Movie Reviews Special: Fantastic Four

By Alex Wiggan

Later this year, Marvel’s super-team, the Fantastic Four are set to grace the big screen in big budget adventure movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps. The film – directed by Matt Shakman – stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner, and Ralph Ineson, and is the 37th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

Although Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the first official entry in the MCU, this isn’t the first Fantastic Four film. As comic book movie fans will tell you, there have been other FF films, including most notably two relatively successful films during the ‘00s.

You can find out more about those FF movies along with details about the other films in today’s bonus edition of Movie Reviews Special (it’s a bonus because it’s the second Special this month). Movies reviewed in this Special include 1994’s The Fantastic Four, 2005’s Fantastic Four, 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 2015’s Fantastic Four, and the documentary-film, Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four.

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Unreleased…

The Fantastic Four (1994)

First up is the unreleased comic book fantasy movie, The Fantastic Four. And yes, you read that correctly, the “unreleased” movie.

You see, this film exists, it was shot in the early ‘90s, and is a tangible thing, but 1994’s The Fantastic Four has never been released to the public in an official capacity. Plenty of the public have seen it – via bootleg copies or YouTube – but the film didn’t play on the local multiplex, wasn’t available at Blockbuster, and isn’t streaming on Netflix.

Produced by Bernd Eichinger of Constantin Films, in conjunction with B-movie specialist Roger Corman, The Fantastic Four was made on a budget of around $1 million, and as far as Hollywood films go, it is low-rent stuff. Terrible stuff? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but certainly not high-quality entertainment you might sit down and watch today.

That said, even back in 1994 it wouldn’t have been classed as high-quality entertainment. It lacked the right money to make it truly work.

As the story goes, Constantin Films had the rights to make an FF film, but those rights were soon set to expire and return to Marvel. If the studio didn’t get a film off the ground quickly, it wouldn’t be able to get a film off the ground at all.

So a low budget FF film was put into production, so Constantin Films could retain those all-important rights for longer. Was the movie ever meant to be anything other than an exercise in extending rights? That’s up for debate.

Either way, production was completed on the picture and then it just sat on a shelf gathering dust, before it was reportedly destroyed. But not before copies leaked to the public.

So, what exactly is The Fantastic Four?

Directed by Oley Sassone, and starring Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, Michael Bailey Smith, Carl Ciarfalio, and Joseph Culp, The Fantastic Four is an origin story detailing the formation of the super-group. The movie introduces Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, and the Thing; depicts the incident which gave them their unique abilities; and showcases their conflict with the villainous Dr. Doom.

In addition to the above, The Fantastic Four finds room for the Mole Man-like character, The Jeweler, who is linked to the FF’s origin; offers a spot of romance between the Thing and blind artist Alicia Masters; and ends with a wedding for Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. All of these characters and story beats are either inspired by and/or plucked directly from the comics, making this a fairly colourful, fairly pulpy offering.

In fact, for all its shortcomings, The Fantastic Four is a movie which is refreshingly unapologetic about its comic book origins. The film may be cheap, with special effects that appear to have been knocked up in someone’s back bedroom, but at the very least it tries to be a comic book accurate FF film, with an eye on the Jack Kirby/Stan Lee era of the comics.

Of course, the main problem is the lack of financial investment. The Fantastic Four was put into production on a shoestring and whatever way you cut it, the film’s monetary limitations are impossible to hide.

On the plus side, the cast of The Fantastic Four are fully committed; the core characters look comic book accurate (especially the Thing and Dr. Doom); and the film is a completed picture – fully scored, with no missing scenes, etc. Despite what anyone might think of it (and it does have a fan-following) it’s not the worst thing in the world.

And to be fair, much worse films have seen the light of day. If Marvel clunkers such as Dr. Strange(1978), Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979), Generation X (1996), and Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D (1998) were once deemed fit for human consumption, then The Fantastic Four definitely got a raw deal.

But deal or no deal, the film is still not something ever likely to appeal to mainstream audiences – and certainly not now, at this point in the lifecycle of superhero cinema. Outside of curious comic book fans and cinephile completists there’s little on offer here to appeal to most movie-watchers.

The Fantastic Four isn’t the abomination you might expect, and it certainly captures the spirit of the early comics, but it is still low budget schlock with a basic story. The film is a product of its era, as well as a novel footnote in Marvel’s history, but that’s about it.

Comic accurate? Definitely. But stellar stuff? No – although kudos to those who tried hard to make it work.

Anyway, should you wish to check it out, 1994’s The Fantastic Four is currently doing the rounds on YouTube. Unofficially, of course.

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Now streaming…

Fantastic Four (2005)

Up next is an FF film which DID make it into cinemas. In fact, this one made over $333 million at the worldwide box office, helped sell plenty of toys, and gave non-comic book fans a general understanding of who the FF are.

Originally released in 2005, and riding a wave of high-profile Marvel films (X-Men, Spider-Man, Hulk, etc), Fantastic Four is another adventure picture, this time with a bigger budget. Directed by Tim Story, the movie stars Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon, and details the origin of the Fantastic Four as well as their relationship with Victor Von Doom.

In the movie, Dr. Reed Richards and his best friend, Ben Grimm convince Reed’s old pal, Victor Von Doom to provide them access to his space station. Reed is a brilliant scientist, who wants to conduct experiments with cosmic energy and needs time in the space station to do it.

After Victor gives the go-ahead for the project, Reed, Ben, and Victor travel to the space station accompanied by Reed’s ex-girlfriend Sue Storm, and Sue’s brother Johnny. Collectively the five will work together so that Reed can study cosmic clouds and hopefully make important breakthroughs

Unfortunately, there is a miscalculation and the cosmic clouds arrive earlier than expected. Everyone is hit with a huge blast of cosmic energy, although everyone survives, seemingly unharmed.

However, as the quintet soon discover, the cosmic energy has radically altered their DNA. Reed can now stretch his body, Sue can turn invisible, Johnny can produce flames at will, and Ben is covered in a rocky exterior.

Meanwhile, Victor’s body slowly turns into organic metal. But unlike the others, he keeps his transformation a secret.

With Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben keen to find a way to undo the damage caused by the cosmic cloud, they join together and eventually become super heroes. Going by the name the Fantastic Four, the team reach celebrity status in New York and across the world.

But Victor is not ready to play hero and instead wishes to drive a wedge between the group. Calling himself Doom, Victor attempts to pick them off, one-by-one.

It’s fair to say, Fantastic Four isn’t the pinnacle of comic book movies. When the film was initially released back in 2005, it didn’t bring anything particularly new to the table.

The film also wasn’t quite as fresh as it could be. Pixar’s The Incredibles – an animated film about a similarly themed super-team – arrived the year before, which sort of stole the FF’s thunder.

However, while Fantastic Four isn’t the best of the best when it comes to super hero cinema (and it’s not the best FF film either), it’s still highly likeable. Gruffudd and Alba are decent as Reed and Sue; Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis are excellent as Johnny and Ben (truly brilliant casting); and the chemistry between the four is spot on.

Tonally the film operates in the right area too and it has a comic book feel to proceedings. Put simply: It has many of the right components, it just doesn’t quite utilise them as effectively as it needs to.

Where things don’t work so well is in the casting of Julian McMahon, who lacks the gravitas to play Doom, and in the story which struggles to balance the team’s origin with enough super heroics. Apart from a bridge disaster (technically caused by the FF), and a battle with Doom, there’s limited action and few hero moments.

What Fantastic Four desperately needs is a hero montage. Mr. Fantastic rescuing a cat stuck in a tree, the Thing taking down a gang of muggers – that sort of thing.

There’s a bit too much set-up and exposition in the film, and not enough scenes of the team doing good deeds. It’s as if all the parts are there, and it’s moving in the right direction, it just requires further development, as well as some clearly defined scenes of good vs. evil.

But yeah, it’s fine. Not outstanding, but fine.

Fantastic Four has fairly solid foundations, it just needs to go bigger and harder. The bones of the FF are in place, and the core four are fun to watch, but the story just needs to push beyond a mere origin tale.

In short: There’s room for improvement. It’s not a poor film, just one that could be better.

Should you wish to check out Fantastic Four, the movie is currently streaming on Disney+.

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Now streaming…

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, the Earth is experiencing some strange phenomena. It is snowing in Egypt, there are huge blackouts in the US, and no one knows what is the cause.

Meanwhile, in New York, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are preparing to get married. It’s set to be the wedding of the century, and Reed is determined to not let any crisis get in the way of the big day.

But things don’t quite work out as planned when the military show up and request the help of the Fantastic Four. Something, or someone is disrupting the Earth, and this could spell disaster for the human race.

Released in 2007 – and currently streaming on Disney+ – Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is the direct sequel to 2005’s Fantastic Four. Tim Story returns to the director’s chair for this second instalment, while Gruffudd, Alba, Evans, Chiklis, and McMahon all reprise their roles from the previous film.

Meanwhile, newcomers include Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne. Both help bring the titular Silver Surfer to the screen, with the former providing the physical body and motion capture work, and the latter providing the voice of the character.

As for the Surfer himself, he is an alien life form who zips around on a cosmic surfboard. And yes, you guessed it, he is silver.

The Surfer’s role in the film is to be the herald to a god-like entity known as Galactus, which appears in the movie in the form of a cloud (more about that in a moment). The thrust of this movie is the FF learning who the Surfer is, then working on the bigger threat posed by Galactus.

Meanwhile, Doom is back and causing problems. He wants the Surfer’s cosmic surfboard, so he can become all powerful.

And if that wasn’t enough, contact with the Silver Surfer is having a strange effect on the Human Torch. Whenever he touches one of his teammates, he causes them to switch powers.

As you can see from the plot description above, there’s a lot more going on with Rise of the Silver Surfer than there was with its predecessor. Lessons appear to have been learned from the previous film, and now the pesky origin is out of the way, this film is able to get right into things.

These things include all the aforementioned shenanigans with the Silver Surfer and Doom, plus some actual heroics. At one point the FF stop the London Eye from collapsing (protecting civilians in the process); an out-of-control helicopter is stopped from causing carnage at Reed and Sue’s wedding; plus the team work with the military to save the world!

If Fantastic Four lacked heroics, Rise of the Silver attempts to make up for it. The film also moves at a faster pace, has an even better handle on the characters, and features some slicker visuals.

Heck, even Doom is better this time around. McMahon still doesn’t feel like the right actor to embody Dr. Doom, but he seems more at ease in this sequel and utilised to a stronger degree.

The weak points largely fall in the direction of the film’s ’big bad’, aka Galactus. In the comics, Galactus is a gigantic alien, who towers over humanity, whereas in Rise of the Silver Surfer he is depicted as a budget-saving cloud.

For a sequel that improves on what came before, this is a significant misstep. Especially when the movie is essentially building up to the arrival of Galactus in the final act.

If you’re going to put a planet-destroying character in your FF film, then make him more imposing than smoke and mirrors (and CGI particles). Galactus is also a big deal in the Marvel Universe, so his inclusion here is a waste.

Putting the Galactus issue aside, outside of a rushed finale which doesn’t ever feel as ‘world-ending’ as it is supposed to be, Rise of the Silver Surfer is an improvement on Fantastic Four. Once again, there’s a lot to like, and with some necessary tweaks in place the film continues to move in the right direction.

Unfortunately, this film didn’t make as much money as Fantastic Four (and on an increased budget no less), which essentially derailed the series. But it is agreeable and should not have been the end point of these films.

Would things have improved even further with a third entry? Who knows, but as it stands Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is once again enjoyable.

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Now streaming…

Fantastic Four (2015)

With Rise of the Silver Surfer falling short of expectations, plans for a third film were cast in doubt. For a while, 20th Century Fox – the studio that held the rights to the FF films – considered pushing ahead with another sequel, but after years of kicking around the idea, nothing came to pass.

However, 20th Century Fox now had a very pressing problem on its hands which may sound very familiar. In order for the studio to retain the rights to the property (which otherwise belonged to Marvel), they had to put another film into production by a specific contractual start date.

Fail to act, and the rights would revert. So, sequel or no sequel, another FF movie had to happen – and it had to happen fast.

Step forward 2015’s Fantastic Four (stylised as Fant4stic). Directed by Josh Trank, the film stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, and Toby Kebbell, and is a reboot of the film series.

Taking inspiration from the Ultimate Fantastic Four comics, the film focuses on a younger iteration of the characters. The movie is also less of a super hero tale, and more of a body horror… although it is a misguided and mishandled one at that.

In this take on the Fantastic Four mythology, Reed Richards is recruited by the Baxter Foundation (a government-sponsored research facility) to work on a teleportation device. Reed has been interested in teleportation since he was a child, and Franklin Storm – the head of the Foundation – believes Reed could be instrumental in making their project a reality.

Teaming up with Franklin’s children, Sue and Johnny, as well as fellow scientist Victor Von Doom, Reed helps to create a workable teleporter dubbed the Quantum Gate. The device is capable of transporting a monkey to another dimension, and with a bit more testing should work for human transportation.

But when Reed and Co. are denied the opportunity to send themselves through the Gate, they decide to go ahead without approval. Reed then calls in old pal Ben Grimm to tag along, and he, Ben, Johnny, and Victor attempt a test run.

The test works, but things go disastrously wrong. Victor is seemingly killed in the other dimension, while Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Sue (who is back in the control room) are caught up in an explosion.

The incident results in significant changes to their bodies, granting them extraordinary abilities. These abilities become very interesting to the Government.

Plagued with behind the scenes problems, including script issues, disagreements between 20th Century Fox and director Josh Trank, and a series of reshoots the studio ordered without Trank’s involvement, Fantastic Four was a messy production, and boy, does it show. The finished product is a film that doesn’t seem to entertain, it just exists.

Slow, fairly uneventful, painfully boring and at times simply dire, the movie is a complete misfire. It starts off on the wrong foot, continues down a rocky path for the vast majority of the run time, and never goes anywhere of any value.

After a very drawn-out origin story, the movie switches to an extremely rushed climax, with Doom chucked in as a last-minute adversary. Presumably this terrible finale is here to wrap things up as best as possible, simply to get the film over and done with so we can all move on with our lives.

The combination of studio meddling and a directionless director is evident throughout the picture, as are the various scenes which were reshot and thrown into the existing footage. You need only pay attention to Kate Mara’s terrible and ever-changing wig to see the ups and downs of the problematic production, although focusing on it for too long will send you crazy.

However, the biggest issue the movie struggles with is its status as a Fantastic Four film. This is pretty much an FF film in name alone, because it doesn’t ever feel like it wants to be anything remotely connected to the Marvel characters.

In fact, the team aren’t even called the Fantastic Four in the movie. They also don’t really do anything fantastic… or anything of note at all.

Fantastic Four is a dour reboot no one in 2015 asked for and few believed would be any good. All these years on, it’s still shit.

The lead actors are dreadfully miscast, the story is paper thin, and the tone, vibe, and general aesthetic are all wrong. The film is the perfect example of someone setting out to adapt a beloved property and completely misunderstanding what makes the property so beloved in the first place.

The low-budget FF film from 1994 may have gone down in history as the film that didn’t get released, but at least it wanted to be an actual Fantastic Four film. This one from 2015 clearly has no interest in its source material and wastes money, time, and an opportunity to give the characters their chance to shine.

It’s rubbish and should be avoided at all costs. You can currently stream it on Disney+, but just because you can do something, doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

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Now streaming…

Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four (2015)

And finally, it’s time to come full circle, with a documentary film about the making of 1994’s The Fantastic Four. Written and directed by Marty Langford, Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four provides details about the production of the unreleased film, along with insights and information from the cast and crew.

Featuring input from all the main players, including director Oley Sassone, as well as cast members Alex Hyde-White, Rebecca Staab, Jay Underwood, Joseph Culp, and Michael Bailey Smith, the docu-film offers a fascinating insight into this lost production. The documentary lifts the lid on what happened, as well as who was involved, painting a (mostly) clear picture about the pitfalls that befell this FF film.

The key takeaway of Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four is that regardless of what ultimately transpired, the cast and crew put their heart and soul into the movie. They genuinely believed they were making the best picture they could under the circumstances, and embraced it wholeheartedly.

This included interacting with fans in the early ‘90s, and trying to sell the heck out of the film once the shoot was over. For the cast, this wasn’t just another project, it was a recognisable brand name with a loyal fanbase, and they wanted to live up to this.

Heck, even a decade ago, when Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four was initially filmed and produced, the cast still believed The Fantastic Four could live on through DVD and digital. And while this hasn’t come to pass, and probably never will now, it’s lovely to see actors taking pride in their work.

Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four is insightful stuff and an interesting watch for those who want the full lowdown. Is it a must-watch? Erm… only if you are really invested in the Fantastic Four, but it’s fine for casual audiences.

What the documentary does do is include small snippets of The Fantastic Four in arguably the best quality available. Most bootleg versions of the film, as well as the one that regularly appears on YouTube is a copy of a copy etc, so this does at least show the film in a better light.

As for the documentary’s presentation, it’s mostly head shots/talking to camera stuff, so nothing dynamic. It’s standard stuff, so doesn’t necessarily have repeat value, but it does the job as intended and that’s fine enough.

The purpose of Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four is about providing the cast and crew of The Fantastic Four with a voice and it certainly does this. If you want the inside story from the people who were actually on the inside, then this is the FF documentary to watch.

Should you wish to view Doomed!: The Untold Story of Roger Corman’s The Fantastic Four, the docu-film is currently available to rent or buy on video on demand from Amazon. And if you’re lucky, you might also be able to catch it on YouTube.