Fantastic Four (2015 film)
Directed by Josh Trank, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg, it stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell.Childhood friends Reed Richards and Ben Grimm have worked together on a prototype teleporter since youth, eventually attracting the attention of Professor Franklin Storm, director of the Baxter Foundation, a government-sponsored research institute for young prodigies.The experiment is successful, and the facility's supervisor, Dr. Allen, plans to send a group from NASA to venture into a parallel dimension known as "Planet Zero".Disappointed at being denied the chance to join the expedition, Reed, Johnny and Victor along with Ben use the Quantum Gate to embark on an unsanctioned voyage to Planet Zero, which they learn is a world filled with otherworldly substances.Reed, Johnny and Ben return to their shuttle just as Sue brings them back to Earth and Victor is seemingly killed after he falls into the collapsing landscape.The Quantum Gate explodes, altering Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben on a genetic level and granting them superhuman abilities beyond their control: Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue can become invisible and generate force fields, Johnny can engulf his entire body in fire and fly, and Ben acquires a rock-like hide which gives him superhuman strength and durability.Arriving in Planet Zero, Dr. Allen's explorers find Victor, who has been fused to his spacesuit and now possesses telekinetic abilities, and bring him back to Earth.Believing that Earth needs to be destroyed to protect his new home world from future invasions, Victor kills the scientists and soldiers in the base, including Dr. Allen and Professor Storm, and returns to Planet Zero using the Quantum Gate, with Ben, Johnny, Reed and Sue in pursuit.Returning to Earth, the group is rewarded by the US military for their heroics by being given a new base of operations known as "Central City" to study their abilities without government interference.In August 2009, 20th Century Fox announced that they would reboot the Fantastic Four film franchise, with Akiva Goldsman hired as producer, and Michael Green to write the screenplay.[29][30] While Trank was being considered as director, X-Men: First Class writers Zack Stentz and Ashley Edward Miller were assigned to work on the script.[53] Director Josh Trank justified his decision by saying the move to cast Jordan as Johnny Storm was taken to bring the iconic comic book team in line with real-world demographics.[35] He later admitted that he wanted to cast a Black actress for the role of Susan Storm, but that the studio insisted on retaining her ethnicity for the film.[56] Principal photography commenced on May 5, 2014, at the Celtic Media Centre in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and ended on August 23, 2014, lasting for 72 days.[10] Additional music contributions were made by Miles Hankins, Brandon Roberts, Marcus Trumpp, and Buck Sanders,[81] with American hip-hop recording artist El-P scoring the end credits of the film.[89] Graeme McMillan of The Hollywood Reporter gave the trailer a positive review, calling it a "surprisingly strong step in the right direction for a faithful adaptation of an often-problematic property."[90] Abraham Riesman of New York's Vulture also responded to the trailer positively, saying that the film "could be the most innovative and tonally unique marquee superhero movie."[91] However, correspondents for Newsarama noted that there was "nothing" in the trailer to characterize it as being based on the Fantastic Four, feeling it could have easily been a substitute for similar science fiction films such as 2014's Interstellar.[110] When asked by The New York Times to comment on the weekend box office results, Chris Aronson, Fox's president of domestic distribution said: "There's not much to say.[112][113] Outside North America, the film grossed $33.1 million on its opening weekend from 43 countries from 8,996 screens, coming at second place behind Rogue Nation at the international box office.The website's consensus reads: "Dull and downbeat, this Fantastic Four proves a woefully misguided attempt to translate a classic comic series without the humor, joy, or colorful thrills that made it great."[118] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave Fantastic Four one star out of four, calling it "the cinematic equivalent of malware" and "worse than worthless.[120] Brian Lowry of Variety found the film to be a technical improvement over the 2005 release but criticized its uneven pacing and writing, saying "Ultimately, Fox's stab at reviving one of its inherited Marvel properties feels less like a blockbuster for this age of comics-oriented tentpoles than it does another also-ran—not an embarrassment, but an experiment that didn't gel.He called the film "maddeningly lame and unimaginative" in addition to criticizing the visual style as a "dark, unattractive, gloomy mode."[124] David Jenkins of Little White Lies, on the other hand, praised Fantastic Four for its stylistic deviation from other recent superhero films, and argued that the film's characters "make decisions which may appear to lack credibility, but the writing works hard to show you why these people are doing what they are doing – and it's not just haphazard patching work, but believable reasons which build on the themes of the movie".[125] James Berardinelli gave the film 2.5/4 stars, saying Fantastic Four is "no better or worse [than] the other superhero movies of 2015", welcoming the dark tone, and praising the performance of the main actors.[132] In a retrospective piece on the film published in 2024 following the announcement of the reboot in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Samuel Williamson of Collider giving the opinion that putting the Fantastic Four inside a gritty drama made no sense, further opining that Miles Teller was too young for the role of Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic at the time of the film's release and that Jamie Bell had just been miscast as Ben Grimm/The Thing.[153] Drew McWeeny of HitFix said that while a sequel may not be produced in time for the 2017 release date, Fox would likely attempt to salvage the franchise, working with Trank's defined vision and adding adjustments to it.[162] Concept artist Alexander Lozano revealed that Trank's iteration of the Fantastic Four was considered for cameo appearances in Tim Miller's take on Deadpool 2.[168] At the 2019 Marvel Studios San Diego Comic-Con Hall H presentation, Feige announced that a Fantastic Four film which is set in the MCU is in development.
Josh TrankJeremy SlaterSimon KinbergFantastic FourStan LeeJack KirbyMatthew VaughnGregory GoodmanRobert KulzerMiles TellerMichael B. JordanKate MaraJamie BellToby KebbellReg E. CatheyTim Blake NelsonMatthew JensenStephen RivkinMarco BeltramiPhilip Glass20th Century FoxConstantin FilmMarvel EntertainmentMarv FilmsKinberg GenreTSG EntertainmentMoving Picture CompanyNew York Citysuperhero filmMarvel Comicssuperhero team of the same nameBaton Rouge, LouisianareshootsWilliamsburg CinemasGolden Raspberry AwardsWorst DirectorWorst Pictureacquired by Disney in 2019Marvel Cinematic UniverseReed RichardsBen GrimmteleporterFranklin Stormresearch instituteSue StormJohnny StormVictor Von Doomparallel dimensionPlanet Zerorubberforce fieldssuperhuman strengthCentral AmericatelekineticReed Richards / Mister FantasticJohnny Storm / Human TorchChronicleSue Storm / Invisible WomanBen Grimm / The ThingAndy SerkisVictor Von Doom / Dr. DoomDr. Franklin StormDr. AllenDan CastellanetaTim HeideckerMr. RichardsWayne PereChet HanksFantastic Four film franchiseAkiva GoldsmanMichael GreenAdrien BrodyJonathan Rhys MeyersKiefer SutherlandZack StentzAshley Edward MillerGalactusThe Avengers1994 cartoon seriesSeth Grahame-SmithMark Millarsame universeX-Men film seriesBryan SingerDavid CronenbergScannersThe FlySteven SpielbergTim BurtonKit HaringtonRichard MaddenJack O'ConnellSaoirse RonanMargot RobbieEmmy RossumSam RileyEddie RedmayneDomhnall GleesonMads MikkelsenDr. Storm.38 SpecialPrincipal photographyBaton RougeLouisianatax incentivesVancouverTwitterInstagramdirector's cutvisual effectsPixomondoRodeo FXWeta DigitalStephen E. RivkinFantastic Four (2015 soundtrack)Buck SandersKim Nam-joonMandy VentriceSouth KoreanSan Diego Comic-ConSony Classical RecordsThe Hollywood ReporterNew YorkNewsaramaInterstellarHitFix