Fantastic Four Trailer #2: An In-Depth Look

Ahead of schedule today, the trailer for Fantastic Four has dropped...and it tells us way more about the story and shows us way more visual effects than anything that's come previously.

This was the first real look we've had at the plot and the action, with the previous trailer being basically all about setting up the world (not entirely unlike the recent Batman V Superman trailer).

So what did we see? What did we miss? Read on...

Constantin Films

The first logo we get is that of Constantin films, who have been involved with the Fantastic Four rights for years now, most notoriously responsible for the Roger Corman version in order to keep the rights when they were close to lapsing.

Mole Man

Harvey "Mole Man" Elder appears here, and he's got a significant investment in Dr. Storm's company. Apparently he's more of a white collar crook this time. Anyway, he doesn't have the physical appearance of either the standard or Ultimate version of Mole Man.

During the actual teleportation experiment, though, all the of the "senior management" wear sunglasses/goggles that look a bit like Mole Man's glasses from the comics, including Tim Blake Nelson's Elder.

Reed is SPECIAL

In the previous film iterations, the idea of Reed as the smartest man in the world wasn't really a major focus. Yeah, he was smart, but it seemed as though the rivalry with Doom was more important than making him brilliant. Here, we have the notion that he will single-handedly save Dr. Storm's research lab because he's so amazingly amazing.

The Baxter Building

We get our first look at the Baxter Building, too, and Reed seems sufficiently impressed by it.

In the comics, the Baxter Building has long been the headquarters and living space of the Fantastic Four. In the previous feature film version, Stan Lee played Willie,the Baxter Building's mail man.

Maybe even save it

What's going on with "our planet" that it needs saving even before the threat of Doom and what we're assuming is the Negative Zone becomes a thing? That's an interesting phrase from Dr. Storm and suggests that we may be dropped into the middle of an ongoing conflict -- which isn't a bad way to keep up momentum despite having to deliver an origin story.

Reed and Sue

Dr. Storm introduces Reed to both of his kids here, so we see that he didn't have an existing relationship with them prior to the events of the film. They don't start out as friends or the family we know them as at first; we'll have to build to that.

The chemistry between Miles Teller and Kate Mara in what we've seen is actually pretty strong. I particularly like the little look she gives him, like she's checking off some invisible box, when he says he cares more about making a difference than being famous. It gives a sense for the kind of person Sue is, which is good because pursuing a romantic relationship with the famous guy who saved her dad's lab could easily slide into questionable territory.

Johnny Storm

"This guy doesn't take orders well," says Victor, and Johnny agrees with him; we then see him hot-rodding around, maybe explaining why he's got a broken arm when we encounter him in the lab. He particularly doesn't seem to have any use for Victor, saying he especially doesn't take orders from "people who says he doesn't take orders well."

Victor looks pretty normal, not exactly a Rock 'n Rolla. Not really shut-in type of computer hacker/blogger either. He's obviously part of the Baxter Team. As such, the "Doom" hacker rumor is still up in the air as to how it fits into the grand scheme of things.

Victor

We've commented on a few other things elsewhere, but I'll say that the looks Sue gives him when he's talking to her dad and brother, and the fact that she's chatting with him in the background of another shot (see above) suggests they have an existing relationship before the story starts.

Ben Grimm

Ben is Reed's oldest friend here, and we get a little bit of one-on-one time between the two here. It Putting them together outside of the rest of the group should help to sell why two such different people get so close; in previous iterations, putting the four of them together almost immediately made it hard to see what Reed and Ben saw in each other at times.

We also get to see a few more shots of Ben at his family's salvage yard, including one of him knocking out one of the letters on his neon sign with a baseball.

Baseball is in nearly every Ben Grimm promotional image so far. Maybe it'll be some kind of metaphor in the movie? I don't remember it being particularly key to the character in the comics.

Ben destroys the "M" of a neon "Grimm" sign which is probably hanging over the Grimm family junkyard as we saw in the first trailer. This again points to the Ultimate Universe as it suggests Ben remained near NYC rather than getting taken away from the city by his Uncle Jake following the death of his parents.

The experiment

While it isn't a rocket this time -- it's transdimensional travel rather than the space race, since it's the 21st Century and all -- but one thing never changes: The most brilliant scientific mind on the planet and the children of his employer all decide to be lab rats themselves. Because of course they do.

I kid, of course, but once again we've got Victor on board with them, since that's a thing that Hollywood really likes, apparently. It's got some basis in the Ultimate universe, too, which of course is the primary basis for this film.

Having Doom's origin tied to the FF makes the whole thing easier to streamline into a single feature-length narrative.

Will the accident, like in the Ultimate Universe, be because Doom reprogrammed the teleporter? We don't really see any hint of a rivalry between he and Reed here.

There's also this thing where Ben Grimm apparently doubts that Johnny and Victor are ready for prime time just before the experiment. Did they go out drinking the night before or something? Or does Ben just not trust these guys with his best friend's life? Either way, it seems likely that's how he ends up on the trip.

Ben's line "Don't let any of these lab kooks give you any crap, alright?" Sounds very much like they're cultivating a childhood friendship between Ben and Reed where Ben was Reed's protector which is very Ultimate verse. It also validates fans' suspicion that the children seen experimenting in the first trailer are likely Reed and Ben at a young age. 

Reed identified Ben as "The Muscle" which fits with his character and the idea of the Ultimate-verse relationship, too.

Interdimensional Travel

"They just cracked interdimensional travel," says Dr. Storm, and pretty much every Fantastic Four fan on the planet starts to wonder if that means that, yes, this really is the Negative Zone.

...And if so, can the villains who inhabit that dimension be far behind? There are already sequels planned, after all, and it would be unwise to put all of their eggs in the Doom basket again.

Note the rolled up American flag.  Presumably to plant in an alien dimension, in a mirroring of the moon landing.

One shall fall

When they're in the other dimension, one of their members falls from a ledge into a chasm, apparently lost. We're going to guess that's Victor, but it's hard to say anything with confidence except that it isn't Reed (you can see him in the shot) or Sue (it's definitely a male scream), or Johnny (you can't see enough of his face to identify him, but the guy is definitely white).

He could possibly be Ben and being dropped into some interdimensional horsesh*t somehow results in his being extra mutated which makes Reed extra guilty about him. Becuase he DOES seem extra guilty later. Again, comparing to the Tim Story version, Reed always seemed sorry for having caused Ben's mutation but at the end of the day they didn't spend a lot of time on the character stuff because there was always plot. And so you don't feel AS sorry for Ben because there was a Doom plot to worry about, and Johnny off trying to get famous or whatever.

But the "four have survived" line coming up shortly after this leads me to believe that Doom will reappear later in the film after having been presumed dead. That extra time spent in the N-Zone could be why he seems to have a weirdly prophetic message for Reed.

In general here we get a pretty respectable amount of foreshadowing in the N-Zone. Lots of shots of fire and rock, and Johnny with fire as a recurring image. Reed's outstretched arm, reaching frantically to catch whoever it is that falls, could be another thing, depending on how subtle they were trying to be.

Oh, Reed...

In the universal symbol for nerdly out-of-touchness, Reed f**ks up a fist bump. This is the first time I've seen a movie use this joke in a while, since it was more or less driven into the ground around the time Obama was elected.

Relationships

Playful character interactions.  No sign yet that Doom is an arrogant a-hole.  Johnny is a cocky jerk. Reed wants to fix his "friends," again establishing that the group isn't a family yet.

After coming back from the N-Zone, Victor seems to have had a big change of heart, and now definitely thinks he knows better than Reed. We also note that they're all being held at a military compound of some kind (with Dr. Storm demanding to know where they are), which gives some context to the shots from the first trailer of a shadowy figure we assumed to be Doom attacking some soldiers.

Powers

We see everyone's powers at play here in a lot more detail than ever before.

Johnny has the red body and yellow eyes/mouth affect that he does in the comics; Reed's power looks more disturbing and organic here than rubbery. Sue's powers are about the same as you'd expect. Ben emerges from his rock cocoon. Is it just me or does he look more orange in this trailer? Certainly his eyes pop more, giving us our Ever-Lovin' Blue-Eyed Thing.

Later in the trailer, when Reed stretches around an object, Ben shrugs off bullets and Johnny and Sue blow up mountains, we see some really cool visual effects on the FF's powers, the likes of which hadn't been invented yet at the time of their last live-action appearance.

Attitudes

Following the accident, we don't see much from Sue (ha). Reed is feeling guilty and trying desperately to put the toothpaste back in the tube. Ben tells Reed that it isn't possible. Johnny, in a twist on Reed's usual role, decides they need to use their powers to help people.

That does seem a little out of character for Johnny, who is best known for using his powers to gain celebrity and mack on girls. But since Michael B. Jordan is the actor in this film most likely to become a massive star, maybe they wanted to give him a character arc.

Sue's love?

We still get no really clear idea of who it is that Sue is cradling and crying in the alternate dimension. That's been a recurring visual, and the odds are good that it's either Ben or Victor, especially since they've hinted at her having a romance with somebody other than Reed.

Here's hoping it's Ben, a la the Ultimate universe, because the idea of Doom and Reed fighting over a girl was done to death in the Tim Story film.

Final thoughts

The hardcore FF nerd in me wants to rag on the dark/serious tone but I love that there seems to be some intelligence here and the scope of their powers is really getting pushed to what it ought to be.

Oh! And that last shot? Definitely Ben winding up to lay a clobberin' on Doctor Doom.

This story includes additional reporting from Senior Staff Writer Russ Burlingame.