Les Quatre Fantastiques

Je comprends que quand un film échoue, surtout s'il est basé sur une source célèbre, des efforts soient mis en œuvre pour créer une toute nouvelle adaptation. Malheureusement, la série Les Quatre Fantastiques semble être maudite, parce que cette version est incroyablement ennuyeuse, irritante, stérile, et dans tous ses aspects bien pire que les adaptations précédentes. Pourtant, avec sa distribution, elle aurait pu aspirer à plus. Kate Mara non plus ne se distingue absolument pas cette fois, ce qui au moins n'était pas le cas de Jessica Alba dans les films précédents. Imbuvable, quasi dénué d'intrigue, consternant. En plus, pendant environ un tiers du film, j'ignorais qui allait devenir qui – à l'exception, bien sûr, de la Femme invisible. Un aspirant au pire film de Marvel, bien qu'il y ait certainement d'autres concurrents. (05/03/2024)

I must say I was quite surprised by the pretty negative reviews this movie has been getting here. I didn’t think The Fantastic Four was any worse than the last Avengers movie. The fact that the plot is as silly as a pair of trousers with holes in them does not surprise me at all. That is essentially true about every other Marvel movie (or DC Comics, they’re pretty much the same) that is being made these days. But I do have to say that I liked the way they depicted other dimensions and planets. You can clearly see that some grumpy digital effects specialist really had a great time playing with those in this film. I didn’t have any problem with the actors, either. For instance, I’ve really enjoyed Miles Teller’s performances lately. I don’t need to point out that this movie is useless. In my opinion, any contemporary comic book movie is useless – they keep recycling the same things over and over again. A three-star review is adequate. What I got was superheroes, a beautiful and colorful digital world and an average villain who has his better moments. So, I got pretty much everything these movies are able to offer. You see, these movies hardly ever manage to deliver more than that. (27/10/2016)

I don't like comic book films about heroes with superpowers because I consider them to be heavily infantile and their audience clearly belongs to a different age category than mine. But even within what comic books work with and strive for, Fantastic Four tragically fails. It amounts to sterile boredom, where all attempts at dramatic transcendence fail and where it lacks even what its genre colleagues possess, namely exciting action and plenty of special effects. The ratio of investment to result here is catastrophic. Overall impression: 10%. (04/02/2018)

This is a film with zero ambition and it has no idea whether it wants to be a party of geeks gifted with superpowers or a comic thriller about an unexpected gift from another dimension. It’s a dramaturgically-muddled mess in which nothing works, especially the foursome itself. The origins of the heroes are referenced through futile dialogue and with zero chemistry, so it’s pretty loose, although a few heads do surprisingly explode at the end. Trank has created a movie without a face, and I only half believe all the crying over Fox's intervention. It's clear that it was heavily edited, but if a group is called the Fantastic Four... (13/08/2015)

An origin story like crazy, that could never find a favorable reception with the audience. It contains so many separate films that it remains almost untenable as a whole. In the first layer, it goes through the exploration of other worlds, in the second it explores oneself when trying to succeed in your field despite unfavorable circumstances. And in the third layer, a military dilemma is projected, and ultimately also the predictable realm of an action comic. To fit all of this into one blockbuster would take three hours, and even then it wouldn't be easy. Josh Trank attempts to master it in ninety minutes, which is complete folly, but it's so appealing to me because of the fight with the windmills. Also because he knew how to lead the viewer to the characters – primarily through the boyish charm of Miles Teller and the closeups on Kate Mara's eyes. That's why it's a pity that the birth of an iconic villain comes across completely empty and doesn't create a craving for a potential (however unlikely) sequel. (12/01/2016)