Fantastic Four

This review may contain spoilers!

This film is anything but fantastic. I would give Fantastic Four a 3.5/10.

What this film had going for it was a good first act, the beginning of the origin story could have taken quite a compelling direction.

Jamie Bell, who played Ben Grimm, was quite a subtle soft spoken performance that really worked; he had a lot of chemistry with Teller and embodied the gruff best friend role quite well.

However the best performance came from Michael B. Jordan, who played Johnny Storm. There was a lot of controversy around Jordan's casting due to the character's race being changed; considering the quality of the film that should have been far from a concern. Jordan stepped up to this role in a really strong way, his cocky performance worked excellently for Storm. He had some immediate chemistry with Teller which was a fun relationship to watch onscreen. I think the way he brought Storm to audiences as this rebellious character who showed a very intelligent side was superb.

This film suffered majorly because the story dropped off after maybe half an hour, suddenly we were presented with terrible lines and scenes that were rushed. It felt like this entire film had had far too much cut from it and as such not a whole lot made sense within the film anymore. As a result the pacing of the film was immensely screwed up and the film dragged for quite a while.The action sequences were few and far between, The special effects, while good in places, more often than not looked exceptionally artificial and fake. The cinematography was boring, there were no signs of interesting shots in the film. Finally the score for Fantastic Four was weak, it was just filled with some bland, basic tones.

Miles Teller, who played Reed Richards, was an exceptionally boring protagonist; more often than not it felt like he'd act out of character and abandon past aspects of his performance. Kate Mara, who played Sue Storm, just looked like she didn't want to be there in her scenes; she was incredibly unlikeable and had no chemistry with any of her fellow cast members. Toby Kebbell, who played Victor Von Doom, was an abomination of a character; the film's biggest antagonist was reduced to a whiny lovesick anarchist. Reg E. Cathey, who played Dr. Franklin Storm, just failed to really connect with Mara or Jordan in any way that mattered; his voice droned and he was quite a boring role. Tim Blake Nelson, who played Dr. Allen, was another awful antagonist; he had no presence and felt unimportant throughout the film.