A Studio’s Failed Recycling Project
August 15, 2015
Fantastic Four (2015).
D: Josh Trank. DP: Matthew Jensen. W: Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg & Josh Trank (based on Marvel comics by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby). Starring: Miles Teller/Michael B. Jordan/Kate Mara/Jamie Bell/Toby Kebbell/Reg E. Cathy/Tim Blake Nelson.
This summer’s comic book installments are ending on a rather low and controversial note. The release of Twentieth Century Fox’s new version of Marvel’s Fantastic Four has sparked twitter declarations from young director Josh Trank, claiming he’ll never work on a comic book movie again. Despite the hoopla I think it safe to say that regardless of creative intent some comic books are just not cinematic material. The Fantastic Four is one of them for me.
This Fantastic Four immediately segregates itself from Tim Story’s 2005 predecessor Fantastic Four and 2007’s Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer in its realistic intent. This makes creative and marketing sense as the remake’s purpose is to allow Twentieth Century Fox to retain the rights to the Fantastic Four and not let them revert back to Marvel, now owned by Disney. This is the same reason Sony remade its Spider-Man franchise. Searching for a new direction hiring young director Trank seemed ambitious and exciting. Trank’s first directorial effort was 2012’s Chronicle. A feature about a group of friends who discover something supernatural underground that gives them all superpowers to disastrous effects. This cast includes Michael B. Jordan who appears as Johnny Storm here. A great memorable little film that resided on character rather than effects, Trank’s footing is surely gone in Fantastic Four.
The film runs through a brief original story of Reed Richards (Miles Teller) as he puts together a teleporter in his garage and befriends Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) whose family owns the junk yard Reed steals from. Discovered at a science fair, smelling a lot like Spider-Man here, Reed is invited to attend a prestigious institute run by Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathy). Dr. Storm’s children Johnny (Jordan) and Sue (Kate Mara) help Reed to develop his transporter with the guidance of misguided genius man child Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebball). The band of geniuses decide once their project works to send themselves to the new dimension they have discovered and voila, weird powers.
With only a few moments of humor and not a lot of charm Fantastic Four cannot save itself from its boring plot. Hard not to suspect a character named Von Doom, Kebball might be the best thing about the film. When he gazes at Mara’s Sue he looks like he might want to eat her viciously while everyone else is off playing scientist. When he returns it’s rather magnificent, his voice sinister without a mouth hearkening back to some sort of Star Wars nightmare I had as a child. Teller is alright, but better is other things he has done, same with Jordan. Bell is lost in his Thing, but it is digitally rendered very admirably. What makes the kids likable ultimately is Dr. Storm and the cheesy, but momentarily effective performance by Reg E. Cathy. His efforts to connect all of his children for a common purpose does eventually ring true, if not just in his anguishing discovery scenes of each kid’s powers.
Fantastic Four only runs about one hundred minutes, but feels vastly longer. Sadly the studio apparently meddled so much with Trank’s original cut that they demanded re-shoots. Even if unaware of this it is not hard to miss Mara’s wig she wears in the added scenes, a sad reflection of a dispute that has clearly upset Trank and ultimately the project. All in all the film is watchable, but rather lousy something I think I’d feel reading these comic books.
Cinematic Adventures
February 6, 2012
The Adventures of Tintin (2011).
D: Steven Spielberg. W: Steven Moffat, Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish (Based on the comic book series by Hergé). Starring (voice talents): Jamie Bell/Andy Serkis/Daniel Craig/Nick Frost/Simon Pegg/Toby Jones/Joe Starr/Enn Reitel.
This Christmas the films targeted for young audiences may have surprised some families with their more sophisticated story telling and impressive visual work. But as admirable as that is, I wonder what children lost their way in the beauty of what they were seeing? Who wiggled a bit too much in their chairs?
Having been a fan of the Tintin books as a young reader, I was elated to find such a film icon at the helm of the project. More specifically, I could not wait to see how my younger brother would react to his telling of the Tintin stories. Would they be up to par with his own imaginings from one of the few series that actually got my brother to read? Thankfully, neither of us were disappointed.
Speilberg’s first animated project for him to actually direct, The Adventures of TinTin is all swashbuckling charm and British innuendo. It plays on everything we love about being a child, what we think we remember, and what we wished life could be like again. Innocently buying a ship in a bottle one day, journalist Tintin (voiced by Jamie Bell) soon finds himself in the midst of a startlingly adventure. It is safe to say it is an adventure of great proportion as he finds out his recent purchase is part of much larger treasure hunt.
Firstly, what is timeless about the story is although Tintin is geared towards a young audience, he is of a certain age that makes his adventures remain somewhat logical and believable to adults. Even better is the characters charm and innocence never come off as naivete. Nope, rather Tintin has been able to hold on to something pure from his boyhood, and its not just his dog snowy. Specifically, the film safeguards the character from any sort of consumerism corruption or washed out simplicity some “childrens” films tend to have. Nothing is washed out in the visuals either. Speilberg held nothing back with producer Peter Jackson’s imput. Everything is full of depth and brings the pages of the graphic novel to a new life. Lastly, all the voices here are also superb, with a nice role for Andy Serkis to show off a Scottish brogue.
My only few complaints are that the film runs a bit long, the end of the second act seems to stretch too much. Only makes me wonder more how younger children in the theater felt and how much they were actually engaged. Yet regardless, they just might be forced to sit a bit longer. Who would think?