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The only bit which amused me particularly, is that the Young Reed powers his first teleporter with an array of Nintendo 64 consoles. That scene is set in 2007, so you’d think he’d be working with Playstation 3s, but then again, nothing beats that old retro charm. Perhaps the second film will go back further and show his Dad working on something similar, but with a bank of Atari VCS 2600 machines?
Oh, there was one other amusing thing. In the credits, there’s a crew member with the surname “TV”. And their first name is not Mike.
Okay, one more amusing thing…. Dan Castellaneta, aka Homer Simpson, gets a brief cameo early on as Young Reed’s teacher, Mr Kenny.
It’s watchable, which is more than can be said for Ant-Man and the other terrible summer ‘blockbuster’, Terminator Genisys, but it’s also a lazy film. Fantastically lazy.
However, if you want to do lame reboots, Fox, why not go a bit further back and reanimate the corspe of Paul Walker in CGI form and have him running barefoot around Nakatomi Plaza in a new Die Hard movie? (No, Dom, don’t give them ideas)
On the plus side, however, this is the only recent superhero film which, while shot in 2D like every single one in the last few years (only 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man was recently shot in 3D *and* with some IMAX scenes), has NOT been given a faked 3D and/or IMAX print. Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and even Insurgent take note.
Fantastic Four barely even manages ‘Mediocre Four’, and it says a lot that one of the best bits of sitting in that room was watching a trailer for Bad Education: The Movie!
And after director and co-writer Josh Trank gave us an engaging movie in 2012 with Chronicle, what a shame this was his follow-up.
Now… what score to give a film where ‘four’ is the not-so-magic number…?
Fantastic Four is out now in the cinema, and will eventually be out on Blu-ray and DVD. Wait till it comes on TV. And then go out.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 100 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2015
Format: 2.35:1 (ARRIRAW (2.8K))
Released: August 6th 2015
Rating: 4/10
Director: Josh Trank
Producers: Gregory Goodman, Simon Kinberg, Robert Kulzer, Hutch Parker and Matthew Vaughn
Screenplay: Simon Kinberg, Jeremy Slater and Josh Trank (based on characters by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby)
Music: Marco Beltrami and Philip Glass
Cast:
Reed Richards: Miles Teller
Johnny Storm/The Human Torch: Michael B Jordan
Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman: Kate Mara
Ben Grimm/The Thing: Jamie Bell
Victor Von Doom/Dr Doom: Toby Kebbell
Dr Franklin Storm: Reg E Cathey
Dr Allen: Tim Blake Nelson
Quarterback Speech School Kid: Joshua Montes
Mr Kenny: Dan Castellaneta
Young Reed: Owen Judge
Young Ben: Evan Hannemann
Jimmy Grimm: Chet Hanks
Mrs Grimm: Mary-Pat Green
Mr Richards: Tim Heidecker
Mrs Richards: Mary Rachel Dudley
Trash Talk Car Driver: Gabe Begneaud
Girl Classmate: Anna R Parsons
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.