I'm a little flabbergasted by the amount of chagrin this film has engendered. Going in I was expecting an unmitigated disaster comparable to "The Happening" but instead I got one of the most interesting Marvel movies released so far.
This a genuinely daring reboot, a film willing to explore the horror of having your body irreparably altered due to a terrible mistake. Pain and guilt and the reconciliation of these emotions are at the heart of this film and it's not often you can say that about a comic book adaptation.
After building what he thinks is a teleporter wunderkind Reed Richards is swiftly enlisted into the Baxter Institute by Dr. Franklin Storm after they meet at a science fair. Storm explains he has actually forged an inter-dimensional transporter and together with Storm's children, Sue and Johnny, and irascible former employee Victor they build a device that can facilitate the transportation of living matter to the new dimension.
During a drunken celebration of their achievement Victor slyly inveigles Reed and Johnny into joining him as the first human party to explore the new world. Reed calls on his old friend Ben who has supported him since they were children and together they venture forth into a planet that resembles a nascent Earth. Victor is entranced by an energy pocket and places his hand inside causing tectonic activity and eruptions. Sue realises what they are up to just in time to save them but she is caught in an explosion when they return.
What follows is a completely different take on the acquisition of "powers" than any ever before portrayed in the Marvel Universe. The doleful depiction of Ben ("The Thing") is both poignant and resonant. Reed's guilt, Sue's paranoia and Johnny's eagerness to "become" a weapon are equally jarring.
This is not a flawless film but it is memorable, no more so when Victor returns as a villain of pure monomaniacal malice. Modern cinema needs people like Josh Trank. I pray this won't be his last shot at big-budget movie-making.
This a genuinely daring reboot, a film willing to explore the horror of having your body irreparably altered due to a terrible mistake. Pain and guilt and the reconciliation of these emotions are at the heart of this film and it's not often you can say that about a comic book adaptation.
After building what he thinks is a teleporter wunderkind Reed Richards is swiftly enlisted into the Baxter Institute by Dr. Franklin Storm after they meet at a science fair. Storm explains he has actually forged an inter-dimensional transporter and together with Storm's children, Sue and Johnny, and irascible former employee Victor they build a device that can facilitate the transportation of living matter to the new dimension.
During a drunken celebration of their achievement Victor slyly inveigles Reed and Johnny into joining him as the first human party to explore the new world. Reed calls on his old friend Ben who has supported him since they were children and together they venture forth into a planet that resembles a nascent Earth. Victor is entranced by an energy pocket and places his hand inside causing tectonic activity and eruptions. Sue realises what they are up to just in time to save them but she is caught in an explosion when they return.
What follows is a completely different take on the acquisition of "powers" than any ever before portrayed in the Marvel Universe. The doleful depiction of Ben ("The Thing") is both poignant and resonant. Reed's guilt, Sue's paranoia and Johnny's eagerness to "become" a weapon are equally jarring.
This is not a flawless film but it is memorable, no more so when Victor returns as a villain of pure monomaniacal malice. Modern cinema needs people like Josh Trank. I pray this won't be his last shot at big-budget movie-making.