First Teaser for Summer Reboot Debuts
The first two Fantastic Four films were awful. Jessica Alba as Susan Storm? Galactus as a weird giant cyclone thing? Michael Chiklis. So, it wasn't a huge surprise when Twentieth Century Fox announced that they were going the reboot route to try and bring one of Marvel's longest running properties to prominence on the big screen. It started out promisingly enough. Fox announced that Josh Trank would direct the reboot. He was just coming off the well received, found footage teens with powers flick, "Chronicle." It all started to unravel a little bit when the cast was announced. In case you didn't know who was in the movie, Miles Teller is Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara is Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, Jamie Bell is The Thing and Michael B. Jordan is Johnny Storm/the Human Torch. There was the ridiculous faux controversy of casting an African American actor as Johnny. Again, dumb. My main issue with this cast is the fact that all of them save Mara are under thirty. I can kind of understand the studio wanting to cast younger actors, but it's hard for me to take Reed Richards seriously, when the actor playing him is younger than I am.
More red flags popped up when the cast and director began describing the film. Mara was told by Trank that she didn't have to read up on any of the source material. What?! Look, I get trying to bring your own style to it, but you should have some sense for who this character is. Then, there were reports that this was going to be a more "realistic" take on Marvel's First Family. Really? Realism? The word "fantastic" is in the team name. There should be a sense of wonder. They are a team of adventurers. Now we get this first teaser trailer. You would think that this would clear up some of the doubts that people are having, but instead it just muddies the waters further. This looks like another ploy to turn a franchise that is about as far as it could be from Batman into a Dark Knight retread. It's dark and grimy. You get some fast cuts of the team using their powers, but nothing too concrete. It's unclear how the team gets their powers. You see them entering these strange pods and then they are maybe transported to another planet? There is an Ominous Voice Over Promising Impending Doom™ that is maybe provided by Victor von Doom.
I don't know about this you guys. Nothing in this trailer gives me Fantastic Four. There is no sense of camaraderie. No humor. Who knows. Maybe the person who cut this trailer just didn't know the actual tone of the movie, so they gave us this. The people involved in Marvel's second big summer movie, "Ant Man," faced some criticism when it was released because of it's serious tone. The actors and filmmakers were quick to respond that there was humor and light heartedness that the trailer didn't convey. So, maybe that will be the case with this movie? I mean, if worse comes to worst, and this flops, Marvel will get the rights back and maybe we will finally get the live action Fantastic Four that fans deserve. Here is the trailer:
What do you guys think? Am I missing something? Is there someone out there really excited to see this in August? Convince me in the comments.
