The Untastic Four or What went wrong with Fant4stic (Part Three)

Okay, I'm hoping that this is the last installment. I've already put more effort into deconstructing why this movie doesn't work than Josh Trank or Fox put into making it. I also did it for a fraction of the price (0/120,000,000).

Well, it's not wrong...

Now, that we've discussed the issues the film has with story structure and character, in addition to it's determined attempts to avoid any sort of Superhero elements, lets discuss the last real point...

Why the plot of the film didn't work, and doesn't hold together.

"BECAUSE REASONS" IS NOT A PLOT

As I mentioned before, the movie starts with Reed talking about building a transporter in 5th grade, and his teacher mocks him. He then shows Ben the half working teleporter. We then jump to Reed and Ben at 17, when they've built the teleporter and attempts to present it at a science fair, only to have the same 5th grade teacher say that they're disqualified because the fair is for "science not magic". Immediately thereafter he's approached by Dr. Franklin Storm who recruits Reed, and only Reed, to the Baxter Foundation.

There are several major problems right here, and they fall on both character and plot.

Reed in a genius. Sure, a teacher may have laughed at him in 5th grade, but since then for him to build a teleporter, he should be testing off the charts on every science exam and be a member of MENSA. He's not some D- student who would lack not only a grasp of the science necessary to make teleportation possible, but also the inherent skill to make such a device possible.


So, why do the teachers just assume that the teleporter is a magic trick? The only explanation is "because reasons". The plot requires that no one but Dr. Storm see Reeds genius, so no one else does, and it makes absolutely no sense.


Similarly, what the heck is Franklin Storm doing at a random high school science fair? He's clearly a leading scientist who has a lot of money flowing into him (he has a Manhattan high rise so, he's got to be loaded), so why is he at a rinky dink science fair (where we're told a potato powered clock won) and why does no one there seem to notice? Heck he's across the room and notices the Tesseract-like energy from the teleporter, so he has to push through the entire gym to get to Reed, and no one stops him or questions the presence of him or his daughter?

To be fair, it was a hell of a potato clock

He's obviously there to find Reed, but we have no idea why. Clearly those around Reed don't think he's special. No one around him puts stock in his alleged teleporter, so why would Storm? It's like Neil DeGrasse Tyson randomly showing up at a science fair where someone has inexplicably defined Dark Matter. Sure, it could happen, but the chances are astronomical without provocation, of which there is none.

Then, Reed is immediately recruited into the Baxter Foundation, but Ben isn't. We're given no reason why. As far as anyone knows, Ben did just as much to make the transporter work as Reed did. Heck, he's clearly don't as much as Johnny Storm (who can't properly build an engine). So, why is he passed up in favor of Reed, who does nothing to attract immediate attention (other than stealing some kids science project)?

Because of this, Ben vanishes for 40 minutes. So, when it's time to go to Planet Zone the movie has to go through a massive logic jump to get him there. Reed literally drunk dials Ben and says that he needs take the 40 minute trip from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn to downtown Manhattan because they're going to use the teleporter on themselves. Keep in mind that there's no indication that Reed has talked to Ben in the weeks (months?) that he's been with the Baxter Foundation. Ben has no idea what the status of the project is.

But, miraculously, instead of telling his drunk friend that he'll talk to him in the morning once he sobers up... Ben takes the 40+ minute trip. And goes along with the crazy idea of getting in the teleporter. Why does he do this? Well... reasons.

Additionally, as I've previously discussed, once everyone has powers, Reed runs away.

Let me clarify this though. Reed knows that something weird has happened to him, and that he can stretch. He knows that Ben is now a rock monster. That's it. He has no clue where he is. He doesn't know the condition of the others. He knows nothing.

But he says he'll figure it out, and runs away.

Why does Reed automatically run when clearly he's in a facility with scientific and medical equipment? Well, reasons. Why does the military wait a full year to have Sue track him after he escapes? Reasons. Why does Reed think that making another working teleporter will help save his friends? Reasons.

Why does Doom go back with the military explorers, when he immediately says he wants to be on Planet Zone? Reasons. Why, after Doom has killed a bunch of people does Franklin Richards try to stop him from teleporting back to Planet Zone? Reasons.Why after returning does Doom suddenly think that Earth must be destroyed? Reasons!

At least Ultimate Reed (who's evil) is honest about making no sense

So many of the films events occur for "reasons". There's no logic behind anyones actions. They do things only because the plot demands they be done. This sort of story development might be fine in a film like Transformers where there are enough explosions and robot fights to distract against a paper thin plot, but in a film with only 2 "set pieces" it fails entirely.

Now, it could be argued that this is merely an extension of the argument I've already made about character. But I see it a bit differently, despite a fair share of points overlapping.

In a well written screenplay, everything should function like clockwork. There shouldn't be any moment that happens "because reasons". The world and characters should all be built in such a way that every moment in the film is either a clear choice, a direct result of a prior action, or some sort of inextricable event driven by the propulsion of character personality. That means it's not entirely dependent on character, though character has a large hand in it.

Your characters push the story forward. The environment pushes the story forward. Actions push the story forward. There should always be a reason for something to happen in a film, even it if takes a second viewing for it to be clear

There should never be a moment where things just sort of ... happen.

Having key moments just happen is a sure sign of lazy screen writing, and an even lazier editor. Seriously, even if there were major reshoots, there is no reason this could not have been remedied in the editing bay by someone who knows their craft. Instead, the focus was just to push along to the boring final battle and hope to make a better sequel. 

This was a major problem people pointed out with Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it clearly sunk that franchise. Fant4stic clearly demonstrates the same problem, and it's put the Fantastic Four in a similar position.

IN CONCLUSION

It's painfully clear that this movie wasn't anyone's labor of love. The writer/director clearly wanted to do something new that had nothing to do with the source material. The studio needed a quick and relatively cheap production to maintain the rights. The cast didn't familiarize themselves with the comics, and so made no attachments to the characters which would enable any sort of depth instilling backstory.

This was a cash grab.

Fox managed to score a win in a similar circumstance in 2011 when Mathew Vaughn managed to crank out X-Men: First Class on a tight budget and deadline. The difference is that Vaughn had been chomping at the bit to do an X-Men film (he was initially tied to X-Men: The Last Stand, and made the inspired casting choice of Kelsey Grammer as Beast before handing the project over to Brett Ratner) and wanted to take the X-Men movies in a direction closer to the comics, not father away. In doing that, Vaughn got a lot of support from comic book fans, and his own talent and passion allowed the project to be one that even non-fans enjoyed. To many, it's the best film in the franchise to date.

But that was clearly not the case here. The script was rushed, and likely overly long (a common problem of first drafts). The director had a vision that the studio didn't support, and didn't have enough footage in the can by the time the studio shoved him off the project (amid some nasty rumors I won't get into) to cobble together a completed film in the hope of at least getting some of its money back.

We know for a fact that there's a lot of footage that's been cut from the film. Every single trailer (including commercials still airing) contain an abundance of footage that's not in the finished film. However, none of these scenes hint at a larger story that might have fixed the mess that Trank and Fox made. Sure, it may have added an action beat during Reeds disappearance, but that would only have served as a distraction.

While many of us would have loved a more faithful film, faithfulness wasn't the core problem of Fant4stic. The core problem was a sheer lack of desire for this film. Even a film that deviated sharply from the source material that told an engaging and compelling story could have been good. But for that, someone involved would have needed to WANT to make the project.

Hopefully, the next film, and there will be a next film... hopefully made, at least in part, by Marvel, will be a passion project, and not a financial project designed to hold on to rights that no one knows what to do with.

Come on Phase 4!