Honestly, Josh Trank, director of the most recent (and famously flopped) Fantastic Four film, had his work cut out for him. Between the need for Fox to compete with the growing MCU, a troubled production and Max Landis, this project was never going to turn out well.
And Trank, for his part, seems to know this. In fact, reading his Letterboxd review of the film, which he posted recently, you can just feel the cringe. With candour and more than a little self-deprecation, Trank takes a look at his disaster of a film and thinks, well, y’know, it could’ve been worse.
Here’s an excerpt:
Fant4stic… Huh.
OK first of all, I thought it would be GREAT if I searched FF2015 and the shit wasn’t even on here. Low key I kinda was hoping it wasn’t. But it was! And I’m here. Anyway. Where to begin…
The movie is ALRIGHT.
I was expecting it to be much worse than it was. I literally haven’t seen it since like two weeks before it came out, and I was in a heavily fucking traumatised state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time.
It’s always difficult for an artist to revisit their past work, but this is next level. Trank is right to praise the film’s cast and the goals of the film, while admitting, yeah, the movie did not get there. He goes on to jokingly ponder the possibility of a “Trank Cut,” before saying, “I’m not Zack Snyder[…] I was 29 years old, making my 2nd film, in a situation more complicated than anything a 2nd time filmmaker should’ve walked into.”
All in all, it’s an entertaining, generous review. Has this Trank guy made any movies? It seems like he has good taste.