'Fantastic Four' trailer: Will the superhero story rise or fall?
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
A new trailer has been released for the upcoming comic book movie 鈥淔antastic Four.鈥澛�
鈥淔antastic,鈥� which is being released by 20th Century Fox and is based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name, stars Miles Teller as scientist Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as her brother Johnny Storm, and Jamie Bell as their friend Ben Grimm. After an incident, all four gain powers, such as Sue鈥檚 ability to turn invisible and Ben鈥檚 tough skin to protect him from harm. They soon find themselves facing off against the villain Dr. Doom (Toby Kebbell).
The characters were previously adapted for the big screen in two films, 2005鈥檚 鈥淔antastic Four鈥� (in which they also faced Dr. Doom) and 2007鈥檚 鈥淔antastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,鈥� with different actors (including current Captain America Chris Evans). But the films weren鈥檛 well received by critics and now 20th Century Fox is giving it another try.聽
鈥淔antastic鈥� is set to be released on Aug. 7 following a summer packed with Marvel characters 鈥� 鈥淎vengers: Age of Ultron鈥� came out this past May and 鈥淎nt-Man鈥� will be released on July 17.
The movie is another indication of the short time span studios now leave between new incarnations of stories 鈥� it was only eight years ago that Jessica Alba and Evans starred in a 鈥淔antastic Four鈥� film. In addition, does the movie鈥檚 merely okay reception at Comic-Con show a fatigue with the same old stories? One wrote of the movie panel, 鈥淸鈥楩antastic鈥橾 has been battling a wave of negative buzz for months 鈥� the film perhaps inevitably wound up feeling a bit overshadowed by other superhero offerings鈥� like 鈥淒eadpool,鈥� a character that鈥檚 hitting the screen for the first time, and 鈥淴-Men: Apocalypse,鈥� which has familiar characters but a new villain. By contrast, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom were all seen in the original 2005 film.
wrote that the film 鈥渃arries a whiff of been-there, done-that鈥� at Comic-Con and called it a 鈥渓oser鈥� of Comic-Con, writing, 鈥淎fter seeing that insane 'Deadpool' and 'X-Men' footage, who even remembered having seen 'Fantastic Four' stuff as well? They had a last chance to spark some fan interest in this new movie, and it just didn鈥檛 happen.鈥�
The film isn鈥檛 out, so who knows 鈥� it could get a rapturous response from critics and benefit from a quiet weekend. But 鈥淎nt-Man鈥� will have come out only weeks before. The fact that 鈥淔antastic鈥� is arriving in August could mean comic book movie fans will be worn out after the superhero-filled summer.
