Fantastic Four Trailer Review

After months and months of very little being revealed about the reboot of the Fantastic Four film franchise, a trailer and poster have dropped for the movie. I'm glad they're finally starting to market the film, however I can't say I was blown away by the trailer. It felt like a very conventional teaser trailer that didn't leave me with anything to latch on to or be intrigued about.

There were a couple things I do like about the trailer and the film in general. One of them is the visual aesthetic. It looks visually sharp, and the special effects already look great. If they're still touching a few things up here and there, I'm looking forward to seeing what the finished product looks like.

I also think the creators have assembled an impressive cast. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell are the ones taking over the roles of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm respectively. They are all talented actors from what I've seen, and I hope they portray these classic comic book characters better than the previous cast did.

The one thing I'm most concerned about regarding Fantastic Four is the story. The men writing the film are Simon Kinberg (who has a great name) and Jeremy Slater. Slater has never written a screenplay before, so I don't know what to expect from him. Kinberg has a couple solid scripts under his belt, however he's also the man behind duds like X-Men: The Last Stand, Jumper, This Means War, and Ouija. With such an inconsistent career so far, I also don't know what to expect from him. The thing that the previous two Fantastic Four films lacked most severely was good writing. I'm trying to cling to the hope that this reboot will improve upon them, I just can't be sure.

Josh Trank, the director of the movie, made the only found footage movie I've ever enjoyed, Chronicle. That gives me some hope that Fantastic Four is in good hands, since Chronicle followed a superhero-like plotline. From the trailer, I didn't notice much of any found footage style of filmmaking, which I heard would be in the film. I'm hoping there isn't a lot in the final product; while Trank has proven he's capable of excelling at it, the Fantastic Four deserve a supremely cinematic interpretation.

At the end of the day, I didn't get much out of the Fantastic Four trailer. There were aspects of it that give me some hope, but I'm still unsure of what to think about the whole thing. I'd put it on the same level of the recently released Ant-Man trailer, which left me somewhat underwhelmed. It's a risky project for Fox; there isn't much demand for a retelling of the Fantastic Four legend, especially with the Marvel Cinematic Universe dominating the comic book movie landscape. They're going to need to knock it out of the park to get people's attention in such a crowded slate of superhero films. I have been given no reason to believe this will be a great movie. We'll just have to wait and see.