Back in 2015, 20th Century Fox wasn’t worrying about being purchased by The Walt Disney Company. But they were worried about the release of their new take on Marvel’s first family, Fantastic Four. The studio was rebooting the franchise in an effort to capitalize on the love for Marvel Studios movies, and rather than going in the goofy family action comedy direction of the first franchise, they got dark and gritty with Chronicle director Josh Trank at the helm. But things did not go well.

Josh Trank’s vision for Fantastic Four did not pan out as he hoped. Studio executives demanded reshoots, and it was clear that they completely crippled whatever Trank had in mind. Well, four years later, Trank decided to revisit his box office bomb that stopped any hopes of revamping the franchise dead in its tracks. The director even took the time to post a movie review to Letterboxd, in which he reflects on that time in his life and hints at the production woes behind the scenes.

Here’s the review of Fantastic Four from Josh Trank on Letterboxd (via Vulture):

Fant4stic… Huh.

Okay 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 traumatized state of mind. Why? Eh, save that for another time.

Anyway, movie review:

Great cast.

Everyone in the film is a great actor, and overall there is a movie in there, somewhere. And that cast deserves to be in THAT movie. Everyone who worked on Fant4stic clearly wanted to be making THAT movie. But…. ultimately… It wasn’t.

Did I make that movie they deserved to be in?

To be honest?

I can’t tell.

What I can tell is there are TWO different movies in one movie competing to be that movie.

Is there a #releasethetrankcut?

Doesn’t matter.

I’m not Zack Snyder.

Zack Snyder is a storied, iconic, legendary filmmaker who has been knocking it out of the fucking park since I was in high school.

Me? Then?

I was 29 years old, making my 2nd film, in a situation more complicated than anything a 2nd time filmmaker should’ve walked into.

That said… I don’t regret any of it.

It’s a part of me.

And I just hope Peyton Reed makes the next Fantastic Four and crushes it. And that I get a cameo.

Anyway, that’s it.

Fant4stic.

PS: My girlfriend said I should’ve reviewed more of the film and less about myself. My answer: ?????.

We’d like to note that it doesn’t seem anyone knows with 100% certainty that this is actually Josh Trank writing on Letterboxd. The account seems to only recently be active, and Trank has only reviewed four movies. And it would seem like a rather odd hoax for someone to pull off at this point in time. But this is the internet and anything is possible. Even so, this sounds very sincere, and maybe Trank will one day open up a little more about the time he spent trying to make Fantastic Four work.

The post Josh Trank Reviews His Own 2015 ‘Fantastic Four’ Movie on Letterboxd and Gets Real About Life appeared first on /Film.