It’s been a rough ride for the latest attempt by Fox to get Fantastic Four onto the big screen as it’s the fourth installment, though just the third to actually make it into theaters. With the previews last night and it going full today, I myself am just about half an hour away from seeing it since I’m the type that likes to make my own impressions and opinions on something. That said, director Josh Trank isn’t making it easy as he started to distance himself from the film with a tweet that was deleted just a few minutes later.
Countdown til Fox demands Josh Trank remove this Fantastic Four tweet. pic.twitter.com/MoYl2x3vYg
— Andrew Todd (@mistertodd) August 7, 2015
With a 10% fresh score from critics and 33% from audiences so far on Rotten Tomatoes, the film isn’t doing well in that realm and projects are for a $40 million weekend, which is going to be a difficult number to run when it comes to truly moving forward with sequels. It’s also going to struggle because Fox nixed a 3D conversion previously and while those may not do huge numbers in the US anymore, it’s still a critical component overseas. So that came across as a sign of lack of faith on Fox’s part with the project.
Having grown up on Fantastic Four comics, being a part of the John Byrne era of the series, the inability of someone to get this property off the ground in a compelling way is incredibly frustrating, especially since it definitely falls in with what’s called the “Marvel Style” for how their films look. There’s a light touch to be done while playing up the serious, but this film looked like it was ripped from the Ultimates line, but not doing it in a compelling way.
That it makes me wistful for the two previous films just based on the trailers is not a good thing.
Directed by Josh Trank, the film stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell along with Toby Kebbell. It’s set for release on August 7th, 2015.
Plot concept: The Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
I see Alan Smithee in this film’s future.
He’s blaming studio involvement for ruining the movie? Pretty sure Fox was responsible what few similarities it had to the comics, considering the director admitted to never reading them. Sorry it wasn’t your magnum opus, Trank, but not everyone wants a dark, gritty, generic cape film.