It’s not a stretch to say that Josh Trank’s modern retelling of Fantastic Four has been facing an uphill battle sine its inception. Loyal fans of Marvel’s First Family have been burned before, after all, though with each passing promotional snippet that hits, the general tide has gradually began to shift in Fox’s favor.
Opting for slightly different origin story that what moviegoers are used to, Trank’s reboot is gunning for a more scientific approach this time around, whisking his titular superhero crew into a parallel dimension before bestowing them with those renown, life-changing powers, as opposed to sticking with the radiation exposure tenet that we glimpsed in the previous adaptation.
Despite winning a lot of fans over, Fantastic Four is still a ways away from being classified as a bona fide box office hit. For instance, upon the release of the collection of character posters– topped off with the mandatory banner – there’s a possibility that Trank’s superhero flick will culminate in a third act climax that sees the superheroes scramble to protect a city from destruction. Cinematic though it may be, Marvel has effectively reduced this feat into a hackneyed cliché at this point.
Mind you, the meteors glimpsed in the backdrop could be a consequence of the inter-dimensional portal that has been opened and the oncoming Doctor Doom, or perhaps the marketing heads figured it would add a little dramatic effect. We can but speculate!
Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Michael B. Jordan will unite as the titular guardians of earth when Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four lands in theaters on August 7.
FANTASTIC FOUR, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
