One Reddit user recaps his screening experience, claims the film is a total bust with little sense. Oh, and the Thing’s “Helicopter Jump” scene? It got cut from the film.
Reddit /user/shane632 broke down his experience during a UK screening and provides all the details towards why we as moviegoers should avoid FANT4STIC at all costs. Here is his list of the major issues the film suffers from:
NOTE: The “Spoilers” hyperlinks reveal what the actual spoiler is by simply hovering your cursor over it (you do NOT need click the hyperlink, just place your mouse icon over the top).
**REDDIT POST – SPOILERS**
Just saw it at a preview screening in the UK. Full disclosure: I wasn’t that hyped to see the film and thought it looked very generic from the trailers. Little did I know that it’s actually a lot worse than the trailers and the 2005 version is somehow better.
The Good:
- The acting is much better than the film deserves. The guy who played Sue/Johnny’s dad was the best by far.
The Bad:
- The tone is all over the place. There’s more humour than the trailer implied but it’s also quite brutal at times, especially when they transform and also when spoilers[1]
- Michael B Jordan doesn’t show up for the first 25% of the film
- Characters are off screen for fucking AGES at a time and it’s really noticeable, not sure if reshoots may have had a hand in this. The team aren’t really all together as a unit much until the end of the film.
- The only reason they go to the other dimension is because spoilers[2] . Seriously. It is awful and people will probably be talking about how shitty this set-up is for years.
- They don’t get transformed into superheroes until half-way through the film. Seriously.
- The CGI of the accident scene is WANK.
- There’s a very sudden spoilers[3] that feels like it was tacked on in reshoots
- Doom spoilers[4] . Oh and he looks like some sort of Downs Syndrome sock puppet, just awful.
- The final set-piece doesn’t make much sense at all, I was very confused by the logic of what was happening.
- Someone also noted that some scenes from the trailers are missing (like Thing jumping out of the plane). I can only assume they were casualties of the struggle to salvage this mess.
- Oh and Johnny talks about Instagram while he’s in the parallel dimension. Fuck this movie.
3.5/10. I’ll be around for a few hours so feel free to ask me anything
Take the above with a grain of salt, as this can’t be confirmed by any of the writing staff at GO simply because we have not seen it, though we have no reason to distrust this person (because, as you know, no one lies on the internet).
That said, the issues with this film do seem plausible, with various sources around the web remarking to similar issues with re-shoots and lousy CGI over the past several months. Even Variety posted a review that was less than favorable, but still a little political so as not to be TOO harsh on the film (gotta play nice with Hollywood, I guess). Rotten Tomatoes, other other hand, gives the film a single star and a 20% Rotten Rating with reviews that are far more critical.
“Frankly, it’s amazing this is watchable at all.” –Tom Huddleston, Time Out
“Fantastic Four feels like a 100-minute trailer for a movie that never happens.” –Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter
“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.” –Brian Lowry, Variety
Yikes! Sounds to us like this film is something to avoid this weekend at the theater. Instead, enjoy Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, an action-packed sequel with an unbelievable 93% Fresh rating.
FANT4STIC releases this Friday on August 7 and stars Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, and Tim Blake Nelson. The film is directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle).
