On the 6th of August 2015, Fantastic 4 premiered in Malaysia. Not long afterwards a friend of mine offered me a free ticket to see the film courtesy of his company, which holds free movie screenings for their employees (and plus-ones) every month. I gladly accepted, and so made my way to eCurve, Damansara, on Friday, August 7 2015, for the 8.00 pm showing of Fantastic 4.
Our seats were very close to the screen, somewhere in the fourth row or so. It was a decidedly packed hall, with most seats filled. I was slightly miffed when I realised that the man beside me had a bad case of the sniffles, causing him to breathe very heavily and most audibly throughout the entire film. I side-eyed him once and he immediately held his breath. I was highly amused, as well as pacified since he was clearly aware of his problem. There was also a slight kerfuffle when a group of young men squeezed past my friend and I to get to their seats and somehow managed to kick my slipper under Heavy Breather's seat, where it remained until I managed to retrieve it when the show ended.
Aside from the moviegoing experience, I would love to say that the movie itself was as fantastic as it should be. Sadly, it was not so. First of all, we can make comparisons to the first Fantastic Four movie, which came out in 2005.
A sequel was released in 2007, titled Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
There is a vast chasm between the 2015 film and the first two. Fantastic Four and Rise of the Silver Surfer were undoubtedly silly and campy, filled with corny dialogue and stereotypical villains and heroes, but there was always an undercurrent of goofiness throughout - a sense that everyone was along for the ride, prepared to suspend belief for a while and have some fun. Fantastic 4, however, tries to be completely serious. The first act, which sets up the characters with plenty of background, was probably the most bearable part of the movie. We get to see Reed and Ben before they became Mr Fantastic and The Thing, when they were just curious schoolboys discovering teleportation. We see that Ben comes from an unhappy working-class home, while Reed is a lonely child. As teenagers, Reed's intelligence earns him an invitation from Professor Franklin Storm to join the Baxter Foundation, a research institute funded by the government. There, Reed meets Storm's daughter, Sue, who also works at the institute. Together with her wayward brother Johnny and Franklin's brilliant but troubled former protege, Victor Von Doom, they create a gateway that allows them to teleport to an unknown planet abundant in natural resources that can save Earth. The trouble begins when the boys, including Ben, make a forbidden trip to the planet and end up in an accident that gives them their powers. They are then forced to choose sides between aiding questionable government-propagated military "activities" or striking out on their own. The choice becomes more urgent when Victor, who was thought to have perished in the accident, returns with a vengeance and an agenda of his own.
The script was terrible, as was the acting, as was the plot. For starters, the feeble attempts to showcase the love triangle between Reed, Sue and Victor felt incredibly forced and too sudden. From the moment Sue and Reed meet, Sue shows little interest until one sudden day when she decides to engage with him in friendly, teasing conversation. Of course, Victor looks on jealously, his reflection mirrored in the door as he peers at them. Then there is the display of their powers: Sue Storm has the ability to turn invisible and create force fields that allow her to fly, yet when she does take flight it requires her to stick out her arms like an awkward scarecrow. Surely there was a better way to display her flying abilities.
As for the ending, anticlimax would be an understatement. Victor Von Doom, now known as Doom, has become all-powerful and wants to end Earth as we know it.
The Four attempt to take him down in a final battle but find his powers impossible to defeat separately. After some badly-choreographed fighting, Reed has a brainwave and tells everyone that they need to band together to take Doom down. They proceed to try and succeed so easily that one wonders what the point of showing Doom's powers was.
Once they destroy Doom, the world is saved... and that is all. 1 hour and 46 minutes of uninspired conflict is resolved so easily. The Four are recruited by the government to help them in future crises and are given headquarters of their own, which they deem so fantastic, it becomes their name. A more anti-climactic ending could not have been more yawn-inducing. Overall, the characters are too uninteresting for viewers to be really invested in. Professor Franklin's preachiness, perhaps meant to be some kind of redemption for these youngsters, falls flat as plainly overdone camp. The plot has a promising start but quickly becomes too convoluted and contrived at the same time. It is a pity that Fantastic 4 aims so high but ends up nowhere near the greatness of its name.
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