Susan Granger’s review of “Fantastic Four” (20th Century-Fox)
It’s a cinematic conundrum: why has there never been a good live-action version of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s iconic 1961 comic book, featuring the First Family of Marvel?
Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) have been friends since their childhood on Long Island. So when nerdy Reed is recruited by Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) to devise a teleporter to take humans to another dimension, Ben joins him at his Manhattan research facility.
There’s also Dr. Storm’s son Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and adopted daughter Sue (Kate Mara), plus a surly Latverian scientist, Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell).
Once the machine is tested on a chimpanzee, NASA’s Dr. Allen (Tim Blake Nelson) authorizes a manned mission. Problem is: when they plant an American flag on barren, alien territory, they’re engulfed by a green energy field that endows them with inexplicable physical powers.
Reed develops stretchy elastic limbs and Johnny can turn into a flaming torch. Ben is burdened with the Thing’s rocky body, while Victor goes berserk. Since Sue was left behind, she doesn’t get blasted with invisibility until they return to Earth.
This current reboot of the franchise that fizzled eight years ago has been plagued from the get-go. Apparently, Fox contractually had to quickly make another Marvel movie to retain rights to the characters.
Showing little creativity, screenwriters Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg, working with director Josh Trank (“Chronicle”), devised another cliché-crammed, awkwardly cheesy origin story with two up-and-coming actors: Miles Teller (“Whiplash,” “Insurgent”) and Michael B. Jordan (“Fruitvale Station,” “Creed”).
After some bad previews, Trank impulsively Tweeted: “A year ago, I had a fantastic version of this. And it would have received great reviews. You’ll probably never see it. That’s the reality though.”
This is the third attempt, following Roger Corman’s unreleased 1994 version, then Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four” (2005) and “Rise of the Silver Surfer” (2007).
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fantastic Four” is a flailing 2, another failure, proving that the Marvel name no longer guarantees blockbuster box-office.
