Fantastic Four Review

"I just want to know that my kids are safe"

                                                                -Dr. Storm

I have never seen so much hate for a movie right when it was announced. Granted the first two big Fantastic Four movies that came out weren't good, but we should have been excited for this. Fantastic Four is unique in the sense that it's a small team, it's about family, it predominately focuses on science, and if done right it could be different than any other. Now, I've been trying to avoid other reviews, what people thought, and try to go in pure and judge this movie on it's own. Sadly, in the internet days it's nearly impossible, and I glanced two reviews, both gave Fantastic Four a 2/5 and my heart dropped. So I go into this with a little hope, but not as excited as I was before, and you know what? I really liked this movie! I'd give it around a 4/5 if I had to grade it.

Now, if you're tired of superhero films, and you want a new perspective on this tired genre, then I'd say go see this. The biggest problem I could see people having with this film is that it doesn't focus on them being heroes, it focuses on them being human, and that's what I love. These kids are all normal, nerdy, scientists who were tragically transformed into monsters. If it makes you feel better, imagine this movie is a Sci-Fi/Horror film instead of a superhero one. The story focuses on character, each one has an arc, and that's what is driving the story at it's core. When Ben first turns into the Thing and he's crying out for help, my heart dropped by how powerful that scene was.

I loved 90% of this movie. The characters all felt real, their quirky catchphrases like "It's clobbering time," and "flame on" actually had natural ways that played into the film and made it sound not corny. All the actors were great, you have top notch talent with Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan. The only downside I can think of this film is that it needed to be longer.

While I did love how character driven this whole movie is, there comes a point where it feels like it's rushing just a bit in the end where it focuses on action rather than character, and after the action there isn't much left of the movie. My biggest disappointment was that everyone's character arcs were rushed, almost as if they took out parts of the movie (and they did, if you watch the trailer you'll notice a few scenes not in the movie) just to get to the action. There is one point where Reed betrays everyone, and you see everyone hating on him, and Ben having an inner rage toward him, but when they find him that all dissipates and they're just like "welcome back."

As of writing this review I still have not heard other people's opinions. I assume there is still a lot of hate toward this movie, and I would like to know why, because this movie is not bad, sure the ending may be rushed and looking back they did take out some scenes in the trailer, but ultimately this was a very enjoyable movie that utilizes an actual story with characters than "look what I can do with my powers" and I felt that was very refreshing. I am excited to see what they do in the future, and if there is ever a directors cut I would love to see if that would flesh out my problems with the character arcs going from A to B to D.