No doubt this week will feature tons and tons of depressing posts about Iran and Planned Parenthood, so here’s an entirely different kind of depressing post about something frivolous to take your minds off that other stuff for a bit.  In fact, that’s one of the many reasons it’s worth keeping an eye on this pop culture stuff, because having to swallow those awful political stories 24/7 will drive a person nuts.  At least that’s what the other voices in my head tell me.

Warner Bros. and Marvel have gotten plenty of attention this year with their comic book superhero team-ups, but Fox actually has one coming out too, their reboot of Fantastic Four.  It’s mostly flown under the radar because the last two movies for these characters were…*puts on sunglasses*…less than fantastic.

But they made a new one anyway, and here’s the last theatrical trailer for it:

This is the ultimate “meh” trailer.  It’s an origin story that’s already been told, and frankly it wasn’t particularly interesting the first time so it’s not necessary to rehash it again.  Origin stories themselves have gotten boring enough as it is, which is why Marvel won’t be abusing us with Spider-Man’s origin story for a third time now that Sony had to hand him over to their cinematic universe.  Why not do something similar with the Fantastic Four and just start them already powered, already established, and already headed towards a story that might be worth telling?  Even if it still bombed, it would at least be different.

Another problem is the cast.  No, it’s not that a black guy plays the Human Torch in this one.  It’s that they seem to have no chemistry with each other, and none of them display enough charisma in any of these trailers to carry the film for the others.  (While I generally prefer that new characters be created rather than old characters be social justice-ed up, if an actor walks in and nails an an audition, by all means cast them.)

Presumably the heart of this movie is supposed to be a strong family dynamic, but this trailer does very little to indicate it has that or anything else to offer beyond the usual special effects extravaganza featured in every other movie this summer.  There’s a reason the Star Wars panel at Comic Con went out of its way to talk about all the practical stuff they’ve built for the movie, and it’s because everyone’s getting tired of CGI-fests due to their sheer prevalence.  They even have a CGI fire guy on TV now in The Flash so that’s not going to be turning heads in the cinema.

And then there’s Doctor Doom. Is there really no other villain in the Fantastic Four comic stable that Fox has the rights to use? Sure the last portrayal sucked, but again, why not do something different and build up to him in a later film?

They could even pick a completely absurd villain and have fun with it.  After all, tons of people, myself included, will line up this weekend for a movie called Ant-Man about a guy who can shrink himself and talk to ants.  Clearly absurd can work.

Instead the new Fantastic Four looks like another droll, dour, whiny origin story. Bleh.

But what say you, HotAir commenters? Does the trailer make Fantastic Four look good, bad, or Iran Deal ugly?

Ed encouraged me to do a little shameless self promotion while I’m guest blogging here, so you can follow me on Twitter @crankytrex or read more of my writing at buzzpo.com.