Why Josh Trank’s ‘FANT4STIC’ is the Greatest Travesty in Comic Book Film History
It is a genre that has created some of the biggest hits- and undoubtedly some of the biggest misses- in film, but we explain why Josh Trank’s FANT4STIC is the greatest travesty in comic book film history.
For every single comic book adaptation that takes the genre by storm, there is another that brings to light some of the biggest flaws in the process of the industry.
Source: Marvel Studios
Films like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor are some of the great stepping stones for the Marvel Universe- with the Marvel Cinematic Universe representing some of the biggest successes of the industry as a whole- with some other studios failing to present something as big or as successful.
With all of the biggest flops in the vast twenty-year history of comic book adaptation as a genre, there is a no bigger failure than Fox’s attempt at rebooting the Fantastic Four; which leads us to the conclusion that Josh Trank’s FANT4STIC is the greatest travesty in comic book film history.
Source: Fox/ Marvel
Now, many people will hear that and assume our perspective is that the film is so bad, that it represents a new low for the comic book film genre as a whole; but what makes Fox’s 2015 Fantastic Four such a travesty is an immense potential that is wasted.
It all starts with the cast, with many of the actors being perfect for the characters they play; Miles Teller perfectly embodied a young Reed Richards, Michael B. Jordan was an excellent choice to bring to life the hubris of Johnny Storm.
Source: Fox/ Marvel
Additional performers like Kate Mara, Jaime Bell, and Toby Kebbell all went on to have prominent careers post FANT4STIC, collectively, it was a young cast brimming with talent, all waiting to be pointed in the right direction.
The film was also written by Jeremy Slater, who would go on to craft the brilliant Moon Knight for the MCU; a series that excels with its fantastic writing and creativity, pointing to the immense talent that was wasted with Fox’s insistence on blurring his original vision.
Source: Fox/ Marvel
Of all of the creative entities involved in the film, perhaps director Josh Trank was the most unproven; with producers like Matthew Vaughn of X-Men and Kingsman fame has proven to be excellent in future endeavors.
At the end of the day, Fox’s FANT4STIC should have been the proper Fantastic Four film adaptation that it was billed as, it should have brought these immensely creative people into a room to adapt the premiere Marvel team of the comic book industry.
Source: Fox/ Marvel
Instead, they presented the greatest travesty in the history of the genre, and only the endless “What if…?’ questions that we are forced to ponder.
