Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 3/10
Cast: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson, Dan Castellaneta, Owen Judge, Evan Hannemann, Chet Hanks, Mary-Pat Green, Tim Heidecker, Mary Rachel Dudley.
Someone, somewhere owes many cinema goers and fans of the Fantastic Four one big apology for what can only be described as a detailed examination of how not to bring comic book heroes to life. If the apology isn’t forthcoming, it can only be down to the fact that many who were involved in the project will have conveniently forgotten their involvement very quickly.
With the exception of Toby Kebbell’s portrayal of Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom none of the characters really captured the imagination in the way that the Tim Story directed 2005 version was able to do. For the “first family” of Marvel, for the title that brought Stan Lee and Jack Kirby so much success and pushed them into making Marvel the comic powerhouse that it is today, this particular version is unarguably the worst of all the film adaptations of their heroes ever made.
The film is cluttered with semi-brave but failed and jaded attempts to give a 21st Century origins story and adventure that resonates with that of Captain America, The Avengers, Iron Man and even the much maligned Daredevil film of 2003, brave but in the end one that doesn’t give any credit to the fifty plus years already set down and in the end makes for the type of viewing that was best left back in the days when Spider-Man crawled the walls in Los Angeles in the 1978 film or when the much missed Christopher Reeve saved the day as Superman.
To see the superb Miles Teller go from the intense and driven in one of the finest films in the last 12 months in Whiplash to taking on the role as Reed Richards and giving him the quality of a scared coward is one thing but to imagine the impossible of Jamie Bell being given the job as Ben Grimm/The Thing is something that not even the great Jack Kirby would have dared bring to the table for a meeting with Stan Lee over lunch one day anywhere on 50th Street.
The big problem with the film is there is no heart, there is no chemistry between any of the major stars and the belief of capturing such family dynamic is completely lost and the friendships formed and stretched between them is non-existent.
There are better films to find yourself sighing with impatience during, it seems unfair to give it all to this particular version of The Fantastic Four and yet the impatience builds and the thought of days when the 2005 version at least entertained and had the desired comic effect are met with halcyon reprisals.
The Fantastic Four? Not even remotely!
Ian D. Hall