Reaction: Fantastic Four (2015) Trailer #3

“Reed, you’re insane”

The reboot of Fantastic Four is less than a month away, and we have a new trailer to whet our appetites. After the double whammy of the Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad trailers, Marvel look like they’re being left behind a little. Will the film wash away our memories of the terrible twosome of the original Fantastic Four films, or will it do an Amazing Spider-Man on us and further diminish the filmic value of the quintessential Marvel characters? Well, here’s the trailer:

It seems we are going to see the childhood of Reed Richards. Not necessarily a bad thing, but how far are comic book origin stories going to go? Right to the moment of conception? However, the makeshift teleportation device looks great! It just makes me feel bad that I used my N64 to play video games rather than advance science in any way, shape or form…damn you, Goldeneye, WWF No Mercy, Perfect Dark, Super Mario 64, etc!!! Without you, I’d have built a teleportation device just like Richards! Then again, I didn’t have access to what looks like about thirty N64 consoles…ahhh, what might have been!

(Will Reed find his toy car when, as an adult, he uses the teleportation device? I hope so!)

“There are no greater minds than the ones working in this room”

I could grumble at the inclusion of the origin story, but it looks to be very different from the one we saw in the 2005 Fantastic Four, which can only be a good thing. Just look at The Amazing Spider-Man for the damage that an identical origin story can do to a film (we’re told that the next Spider-man film will not include an origin story. Let’s hope that’s true). The cast already seem to share chemistry that the 2005 cast lacked to the extreme. The government funding of the experiment also gives this story a very different edge to the original (Are the government agents wearing 3D glasses to view the activation of Richards’ teleportation device? I hope they’ve had to pay a pound extra for each pair of glasses). Of course, the fact that the military want in on the secrets of our superheroes’ powers is not something unique, but again, it makes the reboot stand very differently from the original. But how much of the film will the ‘weaponisation of the Fanastic Four’ storyline occupy?

I presume that the government/military will eventually let the Fantastic Four alone and fight the evil of Doctor Doom alone. Puny human weapons will be no match for the arch-enemy of the superheroes. We’re getting Doom again, but how different will he be to the terrible version of Doctor Doom in the 2005 film? There were rumours that he was going to be a computer programmer/hacker, with which I have no problem. I just want a decent Marvel villain for once! I don’t want the story of the superheroes to outweigh the story of the villain! For what is a superhero without an equal supervillain? Doctor Doom is a classic Fantastic Four antagonist, so let him be the villain he needs to be!

“The end of your world is the beginning of mine”

The teaser trailer made the reboot to be a dark, gritty affair. I don’t mind that approach, but it’s usually done for the sake of doing it that way, rather than for a purpose. I understand that the Fantastic Four isn’t a dark and gritty comic, but whatever tone the film takes, just make it a good film! The other trailers, however, give the film a more light-hearted manner. An even balance of light and dark would be very much appreciated. A few laughs can brighten up a morose film, and break up the monotony of a purely dark film.

The question is: does anyone care about the reboot? The first two were so terrible that I imagine they sapped all enthusiasm for any reboot. The reactions to the cast have been negative, on the whole. Three hours after its arrival on Youtube, the latest trailer has just over three hundred views…which is not a good thing! However, I have a little faith that the film will at least be more entertaining than both of the first two films. But will it be fantastic? Only time will tell…

Leave your thoughts below!