Just saw it ...

So my 12yo son discovered that this movie existed (despite my best efforts) and insisted that we watch it. It wasn't as bad as I'd expected. It wasn't the Fantastic Four by any definition but I could see the idea of a good movie in there. It looked to me like studio interference had taken Josh Trank's original movie (body horror/sci-fi/origin) and tried to graft in a typical Marvel superhero movie. And obviously the two movies didn't mesh very well.

There were some good concepts in there and if they'd managed to develop the characters better and get the relationships between the four more in line with the comics it might have come together better. For me, the heart of the Fantastic Four is their relationships, and this movie didn't develop those well at all. The final 30 seconds of the movie, where they're trying to come up with a team name conveyed those relationships pretty well but that came completely out of nowhere. Johnny teasing Ben is a core part of the comics but before that scene I don't think they'd even spoken with each other. For all the flaws of the 2005 movie they got the team relationships pretty much spot on in that one.

The effects were pretty good and I liked the way that it seemed to take a fair bit of effort for them to control their powers. But skipping a year and missing them learning how to use their powers was a missed opportunity, I think. It didn't need to be a big part of the movie but an extra 15 minutes seeing them learn what they could do and how to control it would have helped develop the team dynamic that felt fairly forced when it appeared in the final fight. And having Reed disappear for a year was a mistake (in my opinion). Again making his leadership at the end forced.

Overall I'd say it was a good first draft for a movie with a fair bit of work needed to make it a good Fantastic Four movie.