fantastic four

As of this writing, Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four has made $25.6 million. Improbably, that’s less than half of either of the previous big-budget Fantastic Four movies, which are widely disliked by comics fan and cinephiles alike. There’s a chance Trank’s FF could wind up grossing less in theaters than Blade: Trinity, or even Trank’s own surprise debut hit, Chronicle (which cost about a tenth of his follow-up). In Hollywood parlance, those are ungood numbers. In most cases, they would almost mean certain doom (har dee har har) for any chance of a sequel.

The fact that Fantastic Four had a disastrous shoot followed by laborious reshoots may be the worst kept Hollywood secret of all time. Even if director Josh Trank hadn’t publicly displayed his dissatisfaction with the finished movie, just about anyone who sat through this mess could tell something was wrong just from the finished product. They’d know if from the inconsistent pacing, the main characters who contribute nothing to the movie, and a climax that feels like it was cobbled together by a completely different creative team. Hell, they’d know it from Kate Mara’s terrible reshoot wig, which sticks out like, well, a bad wig.

Here’s the thing about this Fantastic Four movie: it was supposed to be horrible. This movie has been riding an almost unprecedented level of bad buzz since earlier this year. Strangely, it seems to have started over literally nothing. Fans were upset they hadn’t seen anything official from the movie and began to suspect it stunk. Then, depending on who you talk to, the director was fired, the actors were upset and the script was a mess. But, the days of speculation are over and none of that bad buzz matters any more; there’s an actual film that can be judged on its own merits. Sadly, Fantastic Four, on its own merits, is still horrible.

The internet hasn’t been friendly with Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four since day one and with the movie opening in less than a week, everyone still seems pretty baffled by it. What is this movie? What really went on behind the scenes? Is it good? Can it be good? And why does Deadpool pop up at the end of this new extended trailer?

Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with 75 years of superhero comics behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite characters in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know! With their new movie launching this week, we're taking a look at Marvel's first family, the Fantastic Four. Find out the probably apocryphal origin of the Fantastic Four, the way more than four team members the team has had in its history, and the origin of the Thing's team-up with Fred Flintstone, as well as several other equally interesting facts.

You may believe that 2005's Fantastic Four was the first time the quartet of superheroes appeared in a movie — you would be wrong. Back in 1994, cult director Roger Corman delivered his own adaptation based on Marvel’s first family, but Corman’s The Fantastic Four never made it to the big screen. It was never released on home video, either. A new mashup trailer combines footage from Corman’s lost film with the voiceover from the trailer for the new reboot, making a case for why the former should see the light of day.

As skeptical as many fans rightfully have been about Josh Trank’s reboot of Fantastic Four, there’s something sort of appealing about the film’s aesthetic and tone from the various teasers and trailers. In keeping with 20th Century Fox’s recent X-Men films, Fantastic Four looks as though it walks the line between the fun, vibrant world of the MCU and the grittier, stylized approach of Zack Snyder’s DCU.

One of the things that makes watching superhero films so fun is the incredible fiction involved. These films take scientific concepts beyond what’s possible, but both comic books and their big screen counterparts tend to find inspiration in real science. A new set of Fantastic Four featurettes compares the fantastical science fiction of the film with science fact, with the help of renowned theoretical physicist Michio Kaku.

“Shared universe” used to be a phrase that only got tossed around in comic book shops. It was the kind of phrase that would earn blank stares from the cool kids, often right before you were shoved into a locker. Now, all of those cool kids wear Avengers shirts and know that shared universes are the Next Big Thing in Hollywood, were sprawling franchises will tell various stories about various characters who happen to share the same world. This was popularized by Marvel Studios, but their arch-rival, 20th Century Fox, isn’t going to let them hog the spotlight. Oh, no. Director Bryan Singer has confirmed a rumor that’s been floating around for quite some time: the studio wants to spin-off the X-Men and the Fantastic Four into their own crossover movie.

The latest promos for Fantastic Four give each individual member of Marvel’s First Family their very own spotlight while introducing a bit of new footage from the upcoming reboot. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Bell each get their own TV spot to help audiences get a bit more acquainted with their characters and their superhero personas.