Perhaps there’s reason to be optimistic about this August’s Fantastic Four after all. Fox’s reboot of the Marvel franchise has had to swim against a current of negative publicity and a perception that director Josh Trank didn’t really want to make a superhero film, preferring to veer away from the property’s comic book origins.
The teaser trailer released in late January seemed to confirm that view. This wasn’t a bright, fun, inspiring take on Marvel’s first family of superheroic adventurers. It looked bleak and grim, almost like a horror movie, rather than the family-friendly, upbeat tone that the comic books and first two films (directed by Tim Story) carried. In interviews, Trank said he was focused on the “body horror” of four people (five, including the group’s arch-nemesis) having their physiologies altered and gaining extraordinary abilities. How much would a David Cronenberg-like superhero movie appeal to the masses?
But maybe that early impression should be reevaluated after Fox released a full, official trailer for Fantastic Four on Sunday.
OK, that’s more like it. From the outset, we learn about Reed Richards (played by Miles Teller) being a brilliant scientist, a fundamental trait of the Fantastic Four mythology which apparently kicks this story into motion. There’s a glimpse of the Baxter Building, the group’s headquarters. The rest of the characters — Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) and Victor Domashev (Toby Kebbell) — are introduced to the audience, something that didn’t happen in the first trailer.
We get some humor, which was completely lacking in the first look at the movie, from the interaction between the characters. Reed seems to have chemistry with Sue, but is awkward with an outgoing, impulsive personality like Johnny. The story points are laid out, telling us that the team is attempting interdimensional travel and the first trio goes wrong, leading to the five explorers undergoing significant physical and psychological changes. Some want to be “fixed,” to become normal again, while others see how those superpowers can be used for a greater good.
Most importantly, we get some special-effects spectacle. Reed’s limbs can stretch out to great lengths. Johnny’s body is set aflame. Sue can turn invisible. And Ben experiences the greatest change of all, becoming a monster whose skin is made of rock. These guys are the Fantastic Four! This is what we wanted! The movie might actually be fun!
Oh, and the fifth person on that trip becomes the FF’s greatest villain and adversary, bringing… Doom. Will the transformed Domashev be called Doctor Doom, as he is in the comics? Is the brief look at a metallic face a mask or has his skin been altered?
Answers to those questions will apparently have to be saved for the next trailer — or, you know, the actual movie — as we don’t see much. Fans of the comic book might not be crazy about Doom’s look, as it appears quite different from his comic book incarnation. But to be fair, we don’t yet know what this version of Doom will be like.
What we do know or think we know based on this latest three-minute preview of Fantastic Four is that it could be the superhero adventure we were led to believe we wouldn’t be getting. Will it be the same as what Marvel Studios has provided with the Avengers series of films? Probably not. But something of a deconstruction might help Trank’s film distinguish itself as a franchise, perhaps with a harder sci-fi turn and maybe some elements of horror.
In a crowded field at the movies, that could be more important than we realize. (Though the long-time Fantastic Four fans I’ve talked to aren’t happy about how different this film looks and dread what Trank and writer-producer Simon Kinberg are doing to their beloved characters.)
Fantastic Four is scheduled for an Aug. 7 release.
