The "Fantastic Four" Marvel comic book series by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby has had a rocky cinematic history. A 1994 adaptation ran out of money and was never properly completed. A big-budget 2005 version starring Jessica Alba and a pre-"Captain America" Chris Evans did well enough to spawn a sequel, 2007's "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer," but neither one was positively received and audiences were left lukewarm by their homogenized blandness. If a promising up-and-coming director could turn things around with a lavish, $150-million summertime reboot, it would have seemed to be Josh Trank, he of 2012's ingeniously written, ambitiously crafted found-footage superhero saga "Chronicle." Alas, someone—or, more probably, a lot of someones—at 20th Century Fox have seen fit to botch the results. To watch this 2015 edition of "Fantastic Four" is to witness before one's very eyes a once-hopeful vision being eviscerated by simply too many cooks in the kitchen. Starting strong, losing its way at the midpoint, and finally collapsing in a haze of rushed plotting, garish effects work, and the kind of desperately bad dialogue for which not even the actors can withhold their contempt, the film very likely will be following the lead of 2011's "Green Lantern" by destroying its franchise aspirations in one fell swoop.
See Dustin Putman, TheFilmFile.com. for full review
