Never before has a film with so much potential bombed so hard. This reboot of the 2005 Tim Story movie of the same name was meant to attract a new generation of viewers by cashing in on the superhero craze brought about by The Avengers, whilst still telling an original tale.
The idea was this: the original Fantastic Four had gotten the aesthetics right, but completely flopped with regards to everything else like tone and character motivations, especially as they were depicted in Jack Kirby’s original run. As director Josh Trank, coming off of Chronicle, pointed out, the earlier issues of the Fantastic Four had elements of body horror to them, from the design of the Thing to Doctor Doom’s imposing face plate.
At the same time, it was clear that the original version of four people going into space and getting blasted by cosmic rays was an outdated take from the Cold War Space Race era, specifically in comparison to what we saw with the Ultimate comics wherein the Fantastic Four were mutated by exposure to a toxic atmosphere.
Thus, the solution was to ground the story in a hard science fiction setting in order to synthesize two visions: Kirby’s space opera take, and the more modern version of the characters from the Ultimate comics. Given everyone’s love for Interstellar the year before, it seemed like a good idea. Trank’s passion for the craft combined with Simon Kinberg’s script (coming off of X-Men: Days of Future Past) also added a level of security to the project.
Yet, the result was radically different, with the film officially being the lowest ranked superhero movie on Rotten Tomatoes since 1997’s Batman & Robin. However, does it truly deserve that place, or was it simply the result of a hate train running full course? The truth is neither: it was a mediocre pic with merits and hardly the worst movie ever, and to defend this, we’ve put together seven reasons why we feel that Fantastic Four is actually worth revisiting. Just hear us out…