Fantastic Four (2015 film)/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


These things about Fantastic Four (2015 film) are subjective - not everyone will agree with all of them.

  • Acceptable Targets: Everything about this film - whether it's the ugly costumes, the baffling decision to make the Thing naked, Human Torch's casting, the title reading like "Fant4stic", or Dr. Doom being a wimpy programmer - contributes to this being one of the biggest laughingstocks in the history of superhero films.
  • Accidental Aesop: If you're about to make an important and life altering decision, please do so when you're sober.
  • Angst? What Angst?: Despite being Reed's mentor as well as Johnny and Susan's father, Franklin Storm's death has very little gravitas and the characters barely react to it.
  • Author's Saving Throw: The powers that be desperately tried to course correct when the pre-release news of the film's attempt at distancing itself from the source material triggered a lot of backlash. But despite attempts to appease fans by changing Victor "Domashev"'s name back to Victor von Doom among other things, they weren't impressed and viewed it as half-hearted pandering.
  • Awesome Music: The only good part of the film is the music, but then again, it's hard to go wrong when you've got Phillip Glass as your composer.
  • Bile Fascination: The movie's abysmal reputation got the attention of curious viewers who wanted to see just how badly Fox screwed the pooch.
  • Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy: For a franchise intended to be fun and adventurous, this film missed the tone by a country mile. It's hard to have fun when virtually every character is an unlikable asshole who goes out of their way to antagonize each other.
  • Eight Deadly Words: All of the characters are dull and uninteresting, and the sole bastion of likability in Franklin Storm dies during Dr. Doom's rampage.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Franklin Storm is the only memorable character of the film, thanks to Reg E. Cathey pouring his heart and soul into making him a wise and kind-hearted father figure to the team.
  • Gannon Banned: Don't you dare say that this film is a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or that it is superior to Tim Story's duology of Fantastic Four films.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: As with Chris Evans, Michael B. Jordan also went from playing the Human Torch to playing an MCU character. Even funnier is that both of their characters face off against Black Panther.
  • Just Here for Godzilla: Amusingly, some Marvel fans only went to see the film for the Deadpool trailer, and immediately walked out once it was finished rolling.
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Narm:
    • The Thing would look better if he was wearing pants and didn't look like an oversized chicken tender. It would also help if he sounded like the gruff, gritty living pile of rocks he is instead of some normal guy.
    • For some ungodly reason, the Thing's "It's clobberin' time!" catchphrase is given an unnecessary origin story. In this flic, it's what his older brother would say before beating him up. Him adopting it as his personal slogan is presumably meant to be an awesome moment of owning his childhood trauma, but the whole thing just comes off as unintentional Black Comedy.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The only effectively creepy scene is the one where Doom goes on a rampage through a hallway, silently massacring terrified soldiers and scientists like a psychic slasher villain.
  • Nightmare Retardant: Doctor Doom resembles a green glowing mannequin instead of the typical Doom, with his "cloak" looking like a bunch of garbage bags hastily stitched together.
  • Overshadowed by Controversy: Johnny Storm's casting drew a lot of ire well before the film's release, thanks to the character looking nothing like his comic counterpart; Michael B. Jordan's contempt for the source material; and defenders claiming that people criticizing it were racist soured them even further. Opinions have cooled down in the years following the movie's release thanks to Jordan's excellent performances in films such as Black Panther and the Creed trilogy, though there's still a fairly even split between those who thought it was a good casting wasted on a bad script and an outright miscast.
    • Another bit of controversy that's tainted the movie's reputation stems from rumors of the film's ridiculously Troubled Production, such as Josh Trank's prima donna attitude, the last minute reshoots, and the huge amount of rewrites the script underwent all leading to a movie with an over-bloated budget that it didn't even sort of make back.
  • The Scrappy:
    • Good luck finding anyone who likes this version of Doctor Doom, whose whininess early in the film and transformation into the infamous "Crash Test Doomy" later in the film make him a frequent target of mockery.
    • Johnny Storm, likewise, catches a lot of flack for being an insufferable douche towards his teammates and failing to capture his comic counterpart's obnoxious, yet likeable demeanor.
  • So Bad It's Horrible: Thanks to its unlikable characters, shoddy writing, and overall boring tone, many consider it to be among the worst superhero movies of all time, right up there with Catwoman and Elektra.
  • Special Effects Failure: The CGI is terrible by 2015 standards, and the costume design for characters like the Thing and Dr. Doom are laughable. It speaks volumes when the characters looked better in the Tim Story film from 2005.
  • Spiritual Licensee: Trank claimed his film is like a superhero flick made by David Cronenberg, while also borrowing a lot from his previous sci-fi/action movie Chronicle in terms of focusing on people with serious character flaws gaining superpowers.
    • And since we're bringing up Cronenberg flicks, many consider this a superhero-flavored adaptation of The Fly since it focuses on reckless scientists who gain superpowers through Body Horror-inducing teleportation experiments. Dr. Doom, likewise, is a more knowingly, overtly villainous version of Seth Brundle.
  • Tainted by the Preview: The trailers did everything in their power to alienate fans of the source material and casual moviegoers alike, and the final product didn't exactly change their minds.
  • Tear Jerker: A surprising meta example; despite his rather flippant and abrasive attitude regarding the movie, Josh Trank genuinely felt awful about making a bad Fantastic Four movie and felt that he let Stan Lee down (though the fact that Lee never held it against him and kept in touch with him until his passing also counts as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming).
  • Took the Bad Film Seriously: The late Reg E. Cathey's performance as Franklin Richards is surprisingly sincere compared to the wooden, flat performances of the Fantastic Four. Toby Kebbell was also thrilled at the thought of playing Doctor Doom, and tried his best to make the film's bastardized version of the character work.
  • Uncertain Audience: The movie's dark tone and Cronenberg-style body horror alienated fans of the more lighthearted and fun comics, but the movie's half-assed attempts at shoehorning in MCU-style humor and refusal to entirely commit to its darker tone didn't do it any favors among those who'd be interested in such a thing. The result is a dud of a movie that appeals to almost no one.
  • Unfortunate Implications: Ben, Johnny, and Reed go to Planet Zero but leave Sue, the one girl among them, behind. Keep in mind that in the source material, Sue went with them on the trip to space that gave them their powers. Amusingly, it makes Josh Trank's insistence that his version of Sue is more progressive than the "Slutty secretary" version in the comics look that much more sexist.
  • Vindicated By History: An amusing example in the sense that this movie sure as hell hasn't been vindicated, but its mere existence has uplifted the other Fantastic Four movies - and not just Tim Story's two So Okay It's Average flicks: the infamously low-budget and unreleased Roger Corman film has gotten some newfound appreciation. Thanks to Fant4stic‍'‍s bleak tone, unlikable characters, and disdain for the source material, people look back at the previous attempts at adapting The Fantastic Four to the silver screen and appreciate them for doing a far better job at capturing the lighthearted tone and family dynamic from the comics.
  • Wangst: Ben's angst over his transformation into the Thing is fairly in line with the comics, and certainly understandable. But the problem is that he never shuts up about it and "I hate my new body, fuck you Reed!" becomes his sole character trait. That is, until he suddenly gets over it near the end.
  • What Do You Mean It's Not for Kids?: The bleak tone, foul language, Body Horror, and exploding heads didn't stop children's networks from trying to advertise it as a fun, family-friendly romp! Nor did it stop the flick from becoming part of the Disney+ catalogue in 2020.
  • WTH Casting: Sue and Johnny's actors aren't even of the same race. Trank wanted Sue to be Black as well, but Fox intervened.
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