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'Fantastic Four' trailer: Will the superhero story rise or fall?

A new trailer for the upcoming film 'Fantastic' was recently released. The film is arriving at the end of a summer filled with superheroes – how will the movie perform at the box office and with critics?

A new trailer has been released for the upcoming comic book movie “Fantastic Four.” 

“Fantastic,” which is being released by 20th Century Fox and is based on the Marvel Comics team of the same name, stars Miles Teller as scientist Reed Richards, Kate Mara as Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan as her brother Johnny Storm, and Jamie Bell as their friend Ben Grimm. After an incident, all four gain powers, such as Sue’s ability to turn invisible and Ben’s tough skin to protect him from harm. They soon find themselves facing off against the villain Dr. Doom (Toby Kebbell).

The characters were previously adapted for the big screen in two films, 2005’s “Fantastic Four” (in which they also faced Dr. Doom) and 2007’s “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” with different actors (including current Captain America Chris Evans). But the films weren’t well received by critics and now 20th Century Fox is giving it another try. 

“Fantastic” is set to be released on Aug. 7 following a summer packed with Marvel characters – “Avengers: Age of Ultron” came out this past May and “Ant-Man” will be released on July 17.

The movie is another indication of the short time span studios now leave between new incarnations of stories – it was only eight years ago that Jessica Alba and Evans starred in a “Fantastic Four” film. In addition, does the movie’s merely okay reception at Comic-Con show a fatigue with the same old stories? One reporter wrote of the movie panel, “[‘Fantastic’] has been battling a wave of negative buzz for months … the film perhaps inevitably wound up feeling a bit overshadowed by other superhero offerings” like “Deadpool,” a character that’s hitting the screen for the first time, and “X-Men: Apocalypse,” which has familiar characters but a new villain. By contrast, the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom were all seen in the original 2005 film.

Another journalist wrote that the film “carries a whiff of been-there, done-that” at Comic-Con and one called it a “loser” of Comic-Con, writing, “After seeing that insane 'Deadpool' and 'X-Men' footage, who even remembered having seen 'Fantastic Four' stuff as well? They had a last chance to spark some fan interest in this new movie, and it just didn’t happen.”

The film isn’t out, so who knows – it could get a rapturous response from critics and benefit from a quiet weekend. But “Ant-Man” will have come out only weeks before. The fact that “Fantastic” is arriving in August could mean comic book movie fans will be worn out after the superhero-filled summer.

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