Josh Trank's Fantastic Four is in the midst of getting absolutely slammed by critics. Ever since the review embargo broke yesterday afternoon, the floodgates have been open, and while there are a few positive pieces floating around, the consensus is extremely negative. According to Josh Trank, however, the blame shouldn't be put on his shoulders, as he claims to have had a much better version of the feature a year ago.
While the message has since been deleted, Josh Trank took to his personal Twitter account this evening and left a post explaining his view on the critical backlash that the Fantastic Four has received. You can see a screenshot of the Tweet below:
Obviously this is a message pretty sparse in terms of detail, but it's not hard to read between the lines. Based on this message, it sounds like Josh Trank was forced to give up creative control of this project about a year ago - after having put together a version of the film he himself was satisfied with - and that the cut that is being shown in theaters is more a product of 20th Century Fox than him. Exactly what was changed is entirely unclear at this point, and it sounds like we will never actually get to see the version of Fantastic Four that the filmmaker actually wanted to release.
Having seen Fantastic Four myself, I can say that it's a disappointment - and there's a certain point in the film where you can really sense some meddling where meddling shouldn't have been done. The first act of the movie really is solid, as it's actually interesting to see the titular four characters come together, crack the code for inter-dimensional travel, and gain powers that look absolutely horrific from the outset. It's unfortunately right after this point that the movie goes completely and shockingly off the rails, as its entirely missing a second and third act, and above all just feels like it's in a mad rush to end itself. It's possible that Josh Trank's version of the film doesn't have these same problems, but we may never know.
Since starting up in earnest a couple years ago, the production of Fantastic Four has constantly found itself in the midst of some kind of controversy or another, and in the aftermath it will be interesting to hear how all of the truth winds up being separated from the fiction.
