI, this could be at least a bearable summer flick.

Unfortunately, the finished product is one hell of a disheveled event. The main characters lack an emotional arc, there is no joy or humour for a Marvel related movie and most obviously, the story is made up of last minute script revisions and reshoots. And for a US$120 million production, they can’t even afford much of a location shooting and instead alternating the story between labs, more labs and a CGI conceived Planet Zero.

For an origin story, the introduction of the various characters is simply awful. Okay so Reed Richard (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) are childhood friends who manage to invent a teleporter and are talent spotted by a Professor Franklin Storm (Reg E Cathey) who conveniently has an adopted white daughter, Sue Storm (Katie Mara) and a rebellious son, Johnny (Michael B. Jordan). Not forgetting Franklin also has a weird problematic protégé, Victor vom Doom (Toby Kebbell). Somehow, these guys manage to teleport themselves to a strange planet, stumbled upon some green goo and equipped themselves with all sorts of funny powers on the way back. As to what and why Sue, Johnny and Ben continue to work with the United States military after the freak incident remains a mystery. And why on earth did Reed ran away for half of the movie is baffling. Why it took almost an entire movie duration for Doom to return and wreck havoc on earth is laughable.

Of course, we will never get to see the fantastic version of the movie which Trank claimed has made. Maybe it’s time to hand over Reed Richards back to Marvel or chose what Sony did, just work with the guys who has made so much money out of one Avengers. Catch this only to know what the whole world is fussing about.  

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Powering Up: Superpowers of the Fantastic Four is an informative 19 minutes segment that talks about the visual effects and designing of the costumes. Also included is a Concept Art gallery. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

The entire move looks bleak and dark but I guess this is intended. Color grading didn’t spoil much of the viewing experience while the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack certainly engulf the audience with its wide range of sonic sound effects. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee