9 Takeaways From The Fantastic Four Trailer

After what's felt like an extremely long wait, 20th Century Fox has finally released the first bit of footage from Josh Trank's Fantastic Four in the form of an exciting and intriguing teaser trailer. The film has long been the butt of an intense amount of online criticism and skepticism, partly because of how well the studio managed to keep everything under wraps. But now that we've seen a bit of footage, we can start to assess it more fairly. Reactions to the trailer seem to be far more positive than any of the past leaked details and casting choices, and for good reason. It's a strong teaser that offers just enough footage to make us itch for more, while keeping much of the story itself a secret. Clocking in at just 1 minute and 45 seconds, this new trailer is merely a fraction of Trank's vision that we'll see on the big screen. However, it does offer up a ton of new information to unpack, and leaves quite the impression. So, with that being said, here are the 9 biggest things that we took away from it. 9) The Tone: Is It Too Dark? Right off the bat, the first noticeable thing about Fantastic Four is its tone. While I doubt that the film itself will be this dour, this first bit of footage is quite serious. That is sure to turn some audiences off of the property altogether, and has already garnered quite a few comparisons to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy and Zack Snyder's Man of Steel (which Nolan also had a hand in). The similarities don't stop there, either. The heavy scientific undertones, hopeful voiceover, spacesuit-inspired outfits and cinematography are strikingly similar to Nolan's recent endeavor, Interstellar. Comic book films have been tiptoeing toward science fiction for a few years now, but this one seems to have its feet firmly planted in the genre, feeling (so far) like less of a superhero film. How much of that will actually exist in the final product, and how audiences will react to it, remains to be seen. But for now, it's an intriguing aspect to consider. 8) A Professor X-ian Voiceover Christopher Nolan isn't the only person that Fantastic Four drew inspiration from. From the outset, it's clear that Bryan Singer's X-Men films had a part to play in FF's development as well. Those movies have taken highly fantastical superheroes and placed them in a more realistic world, which is what Fantastic Four appears to be doing. The only bit of actual dialogue in this new trailer comes from Toby Kebbell's Doctor Doom (more on that later), while the rest is done via voiceover from Reg E. Cathey, who plays Dr. Storm - the father of half of the titular superhero team, Sue and Johnny. The voiceover itself is highly reminiscent of Patrick Stewart's past V.O. work from the X-Men series, and at first I thought it might actually be him. The trailer confidently includes a title card reminding us that the film comes "From the studio that brought you X-Men: Days of Future Past," and while I know that there's been no official word on an X-Men/FF crossover just yet, meshing the two franchises together, tone-wise at least, won't be an issue. 7) Reed Richards: From Childhood Protege To Scientist A lot of what we see from the characters in the film shows them in the present day, but there is a quick glimpse of a young Ben Grimm and Reed Richards, who are performing some kind of science experiment in a garage. The experiment itself is far more advanced than the LEGO Mindstorms I played with as a kid, meaning that Richards has always been a bit of a protege. The adult Richards looks inspired and hopeful while walking through this facility. Could it in fact be a manifestation of his own research and ideas? That would not only place him squarely as the man smart enough to design whatever machine the gang gets into later, but makes him partially (if not completely) responsible for what ends up happening to them. 6) Meet The Team All four members of the team get a brief bit of the limelight in the trailer. We've already talked about Reed (who gets the most screentime), so now let's move onto Sue, Ben and Johnny. Sue Storm appears to work at some sort of government facility and is quickly seen gazing upon some high-tech surveillance or tracking system. In just two seconds, Josh Trank has managed to make Kate Mara's version of the character 100x smarter than Jessica Alba's. Jamie Bell, meanwhile, has bulked up a bit for the role of Ben Grimm, the man who becomes The Thing. Fans were quick to cry foul at his casting, but he's only doing the motion-capture work for his rockier form, which will be created through CGI. The shot of Ben pre-transformation makes him stand apart from Sue and Reed, providing more of a down-to-Earth, everyman feel to the character. We're also quickly introduced to Michael B. Jordan's Johnny Storm, who's seen sporting the go-to "cool guy" trope of working on an old car. Are he and Ben the less "science-y" of the Fab Four? Or are we just not glimpsing enough of their expertise in these brief shots? 5) The Government Is Involved It wouldn't be a contemporary superhero tale without the watchful eye of the U.S. government, which is firmly planted near the beginning of this trailer. These military personnel seem to be gazing (or pretending to understand) at schematics for the machine that our titular heroes get into later. We also see several glimpses of the team inside some kind of facility, which tells me that the government is going to be deeply involved in what happens to the titular heroes once they become Fantastic. If so, that's just one of several drastic changes made that will help separate this film from Tim Story's previous Fantastic Four movies of the early 2000s. It also paves the way for a lot of in-film tension, as I could easily see the team becoming "property" of the U.S. Government and struggling to find ways to cope with their new powers themselves. But, that's just conjecture on my part. We'll have to see more of the film to know for sure. 4) Latveria Easter Egg In a blink-or-you'll-miss-it Easter Egg, there's a red dot inside of Eastern Europe on one of the maps that Sue Storm is looking at. That red dot is Latveria, the isolated country sandwiched between Romania, Serbia, Hungary and Croatia that Doctor Doom rules. The Easter Egg hunt doesn't stop there, either. In what amounts to even further proof that that's Latveria, the red text in the image reads "23.21.190.125." When you type those numbers into your internet browser, it brings up the Marvel Wikia page on Latveria. What this means for the film is up for grabs. This could just be a fun Easter Egg for anyone familiar with the importance of Latveria, or it could very well be a hint that we'll see the fictional nation in the film. We know that Dr. Doom (or Victor Domashev, as he's been renamed) is an anti-social blogger going by the name "Doom," so could he be residing in Latveria, with Sue tracking him there? 3) The Machine In the trailer, we see several glimpses of the machine that looks to be responsible for giving Reed, Ben, Sue and Johnny their powers. We also see what looks like two different versions of the machine. One appears to be more rudimentary, and is occupied by a team of people in white suits. The other is more advanced, and shows a team in darker suits. Also of note is the fact that there are actually six figures in the darker suits. We know from other glimpses of footage that our titular heroes don the darker suits, so who are the other two people? My guess is that one of them doesn't survive the mission, and that the sixth is none other than Dr. Doom. In any case, we know that the experiment goes horribly wrong. But we already knew that. 2) Powers On Display We don't get many glimpses of the Fantastic Four in action, but we do get a few intriguing and exciting glimpses of them using their newfound powers. First out the gate is The Thing. Perhaps the most iconic and recognizable of the bunch, the Thing is also the trickiest to pull off in live-action. Michael Chiklis had to don an incredibly uncomfortable (and unbearingly cheesy) costume for the first two Fantastic Four films, while Jamie Bell gets to just wear a funny looking mo-cap suit. This brief shot of the Thing bursting from a pile of rocks says quite a bit about the direction Trank will be taking with the character. First of all, he seems to be inside of some sort of facility, which likely belongs to the government, as we pointed out earlier. Secondly, he's seen bursting from a pile of rock. Previous incarnations have all shown that Ben simply transforms into the rock creature. This looks far more realistic, and ultimately tragic, than what we've seen in the past. There are also two shots of Johnny going into full Human Torch mode, and a quick glimpse of him facing off with and firing flames at Sue, who's protected behind her forcefield. And finally, we see the briefest of glimpses at Reed Richard's stretching ability. His is perhaps the one at risk of looking the most cheesy on screen, so it was probably smart of Josh Trank to hold back on it for now. 1) Doctor Doom Just when you think the trailer is over, there's one final tease. Reed is seen in some sort of hospital setting (likely still inside the government facility), and is visiting someone who warns him to "be ready for what's coming." That's clearly Victor Domashev, recovering from the failed experiment. We also see a glimpse of Domashev in action, walking down a corridor and attacking military personell with his powers. It appears to be the same corridor that we glimpsed Johnny in. When Johnny's there, however, the men are all dead. What I glean from these images is this: The team, along with Domashev, are injured in the experiment and kept at the facility for tests/research/healthcare/experimentation, and Domashev breaks out. The team must then go after him for the big climax of the film. Fantastic Four will arrive in theaters on August 7th, 2015. Until then, tell us what you think about the new trailer. Were there any big takeaways that we failed to mention? Sound off below!