I was actually not having great hopes for this movie giving how Hollywood have screwed up with a lot of my favourite super heroes (Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Dare Devil and a few others). Having said that maybe there was still a glimmer of hope given that some of their latest Marvel work have been rather okay. Unfortunately this is not the reboot of the Fantastic Four that I, and a dare say the fans, hoped for.
One thing that I do not understand is why the dumbass script writers that Hollywood employs always have to change the basic story of a set of characters that have a solid fan base? There was nothing wrong with the original story, and thus origin, of the Fantastic Four and the source of their powers. Maybe I am just old-fashioned but still.
The second gripe I have with this movie is the nonsensical stuff with members of the Fantastic Four, especially Ben, being deployed by the US military. It is just so cliché. Lazy script writing plain and simple. Unfortunately this also causes the movie to not really feel like it is a Fantastic Four movie. The team is split up and it is not until the very end that they actually become a team, gets a headquarter and so on. Big fail as far as I am concerned.
Having said all that, I do not think it is as bad as some people claim. There are some good stuff in there. The story is not all bad after all even though it is not exactly to my liking and the special effects are quite okay. One thing that annoys me with the story is that the role of Reed is really diminished and he is never really allowed to show of his powers. Yes, I know, there are some “stretching” moments but, well, meh! To add to the pain the actor cast as Reed is, in my mind, totally unconvincing.
The bad guy is also somewhat underwhelming and thoroughly predictable. As I said a classical Hollywood concoction aimed towards the less intelligent viewers. I do not understand why Hollywood seems to be so bent on repeating the same mistakes over and over again?
Well, as I wrote, the movie is not as bad as some people claim but it is far from great. Given the abysmal reviews I am afraid that we will not be getting a sequel which is a shame. This is one of the (few) Marvel comics that I read as a kid (in Sweden we did not get treated to that many of these kind of comics) so it is indeed a bit of a disappointment that they managed to screw this movie up…again.
