FANTASTIC FOUR Trailer
Superhero movies have evolved into a Super Bowl-sized cinematic event. On the surface, the genre often only depicts the theme of the struggle between the Yin and Yang of a superpower. However, put a mixture of special effects and stirring comic book action on top of it, people will come running to theaters. Throughout the years, we’ve seen a roster of comic book superheroes brought to life, and the boy inside me is eager for more . However, it looks like reboots are blossoming instead. We’ve seen the stories of Batman, Spiderman and Superman in various inceptions, and in 2015, we’ll get Fantastic Four again.
Following the trend of modern reboots, the 2015 version of the Fantastic Four undergoes renovation (or, more appropriately, a rejuvenation) from its previous release ten years ago. Up-and-coming director Josh Trank now leads the way for four new, younger faces: Miles Teller as Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Kate Mara as Sue Storm (Invisible Girl), Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm (Human Torch) and Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm (The Thing).
As the movie’s plot is based on the “Ultimate Fantastic Four” arc, we now see these iconic characters in their teenage years. Very few details are given so far, but from what I can tell from the teaser is that they are corporate lab rats used as the faces of an experiment bound to fail. Soon, the four discover the changes in them, a blessing in disguise, and the rest becomes history.
You can tell that Josh Trank stole Christopher Nolan‘s memo based on the first few minutes of the teaser. You can’t be blamed for mistaking the first part of it for the trailer for Interstellar. We’ve seen it all before: the sweeping shots of crop fields, objects floating in the air, a car driving down a dirt road and a band of astronauts climbing aboard capsule-like compartments.
Despite all that, I appreciate the style change in Josh Trank ‘s Fantastic Four. It’s not just the new square “4” logo, but all the campy colors you associate with its source material ebbs away into a shade of gritty darkness. Instead of the skin-tight blue spandex, we now see our heroes clad in intricately designed space garments. Furthermore, while some shots already revealed the rocky presence of the Thing breaking out of his hibernation and Johnny Storm catching fire as the Human Torch, it’s quite disappointing we haven’t seen Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s alter-egos in a bit of action. Even more details about Doctor Doom are still eluding us.
As a film, the dark re-imagining of the Fantastic Four story could be the right direction for a potential new franchise. At the end of the day, seeing the Fantastic Four in action is the main course, but sometimes, you need a bit more spice and it’s Hollywood’s job to make the people behind the masks similarly appealing. Josh Trank touched onto the social side of the superhero narrative in Chronicle, and perhaps that’s what interested 20th Century Fox to hire him to direct Fantastic Four. He’s also set to helm a Star Wars spin-off, so FF is a chance for Star Wars fans to get a glimpse of what Josh Trank can do with a bigger budget and bigger material.
You’ll be the judge on August 6th, 2015 in the U.K. and August 7th, 2015 in the U.S.. For more international release dates, look it up here .
Tell us your opinion. Do you think Trank’s Fantastic Four will be a success?
(top image: Marvel Comics)
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