SNAPSHOT
Fantastic Four, a contemporary re-imagining of Marvel’s original and longest-running superhero team, centers on four young outsiders who teleport to an alternate and dangerous universe, which alters their physical form in shocking ways. Their lives irrevocably upended, the team must learn to harness their daunting new abilities and work together to save Earth from a former friend turned enemy. (synopsis via Coming Soon)
I am not, it must be said, a big fan of endless reboots.
And my lord but there are a lot of them these days with Hollywood deciding to re-imagine, reboot and refashion any number of (usually) superhero properties about as often as they change underpants or hairstyles.
All of which means that I was obviously not enormously pre-disposed to the idea of someone, anyone really, rebooting The Fantastic Four which had its last blockbuster cinematic outing only eight years ago in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
But a funny thing happened on my way to being cynical about reboots of any kind – the trailer for the newest and some might argue unnecessary big screen iteration of The Fantastic Four by one Josh Trank, best known for the 2012 film Chronicle, actually makes the upcoming movie look pretty good.
Like meaningfully, thoughtfully, what is the nature of man and progress and where will it lead us, existentially good.
Visually it strongly resembles the brooding, emotionally-resonant trailers for Interstellar, a movie that successfully combined big budget action brio with thoughtful ruminations on the nature of life, the universe and everything.
If Fantastic Four, which stars Miles Teller as Mr. Fantastic, Kate Mara as The Invisible Woman, Michael B. Jordan as The Human Torch, Jamie Bell as The Thing, and Toby Kebbell as Victor Domashev/Doctor Doom, can engender that kind of atmosphere, neither too deep yet too shallow, then it could well be on its way to be that rarest of rare things.
A reboot I actually think is worth taking the time to watch.
Fantastic Four opens on 6 August 2015 in Australia and 7 August 2015 in USA.