FANTASTIC FOUR 2015

Rebooting a franchise that has never been popular and successful is a mixed challenge. One, you have to shed the negative baggage that has been generated by the past, but on the other hand, you do not have to handle the burden of huge expectations you would have to face when rebooting a Superman or a Spiderman. So here we have Fantastic Four, a superhero franchise that has never realized its potential, being rebooted.

The origin story remains mostly unaltered here. Only the specifics change. Here too we have a few genius youngsters attempting to push the frontiers of science. If it was space in the previous edition, here we are looking at alternate dimensions and limitless energy that is waiting to be harnessed. There is not much new that is added in here and therefore nothing much that is to be said or that can act as a spoiler.

Getting down to the bare fact of whether this new attempt at making Fantastic Four is successful or not; there is not even a brief passage in this new version that looks like it might be better than the previous one. It starts off on a serious and slow note and continues in the same vein almost its entire running length. The fact that you already know what is going to happen does not help matters at all. But, what one cannot understand about this Fantastic Four version is why it feels this compulsion to be grim and serious all the time. Is someone trying to be Nolan or is this an attempt to show that this is not child’s play? Whatever be the reason, the end result is that watching the film turns out to be a dreary experience as the story unfolda and movea towards the final confrontation.

It is the fine tuning of the characters and the moments and the interestingly set up confrontations that could have saved the movie. But sadly, none of that happens. The characters lack the depth that would have given them an identity, the emotional connects are almost absent, the cast looks more like a bunch of hopeful actors than promising performers and the final confrontation fails to evoke any excitement.

It doesn’t hel;p matters that the main antagonist makes his entry only well into the final 30 minutes of the movie. And within minutes of his arrival, we have the final confrontation. The antagonist isn’t given enough time to build his identity or explain his motives and reasons. Either due to the lack of a budget or imagination, the final showdown between the four and the transformed villain looks uninspiring and the pep talk given by the one of the Fantastic Four is as old as the hills and makes you yawn instead of giving you goosebumps. And, the art work that went into shaping the look of the ‘other dimension’ looks cheesy at best. The epilogue to the final set piece is perhaps the brightest part of the movie. This is the first and only time the movie looks bright and has any cheer at all. Perhaps that gives us some hope for the sequel, if that does happen at all.

Fantastic Four tries hard, perhaps too hard, and ends up missing out on one of the most important things a superhero movie must have – fun! The older version looks much better now.

Too grim, too slow, no fun

2/5

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

And, there we have one more movie from a franchise that was hugely successful in the 90s. This is the 90s nostalgia year I guess, with Jurassic Park, Terminator and MI making it back to theaters. So, does Ethan Hunt have what it takes to thrill us one more time or is this just another stitched up production that aims to make a few bucks from the nostalgia factor of the 90s? Well, that doubt is dispelled in the first couple of minutes because you get an amazingly well executed stunt on an aeroplane which announces the intentions loud and clear, Ethan Hunt is back to thrill and the years that have elapsed have not made him (read Tom Cruise) any less faster or crazier.

Mission Impossible films have always been about outlandish plots and preposterous situations. Rogue

Nation is not any different. What begins as probably a arms smuggling cartel story escalates and escalates and escalates until it reaches the resident of 10 Downing Street, who by the way is made to look like he is not man enough to face some of the harsh realities of world politics. The first hour is pretty solid and fast. As if he didn’t have enough enemies already, Hunt is now officially the enemy of the US government. So, Hunt is on the run, but he is also running after someone, who has in turn sent someone to make sure Hunt doesn’t get to him. We know that there is something mysteriously named the ‘Syndicate’ that Hunt is after. The initial games of cat and mouse between Hunt and the CIA, the events in Vienna, entry of the mandatory ‘girl’ in all spy movies and the flight of the plot to exotic Casablanca set a real good pace from which the second hour should have been thrilling.

But, right after the mandatory ‘Impossible’ stunt in all MI movies, the script falls prey to predictability, more short-term than long-term. You don’t essentially where the plot is headed because you haven’t been told enough, but the way each scene pans out seems to have a lot of predictability to it. There is an appallingly deliberate set up to a bike chase scene where you can see most of the twists much before they happen which takes the fun out of the entire thing in spite of it being quite slickly shot. And, then in an attempt to make thicken the plot even further, the writers end up writing too much and taking the plot a bit too far.

Where Rogue Nation seems to be weak is perhaps in the effective depiction of its antagonist, the

Syndicate. Most of the script is devoted to Ethan Hunt and his one on one outwitting double-guessing spy match with the British agent While that is important, it is a very small part of the big picture that we want to see. We get to know very little about who or what the Syndicate is, what is its motive, why it is even there. The only thing we get is a hand drawn sketch and a few scenes where the supposed ‘head’ of the Syndicate speaking in a very hushed tone. We get a vague idea of their origins and motive right at the very end. But, for the best part of the movie the Syndicate looks like just another mob with the clichéd hit men around; the tall guy with the beard who looks like he can knock out Mike Tyson but gets knocked out by one kick from Hunt etc.

What we will like about Rogue Nation however is that even though the script is loose at most times in

the second half, with some unabashed deliberate placement of fight scenes, especially the one-on-one knife fight at the end, the scenes themselves have been shot quite well, even though predictably. The actors have shown full commitment to the action sequences which saves the second hour from falling flat.

That apart, one feels that the cast hasn’t been used to its full potential. Jeremy Renner is the best example of that. You don’t have an ‘Avenger’ in your movie and not use him. One wonders why they even picked Jeremy Renner when they didn’t want to give him much to do at all.

If you need one reason to watch Rogue Nation then you have just one name: Tom Cruise. He has rolled back the years and spared no effort to make Ethan Hunt seem like a super spy without a shadow of doubt. Rebecca Ferguson is idea foil, looks appealing and threatening at the same time without making her intentions clear at all. That’s what Rogue Nation is all about. Two spies trusting each other without the slightest clue of what the other is up to! The script is a bit of a disappointment, but the quality of making and the actors almost make up for it.

Loosely written, but well-executed spy game!

2.5/5