After a fairly successful take on the Fantastic Four in 2005, the franchise (which was still held at the time by 20th Century Fox, rather than Marvel itself) took a nosedive in 2007 with The Rise of the Silver Surfer. That killed that version of the team, which rested in movie limbo until resurrected in 2015 with another save-the-rights effort that was ... just so very bad, it hurts to remember watching it.

Directed by Josh Trank -- who reportedly had a lot of strife with both the cast and the studio during production -- this new incarnation makes the team even younger and, instead of exposing them to cosmic radiation in space, carts them off to an alternate dimension (a nod to the Ultimate line of comics). The initial trailer, I remember, was fairly inspiring.

It's sad, then, that the movie itself is so truly bad.

It shoots for dark and gritty, a mood that suits some comic-book franchises but doesn't work well for the colorful Fantastic Four. Worse, it's dull -- there's too much talking, too much sitting around in poorly lit rooms and not enough good action.

It stars Miles Teller as Reed Richards, Jamie Bell as Ben Grimm, Kate Mara as Sue Storm and Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. Toby Kebbell is Victor Von Doom.

I'd like to say their performances are fine, given the material they had to work with, but honestly the film stumbles along at such an awful pace, it's hard to know where to place the blame. The characters are surprisingly bland, but I'm not sure I can fault the actors if that's how Trank directed them.

In any case, the final product is simply terrible. It makes the 2005 movie look amazing by comparison, and it even pales when compared to that Surfer dreck.

Marvel, by buying Fox, has finally gotten its hands on the rights to the team, and reports indicate the company plans to bring back the Four and integrate them into the MCU. With many of the pillars of the MCU leaving after Avengers: Endgame, the blockbuster franchise will need new life. Let's hope they can finally get the Fantastic Four right.