Months of rumors about a torturous, troubled production.
Director Josh Tranks already infamous (now deleted) tweet.
The unrelentingly negative reviews.
Where is Trank, the director of the superbChronicle, in among all this?
Some of the body horror jabs that do remain are highly effective.
The fissures inFantastic Fours troubled production are, however, in evidence from beginning to end.
Kate Maras performance as Sue Storm is marred by a distractingly ill-fitting wig in several sequences.
The intriguing idea of the heroic quartet being pressed into service as military drones is skipped over.
Dr Dooms unexpected and legitimately scary rampage is over before it begins.
Clearly, something went horribly wrong.
Shortly beforeFantastic Fours release, the films cast and crew seemed to be bracing themselves for impact.
Was Fox still agonizing over a final cut mere days beforeFantastic Fours release?
Certainly, the July news that the movies planned 3D post-conversion was being dropped adds weight to this theory.
AsFantastic Fours August 7th debut arrived, the behind-the-scenes tension bubbled over into public view.
And it wouldve received great reviews.
Youll probably never see it.
Thats reality, though.
That tweet sparked a fresh wave of stories about exactly what went on during the making ofFantastic Four.
Look back atFantastic Fours second trailer, and youll see several shots that arent in the finished movie.
Theres alsoFantastic Fours curtailed duration to consider.
In January, Trank toldColliderthat he expected the movie to weigh in at around the 120-140 minute mark.
Ultimately, the version ofFantastic Fourwe got was closer to 100 minutes in length.
So ifFantastic Fourwas so heavily altered, at what point did everything start to go so drastically wrong?
In high school, I wrote Cronenberg-inspired short films about people in a hospital with telekinetic powers.
This movie felt like an opportunity to explore this canvas that Ive always dreamt of.
So too was Simon Kinberg, who would step in as producer and co-writer.
That just seemed so original in a genre that its hard to be original in.
Some of those concepts are certainly present in the final film, at least in some form.
Im a programmer a very anti-social programmer, Kebbell added.
Make no mistake, Trank clearly put a lot of himself into the story he was attempting to craft.
In many ways,Fantastic Fourbears a resemblance toJonah Hex,Warner Bros comic book adaptation from 2010.
Nor has a director turned quite so vocally against his studio, at least on such a high-profile movie.
I dont think youre going to see me tweeting up a storm anytime soon, Tranksaid.
Its just not really my personality.
As a result, theFantastic Fourpropertys future at Fox looks uncertain.
