2) The Score
One of the more underrated aspects of the reboot was its securing of two of the top movie composers working today: Marco Beltrami of The Hurt Locker fame and Philip Glass, whose minimalist style was seen in Watchmen.
Though many scenes in the movie are chopped up, there’s no denying that both Beltrami and Glass put a lot of effort into the making of the score. You feel tension during the action sequences, scared during the transformations, and optimistic during the friendly banter between the characters.
Compared to other superhero films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Suicide Squad which opted to cover up their scores with an annoying blast of pop music, we would say the Fantastic Four score is certainly worth listening to.
3) The Production Design
As we all know, the film was plagued by numerous budget cuts and anyone who saw the first couple of trailers or the leaked B-roll footage and then watched the movie would have noticed many scenes cut out despite them looking interesting.
There was Ben Grimm playing baseball, Johnny fixing up his car in a garage, The Thing airdropping from a jet onto a base and then facing machine gun fire, Thing getting ready to punch Doom, the four standing before a portal with an airplane in it and, of course, the Fantasticar. Many of these could simply be on the cutting room floor as a result of the film’s re-edit, but it’s also safe to say that scenes had to be cut due to there not being enough money for the VFX. This would make sense, especially when combined with Jon Schnepp’s reveal that the head VFX artist was replaced halfway through production.
However, with at least over $100 million invested into the pic, there’s no denying that the art designers behind Fantastic Four managed to create some interesting set pieces. First and foremost was the junkyard that a young Reed Richards meets Ben Grimm in: it’s a beautiful area that easily conveys the rough childhood Grimm’s going through, whilst still serving as the perfect avenue for Reed to acquire the parts for his experiments.
There were many other examples, too, such as the Planet Zero the team goes to with its oozing green (formerly red) energy, the Central American jungle where Reed escapes to when the government goes after him, and the Baxter Institute itself, which is full of the technology you would expect from an expensive think tank. All well made by a serious crew who were dedicated to their craft.
