The First Fantastic Four Trailer Is Here, Watch It Now
This is just four-play.
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Josh Trank is taking the helm for one of the upcoming standalone Star Wars movies, but before he ventures to that galaxy far, far away, we’ll get to see what he can do on a large scale with a revamped Fantastic Four. We’re still almost seven months away from the opening, but the much talked about adaptation delivered its first trailer this morning.
This is definitely not quite the tone you necessarily expect from a comic book movie (though Fantastic Four is a Marvel comic, Fox is producing the movie, not Marvel Studios, the folks behind Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man, and the like), and they’re definitely going for a more serious, ominous tone. From this preview, it’s hard not to presume a Christopher Nolan/Dark Knight influence.
You don’t get a ton of set up, as this is really just a teaser, but it does have a distinctly sci-fi feel and flavor, more so than your average superhero flick, which is cool. All of the key players show up, both in their initial states as well as after an accident that gives them all powers, and it does feature a great young cast. There’s Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Miles Teller), Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (Kate Mara), Johnny Storm/The Human Torch (Michael B. Jordan), and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Jamie Bell).
One thing you don’t see here, however, is the notorious villain Doctor Doom. In this incarnation, Doom is reportedly a computer hacker, and if you if you pay close attention and squint real hard, you’ll notice a sequence of numbers pop up—23.21.190.125. If you plug these into your web browser, you’re magically be whisked away to the land of Latveria, or at least the Wikipedia page for the fictional nation that Doom rules in the comics. From the official description, it also sounds like Doom is a former friend of the heroes now turned enemy, but we’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out.
Fantastic Four is yet another origin story, and this is based, at least loosely, on Marvel’s Ultimate Fantastic Four, which was written by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Millar, and had a strong start to the run. Like this trailer, it does take a bit of a darker tone than many fans of the comics may be used to, and it also places an emphasis on the scientific side of things. That’s something else that also appears to bleed through into the movie, which is just peachy from our perspective.
I’ve never been a huge Fantastic Four fan. It’s a title I like and read from time to time, but I don’t have as much of an emotional connection to it as to many others. I don’t know if it’s that, or something else, but I’m not as excited by this trailer as a lot of people seem to be. It’s a fine first look, and I’m still curious—I’m always hoping for more good superhero movies—but I’m less frothing at the mouth about Fantastic Four than some other comic book movies, like the upcoming Avengers movies, or X-Men: Apocalypse.
Fantastic Four opens August 7, 2015. What do you think about this trailer? Does it hit the mark for you, or are you taking a more cautious, wait and see approach? Let us know what you think below.
