20th Century Fox is rebooting the Fantastic Four franchise with a more youthful cast, just as Sony Pictures did with Spider-Man in 2012. Miles Teller (Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic:), Michael B. Jordan (Johnny Storm / Human Torch), Kate Mara (Susan Storm / Invisible Woman), Jamie Bell (Ben Grimm / The Thing), and Toby Kebbell (Victor Domashev / Doom) are the Marvel superhero film’s stars this time around. Josh Trank (Chronicle) directs. Here’s the current logline:
Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy.
Fox (and Marvel for that matter) have been uncharacteristically quiet about this film which has a summer release date. Rumors about creative difficulties aside, this is very much a teaser that doesn’t do much in the tantalizing department. We’re briefly introduced to the updated cast and we get a strong monologue about the human desire to discover spoken by Reg E. Cathey who plays Dr. Storm. But there’s nothing here that truly amps me up, unfortunately. It looks and feels like your run-of-the-mill superhero flick–but maybe that’s because the box office has been flooded with them as of late. Who knows. Of course I have faith in Marvel, as well as Chronicle helmer Trank whose work on that film was surprisingly risky and rewarding. Here’s to hoping a beefier full-length trailer adds some oomf to this lackluster first look.
The new Fantastic Four (whose title is actually stylized like this: Fant4stic, ugh) releases August 7 in 3D.