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Honest Trailer - Fantastic Four (2015)

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Fantastic Four (2015) is the 127th episode of Screen Junkies comedy series Honest Trailers. It was written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr and Andy Signore. It was narrated by Jon Bailey as Epic Voice Guy. It parodies the 2015 superhero reboot Fantastic Four. It was published on November 24, 2015, to coincide with the film's release on home video and Blu-ray. It is 4 minutes 33 seconds long. It has been viewed over 6.2 million times. It is significant for being Joe Starr's first writing credit on Honest Trailers.

Watch Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four on YouTube

"Get ready for a superhero film that's ashamed to admit it's a superhero film." ~ Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2015)

Script[]

From the director of Chronicle (Josh Trank), and a fantastic version of this movie you'll probably never see (a Tweet from Josh Trank pops up reading "A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've received great reviews. You'll probably never see it. That's reality though."), and the studio that already brought you two ridiculously campy Fantastic Four movies (20th Century Fox), comes a reboot that's completely different, yet somehow still just as bad.

Fant4stic

It's been 10 years since the last good Fantastic Four movie (The Incredibles); now, Fox must crank out another one or lose the rights to a studio that would do a much better job. (Marvel Studios) So prepare for the obligatory trotting out of Marvel's first family like you've never seen them before: moody, awkward, and really, really low-energy.

Reed: ...And now I'm here.

Sue: ...So you are.

(crickets chirping)

Meet four people who are never referred to as "Mister Fantastic", "The Thing", "Invisible Woman", "The Human Torch", or "The Fantastic Four".

Ben: --it's fantastic.

Reed: Say that again?

There's Reed, the genius who can bend his body into new and exciting ethnicities; Ben, a big-hearted rock monster whose superpower is not having genitals...?; this underused actress in a terrible wig who's left behind to make the guys' uniforms...

Sue: I'm making the environment suits.

...and Johnny, a street-racing brat cliché with the power to ignite... Internet comments sections for being a Black guy.

Journey to the Baxter Institute, where kids create billion-dollar inventions powerful enough to destroy the world, in exchange for pats on the back...

Dr. Allen: You all deserve an enormous pat on the back.

...and wonder how these child geniuses also manage to be total idiots, as they get drunk, recruit Reed's unqualified childhood friend who gave him a screwdriver one time, teleport to Mordor, take some selfies...

Johnny: This one is definitely going on Instagram.

...and immediately stick their hands in alien goo. Dude! Don't touch the goo! That's Alien Planet Rule #1!

Tremble in anticipation for the return of one of Marvel's greatest supervillains, Doctor Doom, then shake your head in disappointment when you're stuck with this superpowered sex doll instead, complete with vague abilities, vague motivations, and vague Ghostbusters references (?)...

Zuul: There is no Dana, only Zuul.

Doom: There is no Victor. [O]nly Doom.

...who Doctor Dooms the movie just when things start to get interesting, to deliver a ridiculous finale, where a villain who can literally do anything with just his mind loses to four inept teenagers whose best strategy is... to punch him in the face.

Ben: It's clobbering time! (punches Doom into the energy beam)

So get ready for a superhero film that's ashamed to admit it's a superhero film...

Sue: They're not powers. They're aggressively abnormal physical conditions that we're gonna fix.

...featuring some of Hollywood's hottest young actors... totally phoning it in...

Reed: --we're a team now, and there's four of us, so we should... come up with a name for it.

...clumsy references to the comic books...

Sue: Dr. Doom, over here.

Jimmy Grimm: Hey! Clobbering time. (smacks Ben)

...and bizarre shifts in time that seem to mark exactly when the studio took over from the director.

Erin Robinson: Who is to blame for the overwhelmingly negative reviews for Fantastic Four? Well, director Josh Trank is saying, "Not it." Currently sitting at a 9% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes...

Geez, what a mess; the movie about making this movie would be so much better than this movie!

Starring: Were You Stretching or Were You Dragging? (Miles Teller as Reed Richards); A Wasted House of Cards Actor (Kate Mara as Sue Storm); A Chocolate Snowman (Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm); Michael B. Glad You Don't Have to Do Any More of These (Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm); Another Wasted House of Cards Actor (Reg E. Cathey as Dr. Franklin Storm); and Crash Test Doomy (Toby Kebbell as Victor von Doom/Doom).

Fantastic Four: Strike Three

for Fantastic Four (2015) - Fantastic Four: Strike Three. Title design by .

Honest title for Fantastic Four (2015) - Fantastic Four: Strike Three. Title design by Robert Holtby.

Man, you know it's bad when Stan Lee won't even make a cameo. (shows Stan Lee as Willie Lumpkin in Fantastic Four (2005))

Trivia[]

  • This is Joe Starr's first writing credit on the Honest Trailers series. He became one of the core writers and also a producer. Joe Starr's involvement is significant because it marks the beginning of the Gilbert/Starr/Murrell/Signore era of Honest Trailers which lasted from November 2015 until October 2017, when Signore's employment was terminated. Previously, the Honest Trailers writing team had changed frequently.
  • Screen Junkies have also produced Honest Trailers for the 2005 version of Fantastic Four, and the "best Fantastic Four movie never made," The Incredibles. See list of Honest Trailers for more.
  • An Honest Trailer Commentary for this episode was recorded and was available on the Screen Junkies Plus until the website/app was discontinued. Screen Junkies don't currently have any way of releasing the video.

Reception[]

Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2015) has a 98.7% approval rating from YouTube viewers. Many media sites appreciated the Honest Trailer for skewering a movie that truly deserved it. Slate wrote "Honest Trailers are never more delicious than when they’re taking down cinematic trainwrecks, and this one is no exception." They went on to write, "Frankly, it’s shocking Screen Junkies managed to fit everything wrong with the movie into four minutes and 30 seconds." BGR.com commented that the quality of the Honest Trailers series had previously been "hit or miss," but this particular episode was great because "Fantastic Four is an endless bounty of bad writing, uninspired acting and terrible wigs." BGR.com also agreed with Screen Junkies about the appeal of a hypothetical making-of film, writing "we’d much rather see a movie about the making of this movie than the movie itself." Geeks of Doom also agreed that a hypothetical making-of film would be interesting, but also noted that the Honest Trailer trod familiar ground, writing "what more is there to pick on that hasn’t been stirred up already."

Production credits[]

Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2015)

Video thumbnail for Honest Trailers - Fantastic Four (2015)

Voiceover Narration by Jon Bailey

Title design by Robert Holtby

Series Created by Andy Signore & Brett Weiner

Written by Spencer Gilbert, Dan Murrell, Joe Starr, and Andy Signore

Edited by Anthony Falleroni

External links[]

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