The first wave of reviews for Fox's "Fantastic Four" reboot have begun to hit the Internet, and so far the film is living up to the rumors of its troubled production.
Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter was relegated to corny puns to express his disappointment with the movie, saying "More like the Unfantastic Four."
Variety's Brian Lowry unfavorably compared the movie to the latest surge of quality superhero films, writing, "Fox's attempt to revive an inherited Marvel property feels like an also-ran in the comicbook-adaptation sweepstakes."
Some movie-goers have complained of superhero fatigue in recent months, especially with the tired formula of telling origin stories. That narrative choice may have been one the undoing factors of the "Fantastic Four."
"With all this tedious Tinkertoy origin-story business out of the way, there could certainly be some entertaining 'Fantastic Four' adventures in the future with the ensemble," Alonso Duralde of The Wrap wrote. "Whether or not audiences will want to gamble another 100 minutes of their lives on subsequent chapters, however, is another matter entirely."
Fans of the source material were worried that director Josh Trank and writer/producer Simon Kinberg were straying too far away from the source material with a darker tone. Kinberg went so far as to do some damage control in a recent interview. Although a property originally conceived more than 50 years ago has to be updated for modern times, it sounds as if the film failed to effectively make the transition.
"The biggest mistake here seems to have been trying to marry a dark and realistic tone with the story of four teenagers whose superpowers include transforming into rock, generating force fields and becoming very stretchy" Emma Dibdin of Digital Spy wrote. "While far from the unmitigated disaster some had predicted, Fantastic Four feels unlikely to kick-start a new franchise, barely sustaining the narrative steam to power itself through its modest 90-minute running time."
Sorry, Fox, sounds like your planned X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover is D.O.A.
