Limpid attempt at Magnificence

Johnson Thomas

The third major big screen attempt to tell the story of Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm aka The Thing and Dr Doom, the core characters in one of Marvel Comics' most durable properties, is not the fantastic we were looking forward to. Obviously inspired from the original tale laid out in the Ultimate Marvel alternative timeline introduced in 2004, the film begins as pre-teen science whiz Reed Richards, along with best pal Ben Grimm, attempts to get his plans for a teleportation device up and running with the usual wacky results.

The movie starts off on an intriguing note and then flashes forward to the present day showing Reed and Ben wreaking havoc with their invention at a science fair. Impressed, Dr Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) hires Reed to work at the Baxter Institute, and becomes the starting point of a superhero origin story.  

The characters are defined by traits, so there’s not much to go by in terms of attachment. The story just doesn’t catch fire and the excitement doesn’t build up either. So, there’s nowhere to go for this other than down to zero. The ploddy tempo, the lack of depth, the monotony of awkward, lackluster elements, poor indistinctive effects and choppy performances make it quite a drain on your senses!