I went to Fantastic Four

As I was duly informed last night, as I sat in a theater that contained me (one man of approximately 30 years) and dozens and dozens of high school students on group dates at the $5 Tuesday movies, by the trailer for the remake of Point Break, a film that I am sure millions upon millions of people were clamoring to have made, "the only law that matters is gravity." I'm not sure if this is true, but whatever, sometimes it is true. More to the point, sometimes it is true as it relates to film reviews. Sometimes the initial press about a film is so bad, that no matter what actually occurs on the screen it is going to be savaged by reviewers. This rarely happens to great films (though it has), often happens to films that by cosmic justice have pre-earned such treatment, and occasionally it happens to a film that is okay but doesn't have the wherewithal to defend itself. Such is the sad tale of Fantastic Four--a film roundly being decried as an abomination unto the Lords of Light and THX. The only problem is, Fantastic Four just isn't that bad.

Yes, it does take nearly 80 minutes for Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm to becomes something like the iconic superhero team. Sure most of the film is spent in the laboratory. Yes, one can hurl phrases like "Amblin Entertainment's Marvel movie" at this film and have them stick. But you know what? There are worse things in the world. Everything that I had heard about how confusing and convoluted the plot was seemed totally overblown, it was never that difficult to understand what was happening. I did not find the characters as vapid as many reviewers had claimed, in fact I thought that Miles Teller and Kate Mara did very nice work (except in the portions that were obviously re-shoots where he seems tired, annoyed, and confused by why he is saying such blatantly expositional things). Michael B. Jordan was not given enough to do. That is rarely news though, the man should be in all the things.

Moreover, the first two acts are as fun a take on these characters as I have ever seen on screen. Director Josh Trank (who really only directed what amounted to the first 80 minutes) is on the record saying that in his mind Fantastic Four is a body horror picture in the mold of David Cronenberg. The desolate sound of Ben Grimm's voice calling for help from within his own body, and Miles Teller's horror at seeing his legs stretch for the first time, were moments as powerful and upsetting as anything I've ever seen in a superhero film.

The decision to base this new adaptation on The Ultimate Fantastic Four run of comics, where Reed Richards eventually descends into madness and becomes a super villain is a good choice. Unlike in other adaptations, the decision to take his friends to "Planet Zero" (read as, the negative zone), is not about scientific exploration, it is the decision of a drunk kid who is angry that his name is not going to go down in history as the first person to set foot on another planet. The story is better that way.

And look, I understand if you don't like this movie. It isn't smooth, the the Marvel studios productions. But you can tell that it had an idea and tried to execute it. I'd rather see this film ten times than see Iron Man 2 ever again.

Rating: 2.5 / 4

Also, does anyone else remember that this happened?