September 16, 2015. | Issue 4, Volume 63 I thebluebanner.nfci
MOVIE REVIEW
COMMOilARY
Fantastic Four teleports audience through a
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By Michael O'Hearn, Social Media Editor -
Going into the new Fantastic Four
film directed by Josh Trank, I didn’t
have high hopes.
I had heard about the numerous
complications behind the scenes,
ranging from the fist fights actor Miles
Teller almost ignited with Trank, to the
multiple reshoots the film added at the
last minute.
So where do I begin to tell readers
this movie not only met my low ex
pectations, but also made history as the
biggest bomb of 2015? Starting from
the top of this atrocity sounds like a fine
idea.
I want to liken this film to what
might happen if someone were to run
a red light in New York City in a shiny
Ferrari going way over the speed limit.
Numerous pedestrians would be killed,
cars would crash and bum and the
whole scene would be a fiery explosion
of mayhem and destruction.
The movie theater audience might be
like the police personnel, yelling at the
Ferrari to stop dead in its tracks in order
to spare innocent lives.
The concept behind this reboot of the
mohearn@unca.edu
2005 movie is interesting enough. Reed
Richards discovers interdimensional
travel at a young age and is enlisted
by a scientist, Franklin Storm, and his
daughter, to do more experiments on his
findings while in high school.
It’s the execution of this film, includ
ing the acting and cringeworthy script,
that leaves something more to be de
sired by a casual moviegoer like myself.
Along the way, Richards’ childhood
friend, Ben Grimm, and Franklin
Storm’s son, Johnny Storm, get in
volved with the project. The scientist
also has to call upon Victor von Doom
for some inexplicable reason for addi
tional support.
During the first 45 minutes, we follow
the new team as they try to get along
with each other while perfecting the sci
ence of teleporting between dimensions.
Read the last sentence again, putting
emphasis on 45 minutes and consid
ering all of this time is used for the
exposition of the science that goes into
the team’s research and the construction
of Richards’ machine on a full scale.
The experience of taking a short-lived
trip to another dimension only lasts 10
minutes, which, of course, fails, setting
up the rest of the movie. '
The movie needed some kind of dra
ma extending beyond the tired cliches
utilized in this film. Johnny Storm is
reckless and his father disapproves of
the way he lives in the shadow of Sue
Storm, his adopted sister.
Reed Richards and Victor von Doom
immediately dislike each other once
paired up, which makes little sense to
me because there is no prior history
between the two scientists.
And, of course, we get the forced love
triangle between Doom, Richards and
Sue Storm. Richards tries to flirt with
Storm by bringing up music, inquis
itively calling it “her thing,’’ which
comes off awkward and uninspired.
We get a mere mention that Doom has
romantic feelings for Sue Storm, which
don’t resurface until the very end when
Doom is trying to kill everyone. So, that
doesn’t work in his favor, either.
Once the main characters get their
powers, we see them locked up for the
next 20 minutes. Enter Act Two, in
which the government wants to experi
ment with the characters, to the dismay
of Franklin Storm.
Fast forward a year, where the Storm
siblings are recklessly playing with their
powers and the U.S. military is using
Ben Grimm as a weapon like the Hulk.
Richards is in a self-imposed exile.
He feels he can’t help his friends cir
cumnavigate their new abilities and the
government wanting to use them as the
basis for advanced soldiers.
At this point, the movie is three-quar
ters of the way done, and all the audi
ence has seen is work on the teleporta
tion machine, one failed trip to another
dimension, and Richards being brought
back into the fray from exile.
Nothing fantastic has occurred yet,
and the movie is more than an hour in.
Bear in mind the film has 30 minutes
left to establish these so-called heroes
as a team, while also bringing in a for
midable villain for the heroes to fight in
the thrilling and final battle.
It is presumed up to a point that
Doom perished while on the first trip
to the other dimension. Despite the
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