Having taken the somewhat surprising approach to promoting the movie by publicly disowning it on social media on the eve of its release back in 2015, director Josh Trank has now revisited 20th Century Fox’s failed superhero reboot Fantastic Four for the first time since its completion – and not only that, but he’s also shared his thoughts with a review of Letterboxd, where he gives the film 2 stars:
Fant4stic… Huh.
Okay first of all, I thought it would be GREAT if I searched FF2015 and the shit wasn’t even on here. Low key I kinda was hoping it wasn’t. But it was! And I’m here. Anyway. Where to begin…
The movie is ALRIGHT. I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. I literally haven’t seen it since like two weeks before it came out, and I was in a heavily fucking traumatized state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time.
Anyway, movie review: Great cast. Everyone in the film is a great actor, and overall there is a movie in there, somewhere. And that cast deserves to be in THAT movie. Everyone who worked on Fant4stic clearly wanted to be making THAT movie. But…. ultimately… It wasn’t.
Did I make that movie they deserved to be in? To be honest? I can’t tell. What I can tell is there are TWO different movies in one movie competing to be that movie. Is there a #releasethetrankcut? [Editor’s note – Yes there is, kind of]
Doesn’t matter. I’m not Zack Snyder. Zack Snyder is a storied, iconic, legendary filmmaker who has been knocking it out of the fucking park since I was in high school. Me? Then? I was 29 years old, making my 2nd film, in a situation more complicated than anything a 2nd time filmmaker should’ve walked into.
That said… I don’t regret any of it. It’s a part of me. And I just hope Peyton Reed makes the next Fantastic Four and crushes it. And that I get a cameo. Anyway, that’s it. Fant4stic.
Neither Trank nor 20th Century Fox had the best of times with Fantastic Four; it endured a troubled production, with Trank being accused of ‘combative behaviour’ on set, and the filmmaker was ultimately locked out of the editing room as the studio enforced changes after being dissatisfied with his original cut.
Fantastic Four featured a cast that includes Miles Teller (Whiplash) as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara (House of Cards) as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan (Fruitvale Station) as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, Jamie Bell (Nymphomaniac) as Ben Grimm/The Thing, Toby Kebbell (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) as Doctor Doom, Reg E. Cathey (House of Cards) as Dr. Storm, and Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk) as Harvey Elder/Mole Man.
