Fantastic Four

This is a film with zero ambition and it has no idea whether it wants to be a party of geeks gifted with superpowers or a comic thriller about an unexpected gift from another dimension. It’s a dramaturgically-muddled mess in which nothing works, especially the foursome itself. The origins of the heroes are referenced through futile dialogue and with zero chemistry, so it’s pretty loose, although a few heads do surprisingly explode at the end. Trank has created a movie without a face, and I only half believe all the crying over Fox's intervention. It's clear that it was heavily edited, but if a group is called the Fantastic Four... (13.08.2015)

I must say I was quite surprised by the pretty negative reviews this movie has been getting here. I didn’t think The Fantastic Four was any worse than the last Avengers movie. The fact that the plot is as silly as a pair of trousers with holes in them does not surprise me at all. That is essentially true about every other Marvel movie (or DC Comics, they’re pretty much the same) that is being made these days. But I do have to say that I liked the way they depicted other dimensions and planets. You can clearly see that some grumpy digital effects specialist really had a great time playing with those in this film. I didn’t have any problem with the actors, either. For instance, I’ve really enjoyed Miles Teller’s performances lately. I don’t need to point out that this movie is useless. In my opinion, any contemporary comic book movie is useless – they keep recycling the same things over and over again. A three-star review is adequate. What I got was superheroes, a beautiful and colorful digital world and an average villain who has his better moments. So, I got pretty much everything these movies are able to offer. You see, these movies hardly ever manage to deliver more than that. (27.10.2016)

An origin story like crazy, that could never find a favorable reception with the audience. It contains so many separate films that it remains almost untenable as a whole. In the first layer, it goes through the exploration of other worlds, in the second it explores oneself when trying to succeed in your field despite unfavorable circumstances. And in the third layer, a military dilemma is projected, and ultimately also the predictable realm of an action comic. To fit all of this into one blockbuster would take three hours, and even then it wouldn't be easy. Josh Trank attempts to master it in ninety minutes, which is complete folly, but it's so appealing to me because of the fight with the windmills. Also because he knew how to lead the viewer to the characters – primarily through the boyish charm of Miles Teller and the closeups on Kate Mara's eyes. That's why it's a pity that the birth of an iconic villain comes across completely empty and doesn't create a craving for a potential (however unlikely) sequel. (12.01.2016)

I don't like comic book films about heroes with superpowers because I consider them to be heavily infantile and their audience clearly belongs to a different age category than mine. But even within what comic books work with and strive for, Fantastic Four tragically fails. It amounts to sterile boredom, where all attempts at dramatic transcendence fail and where it lacks even what its genre colleagues possess, namely exciting action and plenty of special effects. The ratio of investment to result here is catastrophic. Overall impression: 10%. (04.02.2018)

I see wasted potential. Almost Cronenberg elements of Richards’ imprisonment, exploding heads, freakish mutations. Damn! We might have had something here. So we have a product here that the studio took away from the director, changed it (badly) into a kind of hybrid kids’ and adult movie which stops making sense in the second half, throwing the “popular" opening that took so much hard work into the trash. The actors is fine, the best of all being Michael B. Jordan’s hated human torch. He has a great time as Johnny. Teller is very fine in the role of the weird nerd and fear stricken scientist, but Mr. Fantastica is a long way away from the original character. Bell stays in the background, any action involving the Thing is cut ruthlessly and Kate Mara is a fox, but has terribly little room to perform. Toby Kebbell is super just occasionally, and as Doctor Killjoy (or whatever his name is) is extremely flat and what he does makes no sense = almost unexplained. For one of the most clever villains this is too little. I really don’t know what they thought they were doing, but the studio should have left the movie in Trank’s hands and tried it using his vision, whatever it was, and it would have been better than this mongrel (even scenes from the trailers are missing) that is saved from mediocrity only by one or two good ideas. (12.08.2015)

Ein sehr guter altmodischer Film, der einen anderen, viele Jahre nicht genutzten Weg eingeschlagen hat (auf den sich die gegenwärtigen Comicfilme nicht begeben). Diese Entscheidung hat sich leider gerächt. Die meisten Zuschauer*innen wollten wahrscheinlich etwas anderes sehen. Ich habe aber Fantastic Four genossen. Meiner Meinung nach gibt es an dem Film eigentlich nichts auszusetzen – die sympathischen Figuren sind den Zuschauer*innen wichtig, die wissenschaftliche bubenhafte Stimmung geht allmählich in ein großes Abenteuer über, die Tricks sind toll und die großartige Musik von Marco Beltrami und Philip Glass gehört zum Besten, was in dem Genre der Comic-Soundtracks in den letzten Jahren entstanden ist. Schade, dass es wahrscheinlich keine Fortsetzung geben wird. (23.12.2015)

Wenn ein Film misslingt, vor allem wenn er auf einer berühmten Vorlage basiert, gibt es immer wieder Versuche, eine völlig neue Version zu drehen. Leider ist Fantastic 4 aber wahrscheinlich verflucht, weil diese Version unglaublich langweilig, nervig, steril und in jeder Hinsicht schlechter als die vorherige Bearbeitung ist. Dabei hätte die Besetzung für ein besseres Ergebnis sorgen können. Selbst Kate Mara strahlt hier nichts aus, was man von Jessica Alba im vorigen Film nicht behaupten kann. Schrecklich, praktisch ohne Handlung und verzweifelt. Außerdem wusste ich etwa ein Drittel des Films lang nicht, wer wer sein wird – außer der Unsichtbaren natürlich. Es könnte der schlechteste Marvel-Film sein, obwohl wir sicherlich einige Konkurrenten finden würden. (05.03.2024)

In this case, I really don't understand why they started something again here. Just so that Johnny Storm could be black and the whole comic family could be more politically correct? This is just nonsense and, moreover, the whole movie is a terribly ridiculous construct, as if the creators were returning to the foundations of the comic, but didn't realize that this would only be a forced attempt. (30.10.2015)