Why Hasn’t Hollywood Made a Good Fantastic Four Film? [Reader Poll]

Today, Fantastic Four – or, if you’re cute like Fox Studios, Fant4stic – opens wide in theaters. Well, before the first weekend even really started, director Josh Trask has said that ‘his’ version of the film would have been great, whereas this one, well, isn’t.

He isn’t alone in thinking this isn’t great – our own Alice W. Castle wasn’t a huge fan – and the film currently has a 9% ‘freshness’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and a 27 on the slightly more accurate Metacritic).

This film was being described as a total 180 from the 2005 Fantastic Four film, which co-starred Jessica Alba and future Captain America Chris Evans, and yet the reviews are saying almost the same things – in fact, the 2005 film got significantly better reviews (27% on Rotten Tomatoes, 40 on Metacritic) than this film is getting. Hell, even the much maligned sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer had better reviews than both films (37% on Rotten Tomatoes, 45 on Metacritic).

So what is it about Marvel’s first family that doesn’t translate to cinema? We have compiled a few of the most popular reasons we’ve heard about the virtual water cooler that is the internet. Take our poll, and then let us know if you have an alternate theory in the comments!

Why hasn’t Fantastic Four worked as a film property?

Poor execution – the films haven’t been very well made

Poor casting – no one has really embodied the characters the way that, say, Hugh Jackman and Robert Downey Jr. have

The source material – for whatever reason, the Richards/Storm/Grimm clan just doesn’t translate well to film

A disconnect from the source material – no filmmaker has really tried to make the comics into a film, but rather call some different project ‘Fantastic Four’

I honestly have no idea

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Poor execution – the films haven’t been very well made0%

Poor casting – no one has really embodied the characters the way that, say, Hugh Jackman and Robert Downey Jr. have0%

The source material – for whatever reason, the Richards/Storm/Grimm clan just doesn’t translate well to film0%

A disconnect from the source material – no filmmaker has really tried to make the comics into a film, but rather call some different project ‘Fantastic Four’0%

I honestly have no idea0%

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