Marvel movies include a level of creativity that can only work when there’s a massive budget and a writer penning the story with an incredible imagination. Writer and producerJeremy Slaterhad the right amount of creativity when he wrote the screenplay for Marvel’s 2015Fantastic Four. However, there was something that disconnected the audience from its story, causing a 9% Rotten Tomatoes score and leaving fans scratching their heads. During an interview, Slater spoke toComic Bookabout what inspired his vision for the filmand why it didn’t work out.
Fantastic Fourhad a talented, young cast that included Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm / Human Torch, Kate Maraas Sue Storm / Invisible Woman, Miles Teller as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic,Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm / The Thing, Toby Kebbell as Victor Von Doom / Dr. Doom, Reg E. Cathey as Dr. Franklin Storm, and more. Slater wanted to create a film just as exciting asThe Avengers, which he noted was his biggest tonal reference.
According to the writer, the film had just come out when he was getting ready to bring the Fantastic Four back to screens for the first time since 2007, and he loved it. “I thought Joss Whedon did the impossible with that movie and balanced all these tones. I still remember, in the theater, the first time Thor spun his hammer and used it to launch into the sky. It’s just a background gag and I made this uncontrollable squeak. It was just something from my childhood that I never thought I would see in live action.” He continued:
I was like, ‘Look — audiences love this movie. The box-office numbers don’t lie.’ I thought we could really do something similar in terms of real scale and some giant, fun set pieces. But, let’s also not forget the secret sauce of that movie, which is the relationships. It’s Natasha and calming down Bruce. And it’s Clint joining the team. It’s Cap and Tony butting heads. That’s the reason that movie works, is because you like the characters and them bouncing off each other. That was always the North Star. ‘Man, if wecould do what Marvel is doingright now, this is clearly what audiences want to see in a comic book movie.’
Fantastic Four 2015 Gets an Honest Review from Its Own Director
Chronicle director Josh Trank offers his own review of his 2015 Fantastic Four flop starring Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Miles Teller, Jamie Bell, and Toby Kebbell.
So, with this inspiration and Slater writing the script, where did things go wrong? There seemed to be a disconnect between the writer anddirector/co-writer Josh Trank. They also didn’t have the massive budgetThe Avengershad.
Ultimately, that was fundamentally the disconnect. Josh and I probably just saw different movies. I was more of anAvengersguy and, I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but he was more of aBatman Begins, like ultra-grounded, dark and gritty guy. The comic book nature of something likeThe Avengers, that I had been absorbing and loving my entire life, he didn’t have those same touch points, so that movie wasn’t landing for him the way it landed for me. The other thing isAvengerswas a very expensive movie. Our budget wasconstantly shrinking asthe project kept going. It’s easy to say, ‘Yeah, let’s go doAvengers,’ but it’s hard to actually do it. I think the script I was writing, and the movie I was seeing in my head, was much closer to that Phase 1 of whatAvengerswas doing at the time than it was anything else.
Critics Were Tough on ‘Fantastic Four’
Sometimes, highly anticipated movies just don’t work out. That doesn’t mean the cast and crew were incapable of making a great film; things just didn’t stick. This doesn’t stop critics from being as harsh as possible, though.Fantastic Fourmade $167 million at the box office with a $120 million budget, and the reviews used tough words like “worse than worthless” and “the cinematic equivalent of malware.” While there were some positive reviews among fans, many of their wordsechoed the same sentiments as critics.
Source:Comic Book
Fantastic Four
