Fantastic Four (4/10): There is nothing fantastic about this.

"With every new discovery, there is risk, there is sacrifice... and there are consequences."

I was surprised that critics and audiences were ripping this film apart because in my mind there was no way the producers could go wrong with this young and talented cast, so I was prepared to enjoy and defend this movie. I had heard about the production problems, but something similar had happened with Ant-Man and that movie turned out to be surprisingly fun. At least the director, Josh Trank, had decided to stay on board for this film despite reports of disputes with his producers. His first feature film, Chronicle, was a very entertaining and unique low budget found-footage sci-fi movie, so I thought that with a bigger budget he could deliver an even better film. Evidently I was wrong because Fantastic Four is a gigantic mess. There were several concerns over the film being rushed so that Fox wouldn't lose the rights to the franchise and the movie definitely felt that way. I don’t know how much blame could be put on Trank, because it seems that the producers took control over the film, so before you discard him as a terrible director I’d recommend you to check out Chronicle. See that film instead of this comic adaptation reboot. I’d even go as far as saying that the 2005 version was better.  

Fantastic Four is basically an origin story that ends up being so long that by the time the villain shows up it feels more like a cameo than anything else. The final climax of the film is one of the worst I've seen in a superhero movie. I wouldn't mind this as much if the origin story would've been interesting, but none of these characters were engaging and the dialogue was quite terrible. Every one of them seemed to have daddy issues or some sort of cliche that characters in this genre usually have. Even Toby Kebbell who played Victor Domashev in this movie shared all the basic stereotypical traits foreshadowing who he would later become, Dr. Doom. Superhero films always tend to follow the same basic formula, but the successful ones manage to stand out for some unique quality, either benefitting from a great central performance, its funny upbeat light tone, or its spectacular action scenes. Fantastic Four uses the same formula, but doesn't do anything unique with it. There is no chemistry between the cast and the delivery of some of their lines are overly dramatic at times. There isn’t a single strong performance here, there is no comedy whatsoever, and the action scenes (or should I say scene?) are underwhelming (especially if you compare it to other action Summer films like Mission Impossible and Mad Max). Unfortunately the film is a huge mess because it fails at setting up interesting characters and later rushes the final climatic action scene, completely changing gears on the slow and drawn out pacing that the movie had during its long introduction.

The main character in this film is Reed Richards of course, so we follow him from childhood. He dreams of creating a device that can teleport people into an alternate place. In school he befriends a tough boy named Ben who becomes his assistant. Reed is a genius and working from his garage he comes up with an impressive mechanism in which he manages to teleport some objects, but in the process he leaves the entire town without electricity. Several years pass and now Reed (Miles Teller) and Ben (Jamie Bell) are in a High School science fair showing off their invention. Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara) are impressed with Reed so they offer him an opportunity to work with them in their advanced state of the art laboratory. Victor (Toby Kebbell) had been working on a very similar project, but had unsuccessfully been able to teleport the objects back so the two begin working together to make their dream a reality. Dr. Storm’s other son, Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) also joins the project and when they succeed at teleporting a group of chimps to an alternate universe they decide its time for them to take the trip as well. Of course something goes terribly wrong and they each go through a unique physical transformation. They will have to learn to deal with their new acquired abilities, which the military takes a keen interest in, but Reed is focused on fixing them instead.

Miles Teller had been on a roll with strong performances in films like Whiplash and The Spectacular Now. He was even great in his supporting role in Insurgent, a film I didn’t like. But here he simply didn’t have the charm to tackle this super hero. Perhaps the blame can be put on the screenwriters, but he couldn’t do anything to make Reed an interesting character (not prior to his transformation nor after). Michael B. Jordan’s career seemed to be taking off after his impressive performances in Chronicle and Fruitvale Station, but he wasn’t able to do much with the small role that was given to him here. Reg. E. Cathey was perhaps the weakest link thanks to his overly dramatic delivery of each line with his deeply serious voice. Toby Kebbell came in a close second, but I really do have to blame the screenwriters here for making his character such a cliche. Villains have always been a problem in super hero films and it couldn’t be more true than it is here. I’ve heard a couple defenses claiming that this is more of a sci-fi centering on human transformation (with comparisons to Cronenberg’s The Fly), but that couldn’t be further from the truth because when these heroes acquire their new abilities the film inexplicably leaps forward in time showing these characters already adapted to their transformation and coming to terms with it. All the psychological trauma is ignored in order to prepare for the final climactic action scene which was to put in nicely, underwhelming.       

My Review: Chronicle (7/10)

¨A lion does not feel guilty when it kills a gazelle, right? You do not feel guilty when you squash a fly... and I think that means something. I just think that really means something. ¨

During a time in Hollywood where we are constantly bombarded with superhero films, it felt fresh to see a different kind of movie in this genre. Here we actually are introduced to three characters who receive a special power (telekinesis), but instead of becoming superheroes they actually act like three young teenagers would really act if given this special ability. They begin to play pranks on other people, goof around, and have fun. They aren`t interested in saving the world or putting on a cape in order to stop a dangerous villain. They just decide to have fun with their extraordinary powers. The story moves along nicely at a very interesting pace until we reach the third and final act which I didn’t end up enjoying as much as the rest of the film. When one of the characters begins to abuse his special powers and decides to act revengefully, the film sort of goes over the top and that`s when I began to lose interest. I think they just decided to go way over the top when unfortunately the movie was moving along at a great pace. I had a lot of fun with this movie and that is my only complaint. I`d give it a much higher grade if it weren’t for that final act. I was really surprised with this movie since none of the actors are really known, but they do give believable performance. First time director, Josh Trank, who also wrote the story along with Max Landis, really proves himself with Chronicle, and he will be someone to look out for in the future. He managed to direct a very good action film with good visual effects on a very low budget, so he deserves a lot of credit for his work.

The story centers around three high school kids from Seattle who seem to be leading normal lives. First we are introduced to Andrew (Dane DeHaan) who is the typical quiet kid who gets bullied on often, then there`s his cousin Matt (Alex Russell) who drives him to school sometimes, but really doesn’t hang out with him a lot since Andrew is so quiet most of the time. Finally there`s Steve (Michael Jordan) who`s the jock and sort of the celebrity of the school. He`s actually a nice guy and dreams of becoming president someday. Matt convinces Andrew to come along with him to a party and during the party they encounter some strange object that has fallen deep into the ground. Steve, Matt, and Andrew decide to investigate by going down the hole and they finally find a sort of colored crystal rock. When they touch it, the crystal changes colors and blood begins running from their noses. The next day the kids discover that they have some sort of telekenitical ability and begin moving small objects with their mind. As they continue to experiment with their new found power they begin to grow stronger and find themselves moving bigger objects and even elevating themselves from the ground. The three grow really close to each other, and begin having fun with their ability by doing several pranks on people in a supermarket. The kids have a lot of fun at first, but soon they will discover that their ability can be dangerous as well if they don`t learn to control their emotions.

I think that the story is really well written and it does have an interesting and more realistic take on what would happen if a teenager stumbles upon a super power. The film does reflect on some of these issues, like how power can end up changing our lives if we don`t learn how to handle it correctly. It also deals with another common issue that has to do with bullying and how this can severely damage people`s emotions. I really enjoyed the take they had on this movie, but I wouldn’t have gone as far as they did in the final act. I enjoyed the comedy of the first hour or so, but the last half hour was a bit of a stretch for me. Chronicle was filmed as if it were a documentary, a trend that began with The Blair Witch Project and has continued with other films like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield. Chronicle actually feels at times like a J.J. Abrams film. This style of filmmaking may be distracting for some people, but I don’t usually tend to have a problem with it. I do however think that this film, given its interesting story, would`ve been much better if filmed normally, without the handheld shaky camera going on, because it did have a really interesting premise. I don’t want to sound too picky though because I did enjoy this movie quite a bit. I just think it could have had the potential to be a five star film, but it`s still a good watch.

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