I know, I am really late in seeing this movie. When it first came out I was slightly hopeful that it would be good because of the director, but after reading some initial reviews, that hope quickly diminished.
Anyways, I decided to watch it last night. Wow. It was pretty terrible.
I think the story was loosely taken from the Ultimate Fantastic Four series. For those that do not know, the Ultimate line was a retelling of classic Marvel characters, but with a more modern spin. A bunch of the Marvel movies used the Ultimate series as a way to tell the origins of characters since they were no longer set in the 1960s and a bit silly. I actually enjoyed the beginning of the movie with Reed and Ben building a teleporter in his garage. I liked the whole science fair thing and the teacher saying that it was not a magic show. After that though, there was not much else to like.
How sad is it that the version from a decade ago was actually better? Hell, even the sequel was better. One of the major problems with any of these films has been Dr. Doom. The movies just cannot capture him as a villain. In this movie, his suit has fused to his body and his powers are…telekinesis? In the last movies his powers were electrical. Doom is much more than that though and I honestly do not have the time to get into the complexity of the character. I highly suggest reading Mark Waid’s “Unthinkable” arc to get a really good idea of Doom.
Another problem with this movie was the length. Normally people complain about these movies being too long, but this one had the opposite problem. The majority of the movie was the group building the teleporter. After that they practiced using their powers, then capture Reed. And then build another teleporter and fight Doom for like five minutes. End of movie. Fox really just needs to allow Marvel to incorporate the Fantastic Four into the MCU. They would not even need a retelling or anything. Just introduce them with a quick line from Tony Stark in another movie like “there are a group of scientists in New York who experienced some major changes. I think there are four of them. Fantastic.” Or something, I am not a screenwriter. Nor am I giving away good lines for free. After that, in another movie you can have the FF show up to help save the day against someone like Thanos.
So, in conclusion…this movie sucks. Do not bother watching it.
