Fantastic Four
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: August 7, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
27
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
18
Negative:
21
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 6, 2015
Perhaps surprisingly, it's no better or worse that the other superhero movies of 2015. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaAug 6, 2015
At first, it’s fun and shiny, then you’re left with a crumpled mess on the floor. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 6, 2015
It's overstating things to say the stars of Fantastic Four are Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Jamie Bell, because I can't remember the last time four actors appeared less invested in a movie for which they've teamed up. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorAug 6, 2015
Apparently Fantastic Four doesn’t want to be another dumb superhero action flick, but try as they might to turn it into a movingly realistic drama, director Josh Trank and a pair of screenwriters never succeed, creating instead a comic book movie that is bizarrely short on humour and action. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyClark CollisAug 6, 2015
In short, this Josh Trank-directed reboot had a very low hurdle to overcome to become the best FF movie so far. The most fantastical aspect of the movie is that it may not achieve that goal. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 6, 2015
If Fantastic Four is pleasantly different in its introductory segment, once those super powers kick in, the whole film goes into a more standard gear. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMichael OrdoñaAug 6, 2015
Is it a home run? No. But at this point, comic fans are just happy to see Fox play error-free ball with their Marvel adaptations, and Fantastic Four mostly qualifies. Read full review
50
HitfixDrew McWeenyAug 6, 2015
Neither the disaster the fanboy nation seems to be itching to attack nor a significant improvement over the Tim Story movies, Fantastic Four seems doomed to please no one. Read full review
50
VarietyBrian LowryAug 4, 2015
Ultimately, Fox’s stab at reviving one of its inherited Marvel properties feels less like a blockbuster for this age of comics-oriented tentpoles than it does another also-ran — not an embarrassment, but an experiment that didn’t gel. Read full review
49
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 4, 2015
Director Josh Trank, whose debut feature “Chronicle” put a smart new spin on superhero tropes, has assembled a quartet of engaging, charismatic performers and stranded them in a miasma of exposition and set-up that sinks the movie. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 6, 2015
It’s shockingly humorless and glacially slow for a film featuring a bendy boy genius, an invisible woman, a human torch, and a talking pile of stones. Read full review
40
CineVueJoe WalshAug 13, 2015
With a weak structure and little chemistry, Fantastic Four proves itself to be a franchise that was better off lost in space. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottAug 6, 2015
The impressive young cast -- is mostly wasted. Teller and company, despite their proven talents, are given little of depth to do and forced to spout dialog that ranges from clunky to ridiculous. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlAug 6, 2015
The model here isn't adventure pulp. It's dystopian Y.A., junked up with scenes of medical horror too scary for kids and too unpleasant to be enjoyed by anyone. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinAug 6, 2015
The film is almost all build-up, though any mounting sense of excitement is dispelled by the monotonously downbeat tone and the cast’s conspicuous lack of chemistry. Nobody looks like they’re having fun, and the gloom is infectious. Read full review
40
EmpireAli PlumbAug 6, 2015
As an origin story that’s all origins and no story, there’s a hollow, stale feeling to this occasionally admirable attempt to Nolanise Marvel’s dysfunctional family. Read full review
40
Total FilmJames MottramAug 6, 2015
Ponderous, pretentious and, most damning of all, just not much fun. Read full review
40
The GuardianHenry BarnesAug 5, 2015
The cast are some of the most promising actors of their generation, but what chemistry there is between them is swept away by wave after wave of expository dialogue and ludicrous exclamation. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonAug 5, 2015
This reboot of the Marvel superhero franchise is a film of two halves: the first likeable and fun, the second tiresome and loud. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 6, 2015
A lightweight and basically unnecessary attempt to once again bring some cinematic life to one of the lesser teams in the Marvel Universe. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzAug 6, 2015
There are no people to watch in Fantastic Four, only collections of character traits and attitudes brought fitfully to life by actors who might've mistakenly thought they were hitching a ride on the superhero movie gravy train by signing up for this misfire. Read full review
33
IndieWireKate ErblandAug 6, 2015
A superhero film with no power and worse special effects that attempts to rewrite a story that's yet to be told effectively. Read full review
30
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 6, 2015
This Fantastic Four, directed by Josh Trank from a script he wrote with Simon Kinberg and Jeremy Slater, feels less like a tale of superhero beginnings than like a very long precredit opening sequence. Read full review
30
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 4, 2015
A good cast led by Miles Teller gets swallowed up in a narrative that grows progressively more muddled and tedious. Read full review
25
Boston GlobeTom RussoAug 17, 2015
Ultimately, what Fantastic Four delivers is change for change’s sake, rather than change for the better. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 6, 2015
Fantastic Four is so mediocre that its title seems like a violation of truth in advertising laws. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianMarc MohanAug 6, 2015
This is the Fantastic Four. Maybe someday they'll get to act like it. Read full review
25
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 6, 2015
The special effects look cheap, the acting is wooden, and the shouted dialogue consists largely of throwaway action-movie cliches (“Let’s do this”) and B-movie sci-fi jargon (“His bioenergy is off the charts!”). Read full review
25
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 6, 2015
An unfortunate movie that does an embarrassing disservice to the decades-old property and is a frightful waste of all the talent involved. Read full review
25
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 6, 2015
From Miles Teller to Kate Mara to Reg E. Cathey, everyone on screen in Fantastic Four speaks in a flat, earnest monotone with a determinedly low-keyed air bordering on openly not giving a rip. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineEric HendersonAug 6, 2015
It adds more grist for the mill to the notion that studios don't hit the big red "reboot" button in any other state than a panic. Read full review
25
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 6, 2015
It’s a joyless relaunch/re-imaging. Read full review
25
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezAug 5, 2015
Fantastic Four is so bereft of all the things we expect from a superhero movie — humor, excitement, adventure, awe — that it plays like a drawn-out pilot episode for an upcoming TV series no one would ever watch again. Read full review
25
The PlaylistKevin JagernauthAug 5, 2015
In turning his back on the familiar tropes of blockbuster comic book movies, Trank doesn't have a clear new identity for Fantastic Four to distinguish itself with, and the result is a movie rich with possibilities, but trapped in the basic structure of a superhero movie, with no idea of how to wholly circumvent traditional expectations. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 6, 2015
Someone forgot to put anything fantastic into Fantastic Four. Read full review
20
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyAug 4, 2015
A sense of heaviness, gloom and complete disappointment settles in during the second half, as the mundane set-up results in no dramatic or sensory dividends whatsoever. Read full review
11
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAug 12, 2015
Steer clear, Friends of Ol’ Marvel! Read full review
0
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 6, 2015
Given the level of talent involved both in front of and behind the camera, nobody should feel much joy — no anti-tentpole schadenfreude or blockbuster-busting righteousness — to discover that the latest Fantastic Four film is a catastrophe Read full review
0
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 6, 2015
The latest reboot of the Fantastic Four — the cinematic equivalent of malware — is worse than worthless. Read full review
0
New York PostLou LumenickAug 6, 2015
A lousy script, unfocused direction, incoherent editing, shockingly terrible special effects — and, probably, panicked studio executives — have left its four talented stars muddling through a dull superhero origin story with zero payoff. Read full review
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