Fantastic Four A Fantastic Flop? Movie Panned As Mediocre At Best, But Is Anyone Surprised?
Fantastic Four looks to steal Ant-Man‘s “thunder” as the movie many had initially pegged to be a flop. Ant-Man surprised reviewers, earning an impressive 80 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As of now, Fantastic Four has an embarrassing 20 percent.
The “what went wrong?” question didn’t start with these bad reviews. It is a question that’s been asked since the reboot was first announced. Practically everything turned off FF fans. From the casting choice to the storyline to the decision to the origin story of Doctor Doom, every decision seemed to further alienate the intended audience.
Now that we have a movie, it seemed that at least there was the opportunity to silence critics. Instead, if early reviews are to be believed, they’ve been thoroughly vindicated in most respects.
The Guardian gave Fantastic Four two out of five stars. Reviewer Henry Barnes called the film a “dawdling indie drama dressed up in superhero garb.”
“The cast are some of the most promising actors of their generation, but what chemistry there is between them is swept away by wave after wave of expository dialogue and ludicrous exclamation (“His biochemistry is off the charts!”).
“There are many references to the purity of creative endeavour being corrupted by corporate involvement. After the fifth or sixth mention, it’s hard to not to read this as something of a dig at the studio.”
Was this a dig at 20th Century Fox, the studio that owns Fantastic Four? If this movie fails, it may serve as a parting shot as a sequel is reportedly planned for 2017. Should this film perform poorly and Fox goes forward with the series anyway, the studio could part ways with director Josh Trank.
Trank struck gold with the surprise hit Chronicle. That film featured super-powered characters – including Human Torch actor Michael B. Jordan – and perhaps encouraged Fox to believe he was the right man to helm Fantastic Four. If critics are to be believed, this was a terrible assumption on the part of 20th Century Fox.
Review: #FantasticFour feels like a botched experiment http://t.co/JF3PDhJaei pic.twitter.com/JMl4unUN9A
— Variety (@Variety) August 5, 2015
One saving grace for this new Fantastic Four series could be the studio’s decision to follow Marvel’s lead and “link” their properties together in a movie universe. With a lot of buzz for Deadpool and X-Men: Apocalypse, future Fantastic Four movies could get help with crossovers.
Do you think critics are being too harsh with Fantastic Four? Are you looking forward to the movie, despite the bad reviews? Please share your thoughts below!
[Image Credit: 20th Century Fox/YouTube]
