Another month, another superhero flick. Isn’t that the way it has felt this summer? Just about every other week we are bombarded by another man in spandex running around, trying to save mankind from the brink of disaster. The latest to take on the super-powered mantle is a reboot of the classic Marvel comic book, Fantastic Four, not to be confused with the previous two FF efforts – this is a much darker vision from director Josh Trank (Chronicle).

The film starts with the origins of a superhero, or rather the origins of a quartet of heroes. When we first see young Reed Richards in a flashback opening, he is giving a grade school report about how he wants to be the first person to successfully teleport. This piques the interest of fellow student Ben Grimm. Flash forward a few years and Reed (Miles Teller) and Ben (Jamie Bell) are showing off their invention at a high school science fair. The experiment catches the attention of Dr. Franklin Storm (Ben E. Cathey) who offers a scholarship at his institute. It seems that Reed did not teleport objects into another part of the world but into another dimension. Sue Storm (Kate Mara) and Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) are brother and sister and also on the project. Dr. Storm then seeks out Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell), his brilliant former student who was also working on teleportation. These are the major players in our little drama.

The film takes off with a bang, literally. The four young men decide to take the teleport machine on its maiden voyage into the other dimension, where they plant the American flag like astronauts. Walking around the surface, they irritate the ground which causes a series of explosions. Three teleport back but get caught without Victor. Due to a freak return explosion the trio of explorers (and Sue) are changed on a molecular level. Ben becomes a rock creature (called The Thing in the comics), Johnny can flame up and fly (aka Human Torch), Reed has the ability to stretch his entire body, and Sue Storm has invisibility and force field powers.

A military head (Tim Blake Nelson) decides to use these individuals as weapons. Reed is trying to fix his rock friend as he once again attemps to get to what has been dubbed “Planet Zero.” When a group of explorers get on the planet, they find that something is alive there, and like all standard Sci-Fi fare bring it back to our universe… for better or worse.

Miles Teller has been in a bunch of films but truly broke out as an actor in last years Whiplash. There is this flippant attitude that he brings to the role that is refreshingly different than most superheroes. The audience wanted more of Michael B. Jordan and much more of Jamie Bell, though the latter does at least get to say the line “It’s clobberin’ time!” Kate Mara isn’t given much to do other than look pretty, but she does it with a certain flair and grace. She may not be given a lot of substance in Fantastic Four, though pulls it off effortlessly with a bat of those big dark eyes. The love triangle between her and Reed and Von Doom is one of the weakest and most underwritten elements of the production.

The film is directed by Josh Trank, who does a admirable job with his young cast and handles the special effects with a deft touch. The problem is that while watching the movie, one feels like they are watching something akin to Green Lantern and not in a good way. Also, without giving away the ending, there is not much of a Third Act to speak of. The film never builds to that moment and what little moment there is does not deliver, it more just ends. Fantastic Four is just an okay reboot of the franchise, which some may argue is better than the 2005 version, though still a solid improvement on the 1994 Roger Corman version most have never seen… take of that what you will.

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