Why The Fantastic Four Has The Potential To Be Fantastic

As more news is released about The Fantastic Four reboot, there's growing concern that the new film is going to be a disaster.

Perhaps the biggest issue for fans is that the reboot is vastly different from the original source material.

In the reboot, Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm teleport to an alternate universe, which alters their physical form and gains them new abilities. They must learn to harness their abilities and work together as a team to save the Earth from a familiar enemy. Said enemy is Victor Domashev, an anti-social programmer known as Doom online.

Admittedly 20th Century Fox is making some bold moves with the reboot and in terms of success/failure the movie could go either way. If this wasn't a reboot of the 2005 film, it would be easy to argue that such drastic changes were unnecessary risks. However, even though it's been a decade since the previous Fantastic Four hit theaters, both it and the 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, are still collective memory of the general movie audience. As a result a drastic overhaul with the franchise, while a gamble, is necessary. It may also be a smart play for a few reasons:

1) The Players- While normally a predominantly young cast would be an omen for a tv or movie project, that won't be the case for this film. If the movie has any problems it certainly won't be the acting. Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell and Toby Kebbell are five of the best actors working in the industry. The film credits of each of these five actors is nothing less than exemplary. Even if they are handed a mediocre script, these players have the skill and the talent to deliver impressive performances. The producers probably feel confident to take such a bold new direction with The Fantastic Four because they know their cast can deliver.

2) Development of Doom- I'll be the first to concede that making the film's big bad and one of comic book's most infamous villains a blogger is grounds for concern. However, as prominent as the character is in the comics, Doom is arguably one of the most underdeveloped characters. As Doomwar and Children's Crusade illustrated in the comics, Doom couldn't be a bigger caricature if he twirled a thin mustache and wore a black cowboy hat. For all of the flaws of the previous film installments, one of the few positives was Julian McMahon's portrayal of Victor Von Doom. He gave the tyrant, nuance, style, motivation and substance. Whether or not re-imagining Doom as an online menace is the wisest move remains to be seen, but if he's given motivation, depth and an arc beyond taking over the world, that will certainly put him ahead of his comic book counterpart.

3)The Source Material- What's easy to forget is that both 2005's Fantastic Four and 2007's Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer were pretty faithful to the comic book mythos, as far as movie adaptations go. What's also easy to forget is that both movies were rightfully panned by critics and fans alike. The movies were campy (and not in the endearing way), goofy and almost a parody of the comic book film genre. This reboot already has those demerits going against it. More than that, the landscape of comic book superhero films has changed drastically in the last decade.

Since that time Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy has been released, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated the box office and the DC Cinematic Universe is about make an impact with the highly anticipated Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The standards of excellence are far higher than they were 10 years ago. Rebooting a series in a recent amount of time without bringing anything new to the table is what ultimately did in the Amazing Spider-Man films; a far more successful franchise. If The Fantastic Four is serious about being a contender at the box office, it's going to have to distinguish itself by getting creative and thinking outside the box.

Say what you will for Fox, this is one of the few times where a movie studio is taking risks to tell an original story. Whether or not one agrees with the specific choices made, the attempt should be commended at the very least. When the official trailer is finally released, most of us will have a better idea on where the film stands. When the film hits theaters August 7, we will all certainly know then.