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Fantastic Four Reboot Released To Tepid Reception 168

Posted by Soulskill from the take-that,-childhood dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Another month, another superhero movie based on the Marvel universe. Today marked the release of Fantastic Four, an attempt to reboot a film franchise that did poorly in the theaters as recently as 2007. This isn't the same crew that's been pushing out blockbuster after blockbuster, though — it's the crew that keeps releasing mediocre X-Men flicks. From early reviews, it looks like we can expect to see another reboot in 2025. Rolling Stone calls it "the cinematic equivalent of malware," saying that even a solid cast of actors couldn't save it from failure. A.V. Club says it "struggles to fill out its relatively brief runtime," the NY Times says even its special effects aren't up to snuff. Metacritic shows rare agreement between fans (27/100) and critics (2.7/10), and it does just as poorly on Rotten Tomatoes. Even director Josh Trank seemed to have a problem with the film. Those who have seen it, what did you think?
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Fantastic Four Reboot Released To Tepid Reception More

Fantastic Four Reboot Released To Tepid Reception

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  • If you don't have riveting hero(s).... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @07:35PM (#50272415)
    If you don't have riveting hero(s), you darned well better have an awesome presentation.

    Iron Man is kind of interesting. Batman's cool. Spiderman even, and many of the X-Men. The general public will usually risk those.

    But when you start getting into "WHO?" territory, like Guardians of the Galaxy or the upcoming Deadpool, you need an incredible presentation to draw attention. GotG had that. Deadpool looks like it's going to be great. Point is, the further you stray from well-known characters into comic culture, you need a movie so cool that people who don't care about the characters will find it interesting. I still only know GotG as "Starlord, Groot, the funny raccoon, green Zoe Saldana and some red guy. But I'd pay to watch a sequel in a heartbeat.

    I don't see F4 having that... zing.

    • If you don't have riveting hero(s), you darned well better have an awesome presentation.

      I disagree. Superheroes are, by and large, boring. They're the good guys! They do good things. Whoopee.

      It's the bad guys that really give movies and shows their depth. Incidentally, this is also what keeps a lot of marvel movies from being great; the hero is "meh", and the bad guy is "meh". Thor 2? Iron Man 2?

      But when the villain is interesting and dynamic? It can save an otherwise blah movie. Case in point; The

      • Heroes can only ever be as interesting as their antagonistic foils.

        Well, it depends.

        I always say, you can have interesting characters or an interesting story. If you have both, you really have something!

        The first Iron Man is a neat example. It's considered a very good superhero movie, but the villains--either the terrorist guy or Tony's partner--are pretty weak. But Tony Stark is an interesting character and Robert Downey Jr. did a great job portraying him. Guardians had a pretty lame bad guy, but the characters were fun enough that we let it slide. I actually kind of

  • Anybody else suffering from superhero burnout? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by walterbyrd ( 182728 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @07:43PM (#50272447)

    Aside from new movies, all the time, there are so many shows on television: Gotham, Super Girl, Flash, Arrow, Agent Carter, Agents of Shield, Daredevil. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

    As a kid, I read comic books. At first, it was fun seeing the super heroes come to life. Now it's getting tiresome.

    Also, does every other movie have to be a re-boot of the origin story?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      You're not the only one. Pretty much every superhero movie now seems the same to me; I can't even keep track of which ones I've watched.

      • Clearly you didn't see Catwoman! Halle Berry in a skin-tight black leather suit with kitty ears, doing with her butt what should be done with a butt like that, and saying "Rowwerrr!"

        If you saw that, you'd remember it.

        Scarlett Johansson in a skin-tight black suit is an Honorable Mention next to Halle Berry.

        Whew...

    • My favorite as a kid was always Spider-man. The Amazing Spider-Man reboot was one of the better ones. At least in this reboot Peter Parker has web shooters and reformulates his web solution. The previous Spider-Man movies were okay, but the script writers painted themselves in a corner by having the web shooters being part of Peter's physiology.

      My favorite Superhero movie to date is still Dark Knight with Heath Ledger as the Joker. Every time I watch it I still can't help morn his death and think about

    • Aside from new movies, all the time, there are so many shows on television: Gotham, Super Girl, Flash, Arrow, Agent Carter, Agents of Shield, Daredevil. I'm sure I'm forgetting a lot.

      As a kid, I read comic books. At first, it was fun seeing the super heroes come to life. Now it's getting tiresome.

      Also, does every other movie have to be a re-boot of the origin story?

      THIS! I just don't give a damn about the whole "People become mutants, and fight evil" theme any more. And remakes upon remakes just mkes it boring to me. Even the overdone CG is now boring, and has become a cliche, like the inevitible explosion when a car drives over a cliff shtick.. They're like visual Thorazine.

    • I don't care about any of these movies. All I know is that Deadpool is apparently the second coming of Jesus Christ.

    • I never cared much for the whole superhero genre, with the sole exception of Batman (and he's just a regular guy with some awesome toys). As a kid I read Marvel / DC comics but tired of them quickly; I found the Belgian / French style of comic books much more interesting. The superhero comics do make for better movies, but that's all relative: most of them still suck. And the reboots are worse.

      Is it me, or have 2014 and 2015 so far been really sucky years for blockbuster movies? In most years there'l

    • Kind of. If I don't have to do any homework to understand who people are in the movies, that's fine. But if I need to watch all of Agents of Shield, Agent Carter, and the Arrow to understand some particular plot in a movie, I'm going to quit coming out.

      After Thor 2, Ant Man is the only other Marvel movie I skipped paying for. I might catch it on TV but I just don't care.

      • After Thor 2, Ant Man is the only other Marvel movie I skipped paying for

        You might want to reconsider Ant Man. It doesn't have the origin story of the original character, it shows the passing of the torch.

        It also doesn't require any knowledge of the Marvel Universe, cinematic or otherwise. The only thing you'll wonder is why there's a security guard with wings in one short scene, maybe why they throw out Stark's name and mention the Avengers at one point. But if you were completely ignorant of the Avenge

  • Token black guy? (Score:3)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @07:49PM (#50272497) Homepage

    Okay, I'll admit I don't really know my Fantastic Four from my League of Superfriends, or whatever, but the main impression I was left with from the trailer was how they seem to have shoe-horned the black guy into the cast.

    I guess the world just isn't ready for a black Reed Richards (him being the leader, and all), and a black Thing would probably be racist, or something? And I guess having the other two (who are siblings) both be black was just stretching credulity too far. Nope, better make the sister adopted.

  • Remakes are seldom worth it (Score:3)

    by Bruce66423 ( 1678196 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @08:04PM (#50272569)
    And mean that interesting new ideas don't get used instead. Many of the amazing SF novels of the past 20 years are crying out for filming, but Holywood is obsessed by SF = special effects and VIOLENCE. 'Red Shirts' as a movie anyone?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 0123456 ( 636235 )

      'Red Shirts' as a movie anyone?

      They already shot it twenty years ago. It was called 'Galaxy Quest' back then.

      Still, maybe it is time for a reimaginabootmake.

      • Oh jeez, please don't tell me GQ came out 20 years ago... /me checks
        Nope, 1999. OK, that's not as bad. Still though, wow. That's over half my life ago.

        I'd totally watch another movie in that vein. Properly-done spoofs are rare and difficult. Sci-fi spoofs (that don't look like garbage) tend to have expensive sets and effects. This makes something like Galaxy Quest a real treat.

        • Iron Sky?

          • Iron Sky had some pretty hilarious parts and some pretty good parts, but those were unfortunately counterbalanced by some really really stupid parts. I think they could have easily made it a legit mainstream parody instead of trying for the "so bad it's good" category.

    • I was really looking forward to a Rendezvous with Rama movie, unfortunately that appears to have failed. I realize it would be a hard movie to make well, as there isn't an actual bad guy but is primarily about some foolish humans exploring a massive advanced alien spaceship, but it would be a welcome change of pace from the hurricane of remakes that seem to have inundated Hollywood over the past few years.

      • I was really looking forward to a Rendezvous with Rama movie, unfortunately that appears to have failed. I realize it would be a hard movie to make well, as there isn't an actual bad guy but is primarily about some foolish humans exploring a massive advanced alien spaceship,

        Yeah, too bad that failed, we could have had a shitty movie and a shittier video game out of it

      • Rama is the same sort of story as 2001. They make good books and made good cinema in the '60s when impressive visual effects were enough to wow an audience. Now that CGI is cheap, it's expected by the audience and you need a bit more story. With both, a film doesn't give you long enough to tell the story well and so you end up with something that either feels rushed or superficial. Rama would make a good TV series, because you'd have the time to focus on the character development. It would be a terribl
        • The entire fun of Rama was the exploration though. I think they could pull it off by making something that really showcased the science in the books by paying a lot of attention to how it would actually look (kind of like how gravity pulled off the weightless bits so well). A lot of exposition on the sciency bits could be narrated by the characters doing PR updates back to earth, kind of like Chris Hadfields videos of him playing with water in the ISS. e.g. "here's something neat for everyone watching back

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AJWM ( 19027 )

        Since the first (or maybe second) Jurassic Park movie we've had the CGI technology to something like The Mote In God's Eye or Ringworld.

        Probably ain't ever going to happen, the plots require too much thinking for the average movie audience. (And these are not particularly cerebral books.) (But man, can you imagine the ensemble cast of Ringworld done by somebody like Joss Whedon? Sigh.)

        And I shudder to think what they'd do with Footfall. Probably turn it into another Tom Cruise vehicle like War of the Wor

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by ageoffri ( 723674 )
      I hope you are trolling. Redshirts is the absolute worst novel I can recall reading in the last 20 years. It appeared to have been written by a 10 year old fanboy. It is also a prime example to show that the Social Justice Bullies have hijacked the Hugo's.
      • It's almost as if they make puppies sad with their actions.

      • Wait, whaaaat? That whole "so genre savvy you practically break the fourth wall" thing is definitely not going to be everybody's cup of tea, but I thought the novel told a good story and told it well. It was certainly no amateur effort; the amount of character development, background (like that whole "prologue" scene where the guy realizes right before he dies what the purpose of his death is), plot cohesiveness, in-character insights, and out-of-character commentary on the failures of all too many TV shows

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by 0123456 ( 636235 )

          No, it was a decent idea, it was just a weak novel; I didn't even get through the free preview ebook from Amazon. I've read better fan fiction free on the web.

          I'd hardly call it the worst novel of the last 20 years, but giving it a Hugo was a better joke than anything I read in the ebook.

  • and give the $10 I could have spent on another reboot to the homeless guy I buy breakfast for every few days.

  • I got a couple of free tickets for a pre-screening of the new FF4 movie. I enjoy pretty much any of the comic book movies, but this one was pretty sad. The story line and the characters were cliche and contrived. Nothing about the characters of the story was believable, and the science was beyond bad. Ya gotta wonder who the moron was that wrote this story and the morons who approved it.

    Even Catwoman was better. How much better? It has Halle Berry in a skin-tight leather outfit with kitty ears goin

    • I thought Kate Mara was the only real redeeming part of this movie. Like you, I got to see it for free and I'm also glad I didn't have to pay for the tickets.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rbrander ( 73222 )

      About the only place I can mention my one affection for that movie. There's this scene where Berry has just made the spooky change to Catwoman and isn't clearly aware of it yet, and she's describing her "symptoms" to a friend on the phone while walking around the room...except the "walk" is very catlike leaps and pounces onto various pieces of furniture as she goes. They all look unconscious and none break the rhythm of her speech. It was a great physical performance, and, as you say, especially mesmeriz

  • 4.1 on IMDb [imdb.com], so, no, I'm not going to watch this.

  • What made the original watchable was the delectable Jessica Alba. It was the only movie she ever appeared nekkid in. (Although her being invisible at the time kind of took away from the moment. :P )

  • Mediocre (Score:3)

    by dcsmith ( 137996 ) on Friday August 07, 2015 @09:51PM (#50273029)
    You don't often see as many superlatives modifying 'mediocre' as I've seen in reviews of this movie.

    "Powerfully mediocre" "Terrifically mediocre" "Decidedly mediocre" "Aggressively mediocre" "Stunningly mediocre".

    I went and saw it anyway.

    I deserve this ache in my wallet.

  • People complain all the time that all Hollywood puts out is the same crap year after year. There's so many comments on there about how terrible the reboots are and that there are so many superhero movies that they are getting tired of them. The movie industry is only putting out those movies because people keep going to those movies. When it takes $100M or more to make a movie are you going to do something that you are pretty sure that people are going to see or take a risk?

    If you want to see well writte

    • The only movie I've been to in the past few years to see in theaters was Chappie. I was pretty drunk before going there, but I noticed a MASSIVE plot hole that would nullify the whole conflict if one person did the extremely logical thing. It ruined the movie for me, and I haven't been back to the theaters in awhile.

      • What, market the warmachine-bot to the military? Yeah, that was a pretty gaping hole in CHAPPiE's plot... but the movie wasn't *about* the warmachine-bot, or the psychopath that built it, or the conflict that his goals had with Chappie and his creator... it was about the AI who has days to live and is being raised by a socially helpless nerd and a gang of none-too-bright criminals. Everything else was a bald excuse for action scenes and people dying. If it helps, think of that stuff as just a simulation: "h

        • The whole reason for the main conflict is a farse. Also, how can you make a robot that is afraid and has what appear to be emotions, but you couldn't upload a vocabulary to it so it could speak?

  • Anorexia chick, one gay white guy, one Africanized gay white guy and a CGI rock.

    I am glad that I can mock the friend who paid for us to see this excrement and I will do so for a very long time. ;)

  • "Days of Future Past" was far better than most of the marvel-kids-movies (looking at you, cap2, thor2 & guardians of the galaxy) they released over the last years. which doesn't mean that f4 isn't a turd, which it probably is, judging by the trailer.

    • I wouldn't say that Guardians of the Galaxy was a kids movie. I think it was the least childish of the movies you mentioned, all of which I enjoyed to some degree -- admitting that Thor 2 was more marginal than the others.

      But I agree: the last two x-men movies have been excellent (an opinion which is shared with critics and the general public). They easily stand with the better of the latest Marvel movies, and above the average Marvel movie.

      The Wolverine movies and the 2000s movies were mediocre to bad.

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