Even though the Fantastic Four comics kickstarted the creation of the Marvel Universe, their film adaptations have been critically maligned. In the “Fantastic Flops” series, I’m going back and re-evaluating the four previous Fantastic Four films and seeing if they’re a “Flop”, “Bop”, or “In-Between”.

Thinking back to the mid-2010s, it seemed like every studio wanted to do a dark superhero yarn. You had the neck snapping, hero vs hero, nihilist Pa Kent antics of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. More successfully, Fox decided go dystopian with X-Men: Days of Future Past before atoning for X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine with a hopeful ending that was immediately walked back in the final two X-Men films. Even the quippy world of Marvel went to some literal or tonally dark places with Thor: The Dark World, the conspiracy thriller-inspired Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and the collateral damage filled Avengers: Age of Ultron. Instead of providing counter-programming, Fantastic Four goes for a darker, more trauma-filled take on Marvel’s First Family. Even though I enjoyed his directorial debut Chronicle, director Josh Trank lacks even the visual style of Zack Snyder to make the film look memorable even if the tone is dour. However, what really sinks this film is the lack of spark and familial connection between the Fantastic Four even though Reg E. Cathey’s Dr. Franklin Storm does give a few speeches on the topic, and there’s a seemingly tacked on scene on the end to give their “team” a name.

Some tone deaf moments (“Clobbering time” being used by Ben Grimm’s abusive older brother.) and the complete lack of chemistry between Reed Richards (Miles Teller) and Sue Storm (Kate Mara) aside, I honestly don’t mind the beginning of Fantastic Four before they go into the other dimension. I love the scene where Dr. Franklin Storm (A thoughtful performance from the late Cathey) and Sue pluck Reed from the school science fair and let him unleash his passion for science and other dimensions at the Baxter Institute. It’s hilarious that working on an interdimensional transport is Johnny Storm’s (Michael B. Jordan) punishment for illegally street racing. Also, the motivation for their mission is sound as Harvey Allen (Tim Blake Nelson) wants to send trained NASA astronauts to another dimension instead of young science nerds. (He does have a point, but apparently, this Reed Richards is into wanting fortune and fame.)

However, the film really goes downhill after we get some genuinely interesting, if a little over-CGIed body horror and transformation takes on the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom. The Storm siblings are lab rats, Ben Grimm (An unconvincing Jamie Bell) ends up being a super soldier for the US government, and Reed Richards is a fugitive attempting to build an interdimensional teleporter in a cave with a box of scraps. Fantastic Four‘s narrative momentum fizzles and springs back to life with the re-emergence of Von Doom, who has survived his green energy/laundry detergent bath and is extremely pissed off and nihilistic. He also has a death touch and uses it to take out characters played by beloved character actors, Reg E. Cathey and Nelson. (The ending is so rushed that the Storm siblings and Reed don’t even mourn for Dr. Storm before moving into their new space. Earlier, in the film, he had a bit of anti-authority streak, but that has turned into a desire to destroy our Earth and reign over the utter barrenness that is Planet Zero. This involves the cliched glowing portal in the sky, one of the most anti-climactic final superhero battles ever, and Reed Richards playing ring around the rosie with Dr. Doom before Ben Grimm punches him while repeating his abusive brother’s catch phrase.

Other than laughable fight choreography and special effects, the final fight scene in Fantastic Four doesn’t land because it’s Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny’s first time working together as a team because they’ve been fragmented throughout the entire film. Logically, Dr. Doom would kick their lackluster chemistry having butts and then portal off to run Latveria or whatever, and the team would come back stronger in the sequel. However, the entire fate of the world is on the line so, of course, they have to win with Trank adding a sliver of unearned hope at the end.

I have to give slight kudos to Josh Trank and writers Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg for attempting a different tone than the previous two Fantastic Four films. They draw heavily on the Mark Millar and Brian Michael Bendis Ultimate Fantastic Four, and a lot of the way the government treats folks with superpowers reminds me of the Ultimate Universe trying to find the latest super soldier and fight foreign wars for the United States. Like Chronicle, I think Trank was going for real world plus superhero vibes, but the Fantastic Four isn’t the property you do that with. Planet Zero could have been a Cronenberg-ian take on the “Negative Zone”, but it’s like Mordor in the Lord of the Rings if they got rid of the Orcs, giant Spiders, cool fortresses, and giant Eye and replaced it with the Ooze from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Characters talk about Planet Zero being this place that could change the fortune of the human race, but the visuals don’t live up to it. Also, the lack of connection between Grimm, Richards, Johnny Storm, and Victor Von Doom accentuates the emptiness of the landscape even more. (It’s so weird to me that Sue isn’t on that first mission, but you have to four sci-fi coffins on your teleporter machine in a Fantastic Four film.)

Fantastic Four (2015) tries to be a dark, Elseworlds-y take on Marvel’s first superheroes, but is crippled by a snooze of a second act, a stinker of a third act, and characters that feel more like co-workers whose shifts occasionally crossover rather than found family squandering the talents for four great young actors in Teller, Jordan, Mara, and Bell. (Casting a Brit as Ben Grimm is a misstep though.) I can definitely see why Stan Lee didn’t have a cameo in this as Trank and cinematographer Matthew Jensen drain the color and wonder out of one of his finest co-creations.

So, it sadly looked like all the previous Fantastic Four film adaptations were flops even though I was very close to ranking the 1994 one as “Mid”. Here is my ranking of all the Fantastic Four films so far, and I’ll be back next week with a review of Fantastic Four: First Steps

1. The Fantastic Four (1994)
2. Fantastic Four (2005)
3. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
4. Fantastic Four (2015)

Overall Verdict: Flop