In what looks like a flagrant rush to catch up to the recent, headline-grabbing trailer premieres of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Ant-Man and Terminator Genisys, 20th Century Fox has revealed the latest trailer for their upcoming Fantastic Four reboot this weekend. And although this new Fantastic Four trailer doesn’t make the same splash that any of those other previews did, it does at least give us our first real look at the latest versions of these classic characters, and the debut of the new version of Doctor Doom.
Related: The Fantastic Four Look Bored and Boring in New Poster
The Fantastic Four’s arch-nemesis Victor Von Doom (the doctorate was honorary, and bestowed upon himself after becoming the fascist dictator of Latveria), quickly became one of the most iconic villains in all of comic book history after his debut in The Fantatic Four #5 in 1962. Doctor Doom wears metal armor in the comics to hide his scars, and in addition to being one of the most brilliant scientists in the world, is also one of Earth’s most powerful sorcerers. He is believed to have been an influence on Darth Vader who – unlike Doom, who has never been captured faithfully on camera – has gone on to become one of the most iconic villains in movie history, effectively stealing Doctor Doom’s thunder, decades before the Marvel villain’s big screen debut.
Related: Doctor Doom is a Blogger in New Fantastic Four Reboot
Major changes are said to be afoot to this new big screen version of the Fantastic Four, including a reimagining of Doctor Doom as a blogger (this new trailer makes no reference to that plot point). But this latest preview of Fantastic Four seems more eager to redefine the upcoming film’s image as a mostly faithful adaptation of the comics, depicting Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) as a wise-cracking gear head, Reed Richards (Miles Teller) as a super nerd, Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell) as a man of muscle (sort of), and Susan Storm (Kate Mara) as a match for Reed’s intellect, although apart from that she doesn’t make much of an impression yet, does she?
This new trailer makes Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four appear to be a straight-up origin story, with the plot revolving around the scientific discovery – a bridge to other dimensions – that gave the heroes their powers in the first place. Beyond that, a few character moments and some solid shots of the Fantastic Four using their powers, this trailer doesn’t appear to do much besides reminding summer audiences that the movie is, in fact, on its way. It isn’t making shocking changes to the storyline (at least, not that it’s advertising), and it’s not playing to nostalgia or any particular sense of wonder. It still looks like Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four is trying to be an efficient superhero action story, but not a great one.
Time will tell. We’ll be back with more Fantastic Four updates and news as we lead up to the film’s release on August 7, 2015.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
