The not so ‘Fantastic Four’

THEY’VE rebooted ‘Fantastic Four’ (2015) and it’s everything you’ve never wanted.

Saddled with a prosaic plot, Kate Mara’s B-grade wig and a villain who spends so little time on screen you forget there’s an antagonist, ‘Fantastic Four’ is back without a bang but with a solid plan to waste your life.

Though anything based on Marvel’s superheroes is pretty much pizza – pretty good even if it’s bad – this film kept its drama off screen and in production where it was re-edited and reshot in a prelude to shambles.

Directed by ‘Chronicle’s” (2012) Josh Trank, who disavowed the film on Twitter a day prior to its release before deleting his tweet, the film stars Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell.

However, the word ‘stars’ is used loosely because in this nobody shines.

Full of dull dialogue, weak motivations and a narrative that starts off well enough before cutting out the wonder of discovery and the grapple with phenomenal cosmic power that we all love, ‘Fantastic Four’ chugs along in spurts but mostly spends its time in labs waxing about the moon landing.

Sure, it’s the first film in the reboot and has to lay the foundation but here the foundation is laid at the cost of pace, character development and about 120 million ill-advised US dollars.

Wait this one out and watch it on television. Or better yet, forget this, watch ‘Ant-Man’ (2015) and see if 20th Century Fox can raise this franchise from the dead in the sequel slated for June 2017.

‘Fantastic Four’ (2015) is now showing at Ster-Kinekor at Maerua and Grove Mall.

– martha@namibian.com.na; @marth__vader on Twitter and Instagram