Fantastic Four Movie Review

Fantastic Four (2015)

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Written by: Jeremy Slater and Simon Kinberg & Josh Trank (screenplay),  Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (Marvel comic book)
Directed by: Josh Trank, Stephen E. Rivkin (uncredited)
Starring: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
Four young outsiders teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe which alters their physical form in shocking ways. The four must learn to harness their new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.

Verdict
This starts as a bland origin story, and it slowly gets worse before it ends suddenly. The story is lacking and the characters are flat. With turmoil on set during filming and disagreements between the director and the studio after the movie ended, that could be the reason the movie feels unfinished. Once the villain is introduced, the movie ends soon.
Skip it.

Review

Widely panned, but the introduction is the typical super hero origin tale. It's dubious when a high schooler is smarter than the best scientists, but that's theme behind a lot of comic book heroes.

The pod that takes them to another dimension.

A group of normal kids travel to an alternate world. I don't know why the transporter, which is just supposed to transport matter, takes them to a different universe. I don't know why in the test runs it brought back sand and when they actually went there was no sand to be found.

Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan play Reed and Johnny.

Things go wrong and they get super powers. I liked the introduction to Reed's stretch power, but after that point the movie really loses any momentum it had. That's the pinnacle of the movie.
It's just under written, trying to coast off of other super hero movies. There just isn't much a of a story, and the characters are flat. The team had very little interaction or camaraderie. Guardians of the Galaxy had characters with great chemistry. This feels a lot like a quick copy that's using the X-Men: First Class idea of making them teens.

Toby Kebbell's' Dr. Doom is a complete missed opportunity. His motivations are simple to the point of silly. Even the character design is lacking. Once he's introduced the movie's end is near.

Michael B. Jordan and Toby Kebbell.

Once the main villain is introduced, it ends quickly. With what this movie is, that's not a complaint, but the movie is an extended introduction with a sudden conclusion. While there were reports of lots of hostility on the set and a derelict director, I have to wonder what this was supposed to be. The studio made changes without Trank's approval. Trank disowned the film and claimed his version was much better. Even Kebbel claimed the original cut was much darker. We may never know, but what we got is unsatisfying.