Fantastic Four – 1/5 – Movie Reviews by Ry!

Fantastic Four – 1/5 – There is one thought that came to mind watching this film; and that is consistency.  No matter what genre, topic or fictional tale a film goes into; it’s consistency that brings it all into perfect harmony.  Not every film is perfect, but there is still enjoyment to be had if it has that consistency.  When that happens, a film stays on topic, paces well, and has a relevant tone with strong attachment to the characters.  In short, Fantastic Four wastes its potential and becomes something else entirely.  This is a film that will disappoint everyone.

Premise:  Four young individuals travel to another dimension, which leads to dire consequences. With a changes to there physical structure in  shocking ways, they must use their abilities before the Earth is destroyed by a former ally.

For a list of the actors/actresses in the film, you can refer to the IMDB page.  As an overall explanation, the acting is wooden, inconsistent and bland.  The characters are built on archetypes and do nothing more to branch from those types.  This causes characters that are cheesy, predictable and uneventful.   There is a ‘sense’ to create some kind of relevancy in the beginning, but the film decides to leave it all unexplained in hopes that the audience would be fooled by pizzazz, flash and hollow storytelling.  The ‘budding’ friendship between Reed Richards and Ben Grimm is the only thing worth mentioning, as this (for at least the first act of the film) is the only ‘real’ development of any relationship in the film.  The acting is a failure on a grand scale.

This film is a perfect example of unfocused transition because the direction is fragmented beyond comprehension.  Watching this, you realize scenes come and go out of nowhere without explanation as well as relationships/storylines are forced down our throat.  Along with this, the pacing is all over the place.  I will go into detail as explained within the three acts:

First Act: Introduction to the characters with some back story, the Baxter Foundation and bringing the ‘four’ together and Victor Von Doom.  Within the intro there’s some forced exposition of the dimensional travel, intellectual dialogue and romance/archetype divisions of the characters.

Second Act: Flipping of the script with linear/forced plot progression in convenient storytelling (A to B scenario); clashing of unfocused tones and themes.  The ‘incident'(powers given) happens.   After the incident, there’s forced/unexplained subplots mixed with some montage of the ‘team’s’ powers.  This leads to cheesy dialogue, cliché plot device of the military involvement and one-dimensional protagonist(s) and antagonist.

Third Act: Hollow experience with terrible CGI set-pieces, standard action of ‘good vs. evil’ and the common ‘end of the world’ scenario.  The climax boils down to a predictable showdown, with simple dialogue, forced situations and an ‘origin’ team scenario.

There is a lot of potential in the beginning of this film.  With the back story of Reed Richards, his friendship with Grimm and him coming to work at The Baxter Building, there is a lot of chances this film could have taken to have been good, if not even great within the ‘vision’ that’s built upon the surface.  The film flips on itself and strays onto a path of deep simplification.  The characters become wooden/one dimensional as the plot weaves between unexplained and forced circumstances.  This leads to an experience that is hollow, mind numbing and most of all, disappointing.  This disappointment comes from the ‘potential’ of the characters, story and relevant ideas that were presented in the first act that get pushed aside for the rest of the film.  The film rolls downhill so fast, that once you get to the climax you really just want to walk out of the theaters.  By the end, you realize there isn’t any care about consistency as there is a rush to conclude this mess of a story.

The visuals had a chance to be a redeeming part of the film, but it boils down to a lot of unfinished CGI within the characters and set pieces; minus Ben Grimm’s The Thing.  The score is standard for a comic book/action film.  What is consider ‘standard’ for the music is emphasis on a ‘resound-like’ effect.  It surrounds you and add emphasize on the action or quick sequences.

Fantastic Four is what you would call a terrible experience at the theater.  There is no real reason to go see this film (even if you’re a fan of Marvel, comic books or these characters).  The slight potential this film has gets wasted after the first twenty minutes.  Don’t go watch this film, save your money for something better.