Fantastic Four - This Movie Shocked Me

In the great three-way battle for dominance at the July box office, I don't think many people were given Fantastic Four great odds.

Not only was it going up against a juggernaut like the Jurassic World franchise, which somehow keeps churning out billion dollar movies despite becoming the dinosaur equivalent of the Fast and Furious, only less coherent, but it was also competing directly against James Gunn's Superman by James Gunn, a movie so insanely hyped up that you could almost forget there were actually other films coming out this summer.

And it wasn't exactly taking on these competitors from a position of strength either.

The MCU is a brand struggling for relevance and direction these days, let down by two disappointing flops already this year, and a TV show so terrible that even Marvel tried to bury it for years.

And as if all that wasn't bad enough, the film itself was dogged by controversy, rumours of panicked reshoots and rewrites, terrible test screenings, girl bosses and political pandering.

And of course, the whole thing was built around Pedro Pascal, the most overexposed and overhyped actor in Hollywood history.

All of this is to say that Fantastic Four felt like it was counted out before the fight even began.

But here's the funny thing, dear viewer.

It's actually pretty fucking good.

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I mean, let's not go nuts here.

It's not a great movie by any stretch.

It's not gonna change the world or save the MCU.

Superhero movies totally aren't back because of this one film and there's definitely issues with it.

The antagonists aren't very well developed, there's a bit too much convenience driving the plot forward and you can tell the third act's been chopped up in editing.

But for the most part,

I think the good far outweighs the bad in this case.

The four leads were likeable and easy to get invested in, the plot was simple but effective for building up the stakes and tension, the gloriously retro futuristic world was a nice break from the visual diarrhea that we're used to seeing, the dreaded Marvel humour was massively toned down, there was no girlbossing or pandering like the rumours suggested.

Damn man, even Pedro Pascal did a pretty good job as Reed Richards.

I can't quite believe I'm saying this about a Marvel movie in 2025, but credit where credit's due, I quite liked Fantastic Four.

The movie opens on an alternate version of Earth with a brisk and breezy intro that explains the origin of the Fantastic Four in a quick, simple summary that works neatly in context.

Unlike a fucking wall of text,

After their first journey into space that gave them all superpowers, the team are now heroes and global celebrities who use their powers for the good of humanity.

All great stuff, until one day the Silver Surfer crashes the party by announcing that Earth has been marked for death and Galactus is on his way to eat the fucking planet.

Not good news, so the gang head into space with a heavily pregnant Sue Storm to intercept Galactus and either negotiate a peaceful settlement or find a way to destroy him.

Galactus easily captures them though and offers them a simple choice, hand over Sue's unborn son and he'll leave Earth alone, or refuse and he'll kill them all and eat their planet anyway.

Boy, that escalated quickly.

Naturally they're not particularly keen on this deal so they bail the fuck out of there and return to Earth, and for some reason Reed Richards tells everyone exactly what went down.

You are the dumbest smart person I have ever met in my life!

Like, how do you imagine they're gonna take it when they realize you're the reason Earth is about to get eaten by a giant cosmic demon gods?

Anyway, with Galactus on his way and their popularity on the downslide, the race is on to find a way to either defeat him or escape before he gets there.

But does the answer really lie with a desperate plan to hide the entire planet, or does the Silver Surfer hold the key to stopping him?

Now, there's a lot I want to say about this film, and for once, I want to start with the good news.

Oh, and I'm probably gonna dip into spoilers here, so consider yourself warned.

Anyway, the first piece of good news is that most of what was leaked about this movie was either wrong or massively exaggerated.

Sue Storm isn't some annoying girl boss who dominates every situation, the movie doesn't pander to gender politics or knock down the male characters just to big up the ladies, and the finale isn't just her and the Silver Surfer saving the day single-handed.

Everyone gets stuff to do throughout the film, it's very much a team effort and all four of them have a role to play.

Well, maybe not so much the thing, but really, how much can you do with a fucking walking boulder that punches things?

Reed leads the way when it comes to science and technology, while Sue is more of a maternal presence over the team, and that's fine.

It's a collaboration, not a competition, which is how it should be.

Johnny Storm is way less annoying than the trailers made him out to be and he's actually pretty smart and makes a key discovery that helps them understand the Silver Surfer's true nature.

Yeah, I think the movie could have given them more scenes together to flesh out their relationship, but I'll get more into that later.

And believe it or not, I also have to give props to Pedro Pascal.

Whatever you might think of his public persona or Hollywood trying to push him into absolutely everything, one thing you can't deny is that he's a pretty fucking good actor, and when he's given the right role to work with, he can do great things.

I actually liked his portrayal of Reed Richards.

He's smart, composed and logical, and despite what the rumours would have you believe,

he's never pussified or pushed to the side in favour of Sue Storm.

There's a real theme of family, loyalty and teamwork running throughout the narrative, and holy shit, after all the weirdly sterile, sexless, joyless, loveless relationship that we've had to put up with in recent years, it was like some Wild Acid trip to have a movie that revolves around a husband and wife who love each other and the child that they're about to bring into the world.

We've actually reached the point where a bog-standard nuclear family dynamic is some crazy revolutionary concept now.

Another thing I appreciated about Fantastic Four was how removed it was from the rest of the MCU and its bullshit convoluted storylines.

For once, I didn't have a laundry list of movies and TV shows I needed to catch up on just to understand what the fuck was even happening here.

It's just a neat self-contained story, and I liked that.

On the downside, probably my biggest issue with the film is the Silver Surfer, but not for the reasons you might think.

Honestly, I don't much care if she's male or female because she's a fucking space alien made out of liquid metal.

My problem is that I wanted the movie to do a bit more with her.

I wanted to know more about her mindset and motivations.

her personality, how she sees the world and how she feels about what she does.

As it stands, she's not in the movie enough for me to form much of an opinion about her at all, and her redemption arc feels kind of unearned because there's a lot of connective tissue missing.

Probably because it was left on the cutting room floor, but I'll get back to that shortly.

It's much the same problem with Galactus.

I mean, don't get me wrong, he looks awesome, and Ralph Innocent does great work with the voiceover, even if I wish he would have kept his Yorkshire accent.

Ey up, lass!

Give me baby or I'll eat your planet.

Ah, that's champion.

Again, though, the problem is that the movie doesn't tell us a whole lot about him.

He's just big and hungry and he eats planets, I guess, and he wants baby Franklin to somehow take over his role one day.

Like, I've literally got no idea how that's even meant to work functionally and I don't get the impression you're meant to think about it too much.

It's a testament to how much I enjoyed this film though, that my biggest gripes are the things missing that I wanted to see more of rather than the stuff already in it that I hated.

And I get the impression there was originally a longer cut of this film that gave us more of those all-important character moments and connective scenes.

Whether it was a panic in studio trying to course correct after negative feedback or just a desire for a shorter runtime, I'm not sure.

But the end result is a slightly rushed, timid sort of movie that could have been something really special with just a bit...

Well, more.

As it stands though, Fantastic Four is a surprisingly decent movie that does what it does with just enough flair and heart to get you invested and that probably would have been considered thoroughly mid a decade ago.

But in these dark days of cinema, well, it's by far the best superhero film of 2025.

Make of that what you will.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today.

Go away now.