FANTASTIC FOUR

"This is our chance to make a difference"



          As a film, Fantastic Four is bad. As a superhero film, it sucks. To me, its even worse than the one back in 2005 (and its sequel in 2007) was. Because, at least, with those films, I had fun. Not this one, though. This reboot tried to be dark & gritty while forsaking the fun & humour. Furthermore, the action sequences are dull. The characters are (mostly) boring. And the villain is bad. To make this review easier, I'm going to split the film into three acts.

          The first act, which is about the first half of the film (45 minutes or so) is the one part that I can tolerate. It's not all doom & gloom in this first act, because I can see what they're trying to do. Mind you, I can mention flaws, too, but at least, its watchable. Setting up the character & their origin stories, and there were some relationships that begin to develop. There was still a terrific lack of humour or even interesting dialogues, but at least I can see where they were trying to bring these characters, right up until the moment they get their powers.

          The second act lasts for just about 20-25 minutes, which isn't right, when they're supposed to be the meat of the story. The one good thing about this part is when their reactions after getting hit by the radiation (or whatever) from the other dimension. It seems very real (and dark) but its cool to witness how real people would really react in these kind of circumstances. The bad things come afterwards, when they jumped the timeline and skipped entirely how they explore & discover their powers, and the potential struggle to control their powers, etc. None of that! Or just very little, that is. But it is not what you'd expect. You expect there to be more minor conflicts, be it internal or external, but in this film...none of that! They skipped all those supposedly interesting bits and then suddenly...the villain!

          The villain, Dr. Doom, is the worst aspect of the film. He was one of Marvel's greatest ever villain in the comics, and here he is one the worst villains I have ever seen in film. Firstly, there is something very wrong when your main baddie only comes in the last act. Worse, is if that last act only lasts for 15-20 minutes. And then there's that moronic look, that I can't even begin to comprehend that this is Dr. Doom. Because he is not! Not for me.

          But this is a comic book movie, right? So, there's sure to be a great action sequence? Well, you'd be wrong! The climactic battle feels so dull & generic with no interesting use of powers. Not even a combination of powers or a "teamwork" kind of action - the kind you probably saw in The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Very dull, very rushed, and very stupid.

          The film as a whole feels like an incomplete experience. It feels as if it was trying to build up to something, but nothing interesting came. There was no humour, no (fun) action sequences, no interesting characters. The only interesting part came when dealing with the science concepts, and the human reactions to them. But they made a mess with everything else. With better action sequences, fun banter between the characters, and a lot of humour, I can safely say that I enjoyed the 2005 & 2007 films a lot more than this.

VERDICT: 3.5