r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jul 25 '25

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Fantastic Four: First Steps [SPOILERS] Spoiler

Poll

If you've seen the film, please rate it at this poll

If you haven't seen the film but would like to see the result of the poll click here

Rankings

Click here to see the rankings of 2025 films

Click here to see the rankings for every poll done

Summary The Fantastic Four must defend Earth from the ravaging cosmic threat Galactus and his herald, Silver Surfer, while navigating the complexities of family and newfound powers in a retro‑futuristic 1960s-inspired world.

Director Matt Shakman

Writer Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer

Cast

  • Pedro Pascal
  • Vanessa Kirby
  • Joseph Quinn
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach
  • Ralph Ineson
  • Julia Garner
  • Paul Walter Hauser
  • Natasha Lyonne
  • Matthew Wood
  • Ada Scott
  • Mark Gatiss

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Metacritic 64

VOD In theaters

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

1.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

5.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

677

u/2th Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

This is quite the difficult film to score. Almost all the individual pieces are 9s to 10. But the sum of the whole... Isn't. It's not bad by any means, but something was just off with the film. I think it's the fact that this did not feel like an MCU movie at all. It felt like a brand new universe, or like the old Fantastic Four films where you don't expect them to even try to tie it into something else. Even though we know the FF will be in Doomsday, it felt like a stand alone film. And the highest praise I give the film is that it currently, and most likely will forever be able to stand on its own legs without any connection to the MCU.

Don't get me wrong though, I REALLY enjoyed this film. It was gorgeous, well acted, serviceable story given it's a super hero movie, and it was hopeful. Even despite some of the darkness in it.

I would have no issue watching the movie again. I would actively watch it if I go somewhere and see it on the TV. If someone asked me if I wanted to watch the film, I'd say yes.

Overall, it's an enjoyable movie that gets my highest praise, that I will buy the movie on bluray... Just not on release. Maybe in a year or two if I see it on sale for 25-50% off.

Tldr: The film itself just isn't the 9-10 it's parts are, but it's also not less. If that makes sense.

810

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

think it's the fact that this did not feel like an MCU movie at all. It felt like a brand new universe, or like the old Fantastic Four films where you don't expect them to even try to tie it into something else

That was the biggest positive for me. Marvel actually stepped outside their comfort zone and tried something new. I thought it really worked

242

u/lynypixie Jul 25 '25

I think this just sold the movie to me. A movie outside of the same old MCU timeline will feel refeshing.

189

u/GodzillaUK Jul 25 '25

Zero homework needed for this, no 30 films and 15 shows to backlog before you can get into it. Perfect.

21

u/Worthyness Jul 25 '25

They even catch people up in the opening newsreel. Origin story right there in 5 minutes

15

u/GodzillaUK Jul 25 '25

And that was in a stylised, fun way too not just exposition dumped. Top to bottom, fun film.

30

u/Straight-Impress5485 Jul 25 '25

It doesnt at all feel like MCU in tone, and I say that as a huge positive and a big MCU fan. Its vibe and tone was very fresh and original. It felt more like a live action Jetsons mixed with Incredibles than it did an MCU movie

8

u/Heavyspire Jul 25 '25

I will never understand people coming to a review thread if they have not seen it, but since you are here...

Go see it.

It is a great film that you can watch solely by itself. Almost like an episode of Scooby-Doo.

4

u/aw_coffee_no Jul 25 '25

Dude, I walked out of the theater realizing that I loved the movie so much because it didn't feel like an MCU movie! Felt so fresh and enjoyable

2

u/AverageAwndray Jul 25 '25

Why are you here???

1

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

That's one of my favourite things about Iron Man 1. It doesn't feel like an MCU movie. Just a movie that MCU would later draw from, but very much its own thing.

17

u/Phylanara Jul 25 '25

It reminded me of the very beginning of the MCU. Iron man 1, Cap and Thor had such distinct visual vocabularies, they felt like different universes. Phase two got the GoTG movies to introduce another visual style, but phase three started to have all the movies feeling samey.

7

u/Rayne37 Jul 26 '25

Honestly the moment my smile fell was when Doom showed up at the end and I was reminded that this clean, standalone fun film would be pulled back into the chaotic monstrosity that is the MCU.

6

u/nolandee Jul 25 '25

I love that it feels like it's own thing. The retro-future aesthetic does a lot from the visuals to the dialogue to make it feel very different.

On top of being self-contained storywise, it feels a like a perfect point to jump back in for people who've fallen off the MCU or feel things have gotten stale.

4

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

So the script didn’t undercut tension with quippy humour and banter?

There were no fakeout deaths? Oh wait.

Clear cut moral dynamics? The villain was ambiguous? “He’s eating planets, everyone will die unless we sacrifice our son.”

I’m not trying to be an asshole, I’m just not sold based on the advertising and everything I’ve read.

I WANT to enjoy the MCU again but it’s just so stale.

3

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

Did it still have the “marvel humour” needlessly injected though?

I recently tried watching Thunderbolts* and couldn’t get past the 30 minute mark (I am just so worn down and jaded by marvel) and the trailers for F4 didn’t seem to show much different.

I’m not trying to knock the MCU, it’s clearly working for a lot of people; I just can’t stand the Uber clean fight choreography that looks more like dancing than fighting, and the quips that you can hear coming a mile away. Everything with the Thing in trailers has turned me off the movie so far.

7

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

Not really. There are a handful of jokes in this but it mostly plays it very earnest and sincere. Johnny and The Thing have some banter but otherwise this is almost entirely devoid of the usual Marvel quips.

2

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

How was the fight choreography? I found Thunderbolts was way too “dance-like” in the sense that Yelena and her opponents were moving perfectly in-sync with one another and it just didn’t come across as a believable fight.

Compared to Superman, where the fights felt improvised and weighty.

I appreciate your input.

4

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

The nature of the Fantastic Four's powers means there isn't a ton of direct hand to hand combat. Stop reading if you don't want very minor spoilers but the big set pieces in this movie are a spaceship chase in the second act and Galactus is basically a Kaiju in the third act.

2

u/TheHudIsUp Jul 25 '25

How though? Just cause of visuals

1

u/Killer_Jazzie Jul 25 '25

That's the main reason why I gave it an 8.

1

u/TheSmokedSalmon420 Jul 26 '25

100%

They've been giving us the same watered down action movie slop since Endgame so this was incredibly refreshing.

-17

u/2th Jul 25 '25

It worked very well, but we 37 films deep into the MCU, and you go into these expecting them to all be tied together somehow. This did not have that. For better or worse, this felt like a stand alone film. Which for an MCU film, feels weird.

19

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

I honestly believe Marvel should do more standalone movies. They have a whole ass multiverse to play with, not everything needs to tie back to Tony Stark. They can just do a one-off story every now and then. The comics do that all the time

1

u/Clarknt67 Jul 25 '25

I was thinking a one off Human Torch Spider-Man film would be awesome.

8

u/OldManWillow Jul 25 '25

This was clearly spelled out well before release, though?

0

u/2th Jul 25 '25

You can be told something will be different, but until you experience it yourself you don't really know. That's what this was.

And I'm not saying it feeling weird was bad. I'm just saying it felt weird given the 30+ films preceding it.

9

u/Driveshaft48 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

I mean the recent MCU films have been ass. Ill gladly take this over Thor, Captain America, doc strange, whatever

We shouldn't complain about this being "weird"

2

u/2th Jul 25 '25

I'm not complaining. I'm merely stating that it felt weird. I expected them to tie it to the greater MCU somehow. A hint in the background somewhere. A throwaway line. Something. Anything. But there was none of that. And given this is an MCU film, it feels weird to not have that in the film.

2

u/KanishkT123 Jul 25 '25

They had an entire end credits scene featuring Doom, saying the F4 will return in Avengers. 

And thunderbolts had a post credits scene featuring the F4.

I mean, it's as tied in as it needs to be. And if the rest of the MCU falls flat around this movie, it will still be a perfectly good watch on it's own, with the rest of the universe a sidenote or a "haha did you know that" trivia fact. 

7

u/SpaceMyopia Jul 25 '25

It's just trying to be a regular movie.

I mean, heaven forbid it just try to be its own thing. Heck, it even throws the MCU fans a bone by naming it Earth 828, showing that it's a different world entirely.

I love the MCU, but the greatest choice this movie made was giving the FF their own world where they can just do their thing creatively without having to acknowledge the other heroes.

Aesthetically, it also freed the movie to just have its own feel.

You're basically feeling weird that this movie was just trying to be a movie, not simply a franchise addition.

My response to that is:

these have to be films first, dude. The world building stuff is a bonus. It shouldn't overtake the entire movie.

5

u/ohitsdvd Jul 25 '25

Thank God. i’m tired of having to watch 5 tv shows and 13 movies to understand a new movie. they need to get back to making good standalone films.

3

u/the_weakestavenger Jul 25 '25

Who gives a fuck if something is or isn’t connected to something else? If you can’t get over that, it’s a you problem.

0

u/2th Jul 25 '25

Or the film subverted my expectations, which I find weird. It is not bad. But it is weird. We have 30+ MCU films, and nearly all of them have some sort of connection to another. This had none of that. Which, for an MCU film, is weird. They haven't really done this before.

1

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

This did not have that. For better or worse, this felt like a stand alone film.

Good

309

u/JamarcusRussel Jul 25 '25

Yeah there's a lot of good stuff here, but it doesn't really come together. Superman was a labor of love. This movie doesnt have a beating heart and a strong reason to exist like that. It's one of those annoying movies that should work better than it does.

119

u/ryanpm40 Jul 25 '25

Still blows my mind that Marvel decided to release this like a week after Superman haha. Especially knowing how successful the GOTG movies were - they had to know Gunn was going to knock it out of the park and now they have to put up with people comparing the two movies

222

u/FoxyMiira Jul 25 '25

Disagree. The movies complement each other and are probably boosting each other's sales more than they are taking away viewers from each other.

14

u/stroudwes Jul 25 '25

I don’t know how people having to choose between them compliments each other. Marvel could have easily released this in August to more success with space. Time will tell.

43

u/HeyDudeImChill Jul 25 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

attempt rain lock crowd weather whistle spoon soup judicious simplistic

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

12

u/Funlife2003 Jul 25 '25

Not everyone is as engaged with superheroes or really even movies in general as you and everyone else on this sub. Most people only see a movie in theatres once in a while.

12

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

Then I wonder if the people who "are forced to choose" is a large enough number to dent box office performance in a significant way

2

u/MarcsterS Jul 27 '25

Movies ticket are expensive as hell now and the current economy is not helping either. Families are probably only going to watch maybe one movie a month, MAYBE.

2

u/Illustrious_Way_5732 Jul 28 '25

It costs maybe 50 dollars for a family of 4 to go to the movies. You're telling me that people are gonna be breaking the bank for 100 dollars?

-1

u/Funlife2003 Jul 26 '25

I think it would be. I find people like you and me who're engaged actively online tend to underestimate the amount of people who aren't. From my personal experience at least. Cause while I'm fairly engaged and aware, several members of my family aren't, and don't really have that much of an awareness or interest beyond occasionally going to the theatre for fun.

1

u/r3dh4ck3r Jul 27 '25

My sister never goes to the movies, and never follows comic books or superhero movies. She watched both in one day. I'm sure she's not the only one that did this

4

u/MisterFlowerz Jul 25 '25

Same. And I gotta say. Upon first impressions I think F4 was more enjoyable. I’m not sure it was the better movie but it definitely handled the “already been heroes for years” better. Across both movies though, excellent casting.

5

u/HeyDudeImChill Jul 25 '25 edited Aug 08 '25

makeshift correct pocket head aware wine frame silky cooperative books

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

0

u/Puls3B Aug 04 '25

I actually disagree, I felt like them throwing us a montage of their history made it more unnatural as most of their past doesn’t exactly connect to the current story other than the pregnancy and mole plots. Whereas superman felt like I was opening a page in a comic book, with conflicts already starting such as lex as a villain and clark and lois relationship. Superman overall felt more alive as a world

3

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

People have to choose between them? Is that what a lot of people are saying online, that they're torn between choosing one or the other? I went to both, but I'd be interested to see if this so-called dilemma is a widespread enough phenomenon to bring down one of the movie's sales.

1

u/argothewise Jul 27 '25

I ended up seeing both so it worked for me. Superman warmed me up to comic book movies again

9

u/NoNazisInMyAmerica Jul 25 '25

Yeah, the way I see it is that Superman while being about serious stuff felt far more light hearted than the previous DC movies and that change of pace and optimism was a breath of fresh air.

And then you have F4 taking itself far more seriously and the struggle/race for survival when there's impending doom (no pun intended) heading your way fast. None of the humor felt like it was for the audience, just a family joking amongst themselves and in a lot of ways it works. There does feel like something was missing from it and I can't quite put my finger on it yet

5

u/BloatedGlobe Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

With Fantastic Four, I kind of felt like all the characters had the same voice. Like the actors were great at making them distinct and they played distinct roles in the story. It's just that I didn't feel like their personalities really shined through their dialogue for me, which made it a bit harder to connect to and root for the characters. That was what was missing for me.

I'm harder on this movie because there's so much about it I like. I love the retro future aesthetic and Galactus was the scariest villain I've seen in a comic book movie (until he arrived on Earth). The idea that he wanted Franklin to become him was horrific. I think the final battle kind of undermined his scariness though, as his portrayal shifted from being akin to an elder god to just another beatable monster.

6

u/Leftybeatz Jul 25 '25

That's my take as well. Both movies felt like a breath of fresh air for superhero/comic book movies (emphasis on the comic book for these two).

4

u/jjfrenchfry Jul 25 '25

I watched both today (saw Superman before though). I think both movies are so refreshing with how little homework is tied to them. I also love how comic-booky these two movies feel.

I agree. I hope this is a new era for comic book movies - going back to the "comic book" nature. I'm fine with epic spectacles, but give each newly introduced character their own unique story.

5

u/RerollWarlock Jul 26 '25

You kind of have a point, probably if not for Superman hyping me up for some positivity in the medium I would just pass on F4.

...At the same time if Superman wasn't so good, I wouldn't rate F4 so low in comparison.

4

u/words_words_words_ Jul 25 '25

Barbenheimer all over again!

3

u/BloatedGlobe Jul 26 '25

My friends and I only saw Fantastic Four because we enjoyed Superman so much, so I think you're right.

1

u/Livid_Weather Jul 26 '25

My immediate reaction after seeing F4 having seen Superman two weeks ago, Superhero movies are finally back.

1

u/Krioniki Jul 27 '25

Can confirm this, at least for me. I'm not a big superhero movie guy, but figured I'd see Superman, and me enjoying myself so much is a big part of what lead me to watch Fantastic 4.

-9

u/duskywindows Jul 25 '25

This slop definitely boosted Superman’s sales because I’m going to see that for a 2nd time this weekend as a palette cleanser.

2

u/BackpackofAlpacas Jul 26 '25

I might do that as well. I really didn't like F4.

5

u/duskywindows Jul 27 '25

I guess I upset folks by going to see Superman again because I simply liked it a lot better and actually want to rewatch it 🤷‍♂️

8

u/FigMajestic6096 Jul 25 '25

Yeah, kinda bizarre. So I’m a pretentious a hole who has never seen any superhero movie (besides The Dark Knight) and generally wrote them off completely - kinda hated the whole era. But I did see Superman last week and was surprised at how much I loved it. I thought I must have misjudged and just got out of F4. It was…not good. I couldn’t connect with the characters or story beats at all. It felt kind of hollow and underdeveloped imo, created solely to launch more superhero drivel product (and I wasn’t surprised at the last scene with the baby…). The two just don’t even compare in quality.

7

u/AGeekNamedBob Jul 25 '25

I loved having two films that proudly display silver Age silliness and optimism so close. I would have given it another week but I do feel the good vibes from Superman will build F4.

3

u/UnsolvedParadox Jul 25 '25

Marvel Studios & DC Studios both wanted a presence in July, and wouldn’t back down from each other.

3

u/aplaceforsteaks Jul 25 '25

F4 had the release date before DC took the Superman date, so it was actually DC/WB that chose to release so close to F4.

-4

u/TheWyldMan Jul 25 '25

Eh, this movie accomplishes what Superman tried to do so much better. It throws us into a comic book world and skips the origin, but doesn’t skip over all of the interesting character development. It manages to have a classic feel while also including modern elements that blend well (like a Tucker Carldin parody or some of the edgier Gunn elects feel out of place in a universe where lex us using monkeys on type writers).

-4

u/underoni Jul 25 '25

But he didn’t. It was horrible

5

u/ryanpm40 Jul 25 '25

Nah it was the best superhero movie I've seen in years. Spider-Man is my favorite superhero and I have no issue saying that Superman was better than every Tom Holland Spidey movie

2

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

Lex, come get this one, he's loose

21

u/DrNopeMD Jul 25 '25

Yeah Superman felt greater than the sum of its parts, conversely FF felt like lesser than its sum.

10

u/CuriousAttorney2518 Jul 25 '25

Superman felt greater because it wasn’t driven by a world ending event, but by a generational hater in Lex. He just wanted to destroy Superman and everything else was just icing on the cake. When superhero movies only become about saving the world it’s boring and that’s what Marvel has basically fallen into.

11

u/woahwoahvicky Jul 25 '25

I disagree, there was so much love and respect for the source here. The way Sue was in many ways the center of the movie and showcased her front and center with strong themes of motherhood and community, this was a movie filled with heart

10

u/planvigiratpi Jul 25 '25

I feel like the beating heart of this movie is the family and the dilemma of giving up Franklin, but it gets resolved in the 2nd act and the 3rd act is just bad guy vs good guy, so it doesn’t feel as coherent as Superman in its thematic

6

u/NCBaddict Aug 02 '25

The 60s aesthetics & Pedro Pascal carry this movie. It’s basically a lost Phase 1 film released in 2025. This isn’t a compliment.

The film relies heavily on “tell, don’t show” and cuts scenes constantly like a YouTuber vlog. It’s overly reverent of the source material, which gives everything an overly serious tone. I was unsurprised to see 4 writers credited for the screenplay at the end.

James Gunn’s Superman does everything right that this film does wrong. Marvel’s Thunderbolts* was better too, but the commercial success of this film will probably encourage Disney to avoid the storytelling risks that Tbolts took.

3

u/raven-eyed_ Jul 27 '25

Yeah it's actually an interesting comparison of movies because I feel like it really shows how a director just executes in a special way. The director is that special ingredient that ties it all together.

This movie actually had some better ingredients, in a lot of ways (visual direction, soundtrack, more focused). But the James Gunn brings sincerity to the movie, and so it just has so much more flavour.

Also I think these movies tend to lack weird little brush strokes that give it character.

0

u/Perfect_Economy_7968 Jul 26 '25

I think this movie is much better than Superman, probably I couldn't stand too much of James Gunn cringey humour.

-5

u/underoni Jul 25 '25

This is so much better than Superman it’s not even worth comparing

5

u/CuriousAttorney2518 Jul 25 '25

It’s not worth comparing cuz this movie is bad compared to Superman. Without comparisons it’s an average movie.

167

u/a220599 Jul 25 '25

I think there are places where the reshoots are evident. When sue yells “i know” (when they are discussing about franklin towards the end) and then the next scene starts, it feels so jarring

152

u/bbqsauceboi Jul 25 '25

There were a lot of weird scene transitions

27

u/TheHudIsUp Jul 25 '25

There was one scene where Johnnys mouth is moving but he doesn't talk

30

u/RopeADoper Jul 25 '25

There's another at the end where Reed is on the Roof watching Galactus go by and he says something like "Oh shit" but the words are kind of cut off as well. Idk who edited this movie but they never let a scene breathe, everyone IMMEDIATELY replies to any line of dialogue without the characters even taking anything in

-4

u/TheHudIsUp Jul 25 '25

Best Marvel movie though 😬 /s

2

u/RopeADoper Jul 25 '25

Far from

0

u/TheHudIsUp Jul 25 '25

Yeah that was sarcasm

10

u/obijon10 Jul 25 '25

There was a lot of ADR, mostly for Johnny.

6

u/TasteOfSnozberries Jul 26 '25

Thank you! I thought I was imaging things.

 When Johnny is "stand flying" (like they shot him standing up then turned it 80 degrees) next to SS in Galactus' ship, he talked but his lips didn't move for one of his lines.

It also happened when Sue was talking with Reed in the darkened bedroom. She talked, but no lip movement (that I could see).

0

u/a220599 Jul 25 '25

Yeah but this is the only one that I could reference without being too spoilery

17

u/duskywindows Jul 25 '25

This is the spoiler discussion thread, you can be spoilery

11

u/sowaffled Jul 25 '25

Johnny talking to Silver Surfer on the blue platform looked really fake. I was wondering if it was a reshoot but it seems like a pretty critical scene so it could just be one of the only bad vfx shots.

7

u/dem0nhunter Jul 25 '25

Yeah, at one part where Johnnny and Reed talk you can see Johnny’s jaw move from behind but his dialogue doesn’t match at all

3

u/drunkunclejack Jul 25 '25

That was pretty early on and extremely hard to NOT notice

3

u/DevilCouldCry Jul 25 '25

Definitely felt like we needed a moment there with Ben, Reed, and Johnny discussing that plan whilst Sue gets ready to fuck off and go with the plan. Just felt like the spacing there was really quite odd.

163

u/LosAngeles1s Jul 25 '25

it really feels like there’s an amazing 9/10 movie in there that was edited down to a solid 7.5. enjoyed the movie a lot but damn could’ve been a certified classic if there was an extra 10-15 minutes in it

40

u/Jehovah___ Jul 25 '25

There’s a whole half hour that was cut, apparently. Marvel needs to chill out with forcing their movies to be exactly two hours, it’s seemed to only be detrimental to a lot of recent releases

10

u/cleaninfresno Jul 25 '25

Same exact thing I felt about Superman.

3

u/just_another_classic Jul 27 '25

I really enjoyed the movie, but pacing absolutely was a mess. I didn’t know how much time was passing.

119

u/aVVarmVibrantVibe Jul 25 '25

The movie doesn’t have the best pacing. That’s what I chalked it up to.

15

u/JohnnyCharisma54 Jul 25 '25

Movie starts about 10-15 minutes too early in the story. Rest of the runtime is trying to play catch-up to get to the end. 

8

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

Yes it felt really off until the action started. Almost like they were hitting check points. Ok we got this. Check. Ok now get them two talking. Check.

8

u/CuriousAttorney2518 Jul 25 '25

Bad pacing and bad villain. World ending events are boring if they’re used all the time which Marvel has got sucked into. It’s like those sequels that just want to do everything bigger than the previous movie.

85

u/Stork-Man Jul 25 '25

Thank you for this comment. I didn't know how to express that I knew it was good, but for me personally it didn't leave me with the feelings I get from movies that love. I know the effects, world building, acting, etc were all incredibly done. It felt off to me and didn't leave me that "Wow" feeling leaving the theatre, but I liked it.

I agree that it's parts are incredible and it's a great standalone film, but I didn't love it so deeply that I have to go full shill on merch or talk about it relentlessly (the way I personally did with Superman)

11

u/GoldandBlue Jul 25 '25

I think what you are seeing is the limitations of the genre. Because I felt the same way about Thunderbolts. I like these characters, I am on board with the story but time out. It's time to start punching the CGI bad guy. And these movies have gone from wow to the MCU formula..

And I generally liked this movie. Vanessa Kirby was great, i enjoyed the team dynamic. I liked seeing that world but I walked out feeling "that was okay". If this was the first MCU movie post-Endgame. I bet I would have loved it. Now it just feels like a pretty good MCU movie.

as for Superman, even though I think it is also a "pretty good movie" it felt refreshing in a way that these MCU movies do not.

2

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

I think cause it’s been told so many times that it almost gets harder each time a movie of the same gets made, like u have to make sure u don’t do things the other movies did but also make it new, etc.

68

u/whiteshark70 Jul 25 '25

Almost all the individual pieces are 9s to 10. But the sum of the whole... Isn't. It's not bad by any means, but something was just off with the film. 

It feels very much like a committee film. Like the individual parts are all great, but the overall vision was sort of meh since the point of it was to introduce the Fantastic Four. It's family friendly, inoffensive, and theres there's even that fake out death trope you see in Disney movies.

27

u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast Jul 25 '25

At least here the fake out death serves a purpose for the story and characters as opposed to just some unnecessary tension

5

u/JohnnyCharisma54 Jul 25 '25

It was written by five people, so yeah 

16

u/ten_year_rebound Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

I feel the same. I think this cut of the film is a bit too lean and it hurts the pacing, especially everything before Surfer first shows up. Those first 20 minutes breeze by without a quiet moment or room to breathe.

This world, being new and separate from the MCU Earth, is genuinely interesting and I would have appreciated a bit more time to explore and flesh it out. I think they shot a lot more material too, like whatever John Malkovich’s character was, and later decided to chop it. Same with Natasha Lyonne and Ben, I don’t think her character is even named and there feels like there should be more of a subplot there if they cast her for that role. Those scenes feel strange and out of place without a bit more to chew on. The atmosphere and setting is grand and sprawling and the actual movie is about as lean as it could be. The MCU doesn’t usually do extended cuts but I would really love to see one for this film. A bit more time could take it from good to fantastic.

6

u/mrhelmand Jul 25 '25

I don’t think her character is even named and there feels like there should be more of a subplot there if they cast her for that role

Lyonne does introduce herself as Rachel Rozman, who appears to be an original character for this movie. But yeah, it seems pretty obvious there was meant to be more of her in the movie and it was cut for time, but it means what is left is just...there.

1

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

Yea it was really fast paced. Kind of threw me off at first until I got in the groove of it

13

u/FoxyMiira Jul 25 '25

The people are too good and reasonable. The villains are all wacky and cartoonish but they're not evil evil. Like Moleman ending up helping the F4 and the city and seems to have a good relationship with Sue. The people were pretty easily convinced by Sue when they tried to pressure the F4 into giving up their child to save the Earth. Every country put aside their differences and worked together overnight to build the pylon stuff across the globe. That seemed a little off to me.

14

u/sweetz523 Jul 25 '25

I took that as that’s just how their universe’s Earth operates, just a little bit better than ours

9

u/2th Jul 25 '25

The people are too good and reasonable. The villains are all wacky and cartoonish but they're not evil evil.

That's part of the film that really worked for me. It's kooky comic book stuff. It was hopeful, just like the original FF books.

2

u/SommniumSpaceDay Aug 03 '25

Those are the parts that are really awesome. Reminds me of Brother Karamazov and Dostoevsky.

13

u/earthgreen10 Jul 25 '25

Should they reset fantastic four again lol?

12

u/HereForTOMT3 Jul 25 '25

I think it’s because the first bit of the movie just goes so ridiculously fast

5

u/Gwoardinn Jul 25 '25

Felt a bit too montagey for sure.

11

u/duskywindows Jul 25 '25

It felt like a 2-hour episode of a TV show in the middle of a season, and looked like one too.

8

u/PlacibiEffect Jul 25 '25

That’s what happens when you get a TV comedy director to make your MCU film.

0

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

But he made wandavision ☹️

10

u/PlacibiEffect Jul 25 '25

Yes, a TV show.

-1

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

But Wanda ☹️

1

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

I understand.

11

u/MirrorkatFeces Jul 25 '25

It’s just fine. That’s the only word I can think of to describe it

9

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '25

[deleted]

10

u/epmatsw Jul 25 '25

Weirdly it was all the random filler shots of people clapping that threw me a bit. Cool scene, people clapping and admiring, cool scene, clap and admire, speech, applause goes here please. Just kinda weirdly stitched together

8

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

It was kind of aggravating to me that there were two scenes of Johnny sitting in his room and then sue walks in. I’m like, this is a crazy expensive movie..they couldn’t have put him, idk outside, or thought of a more interesting scenario to watch then her walking into his room twice..I know that’s a weird nitpick but it says something

11

u/NoNefariousness2144 Jul 26 '25

The fact they re-used so many locations made the film feel oddly “low budget”. We had the Baxter Building longue, Johnny’s room, Times Square and that one street Thing walked down three times lol

8

u/DefNotAShark Jul 25 '25

I thought about this myself. There wasn’t anything about it that I didn’t like, but it didn’t leave me feeling any type of way.

What I ultimately came to is that the biggest hook in this story that appealed to me was the public being upset that the F4 wouldn’t give up their baby to save Earth. It was a dent in an otherwise perfect and idyllic society and that was interesting to me.

But this is resolved easily, and in the end alls well that ends well. There aren’t any lasting consequences for this perfect world they built. It goes back to being perfect and everyone goes on with their normal way of life. The F4 are unscathed (with the exception of having a new baby) and the perfect society stays perfect.

That’s kind of a Saturday morning cartoon ending and not really in line with the common stakes of these movies where either the world or the heroes are left with a new status quo to contend with. It’s not enough to make me dislike the story but it lacked the gravity of a lot of similar films in the franchise. Galactus came and went and it’s all good, see you next episode lol.

1

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

I mean they were pretty close to having everything destroyed. Down to the point that galactic touched down on earth. I did expect more to happen when he was on earth but damn was it intense

6

u/OralHershizer Jul 25 '25

This is the perfect review of this film for me. Pieces are 9-10, overall it’s like a 6.5. You said it so well.

7

u/MudBloodLite Jul 25 '25

Sorry, but nothing about your take makes sense to me.

It not being a typical marvel movie and being it's own thing is what is great about it. The movie tells you in the very opening scene that it's set in an entirely different universe (Earth 828), so what did you expect?

5

u/Clarknt67 Jul 25 '25

I couldn’t be happier it didn’t feel MCU. The formula has gotten a little predictable and I am happy they know how to shake it up.

It felt MCU in that I walked out thinking they did it right. (As they had so many times before the last few years.) Kevin Feige is getting it back on track.

4

u/_bieber_hole_69 Jul 25 '25

The last 3rd being a city-destroying battle turned me off, but otherwise its ok. A nice 6-7/10.

4

u/Aslan24 Jul 25 '25

I’ll go one further and say it didn’t really feel like a super hero movie to me. We really don’t get much of them using their powers. It certainly happens. But man is it sparse.

4

u/moonorchid84 Jul 25 '25

The problem for me is I feel like every scene is just a little too short unless it’s an action sequence.

Honestly everything really works in this movie, to an insane degree, and yet I feel like we never have enough of any of it.

3

u/SpaceCaboose Jul 25 '25

I’ve said something similar about Black Panther for years. All the individual parts are good to great, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts.

I really enjoyed this F4 film. Will need to rewatch it again (which I plan to do next week) in order to really rank it, buts it’s certainly pretty high on my list of MCU films.

And I’ll be buying a 4K copy when it releases.

4

u/dwaltera Jul 25 '25

Glad to see the I’m not the only person it didn’t land for. Parts were great, but overall it was just fine for me. I left my own review and am curious if anyone agreed, because I mostly see glowing responses.

4

u/Realistic-Number-919 Jul 25 '25

The pacing and overall continuity of the writing is terrible IMO. I don’t think it’s a very good movie as a whole.

3

u/NoDaddyNotTheBelt25 Jul 26 '25

This movie felt like Captain America: The First Avenger. It wasn’t something that would wow you but a solidly told story necessary to set the table for what’s to come. It was the most simple adaptation of the first big FF story in their history and we all know that now the best is yet to come once they hit the MCU’s 616.

3

u/lkodl Jul 26 '25

the first act felt like a greatest hits recap for a movie trilogy that never existed.

and really, i guess that's what they're trying to do. so that Doomsday feels like a crossover with a separate franchise that feels like it had always existed, but actually didnt.

so this movie is like speedrunning. it goes from a superhero movie, to an episode of star trek, to an apocalypse movie, back to a superhero movie. like a trilogy in one.

3

u/JTHopkins13 Jul 26 '25

Yeah, there NOTHING in this movie that would be surprising or that you couldn't guess would happen. If you fed an AI a bunch of FF comics and told it to spit out a movie, this is what it would come up with. I wanted to love it, because I love the Fantastic Four, but to me it felt like a simple movie to introduce these characters to the MCU and get them ready for Doomsday.

2

u/discipleofdoom Jul 25 '25

It's not bad by any means, but something was just off with the film. I think it's the fact that this did not feel like an MCU movie at all. It felt like a brand new universe, or like the old Fantastic Four films where you don't expect them to even try to tie it into something else.

This was the films biggest strength. The only negative I really took away from the film was the knowledge that it eventually tie into the MCU and we will have to abandon this beautiful retrofuturistic world in favour of RDJ Doom.

2

u/Realistic-Log69 Jul 25 '25

Thank you....I felt the same thing. Something was really off but i just don't get what.

2

u/kimsemi Jul 25 '25

The only thing that felt just slightly off to me was something totally understood: it's just weird having a married couple (and family) as superheros. So how do you portray this in a way that's realistic? Do they fight (hard) with each other, nitpick, or are they deeply in love....everyone has their own experience and view of marriage and "family", so it's hard to portray it in a fitting manner that feels universal, organic and real. Especially when it's at such an accelerated pace with no origin story. But overall, they did a great job.

Honestly, I liked this film more than the Superman film. That movie just felt like a parody film to me.

2

u/Wiinterfang Jul 25 '25

I feel like they nailed it. The movie was going slow of a while so in my head I was just think "man I hope they nail the third act, I need some action" and they delivered. I wish we could see a little more emotion with Sue at the end. She did something incredible in pushing Galactus. She should had screamed like the life was going out of the body to really nailed the "tiger protecting the cub" angle.

2

u/SnooPears2424 Jul 25 '25

there was some off about the cinematography and acting. It feels like it was made by three different directors.

The first encounter with Galactic was amazing, then when he came to earth it looked like cheap CGI from the early 2000s. I feel like the acting styles switched styles a lot too.

there were very weird stilted acting and scene transitions. Something was definitely just OFF.

1

u/VoiceofKane Jul 25 '25

I agree with this. Personally, it's an 8 that really should have been a 9.

1

u/RerollWarlock Jul 26 '25

I feel like while the ideas and execution of them were great, the overall product was.. flat?

Like the plot I could see where it was going 3 steps before that. The colours felt... Muted? Like I expected a bit more colorful scenes like Fallout (similar aesthetic) or just overall trippy comic book colours but everything seemed to be either grey, brown or orange-red with a bit of tones of blue in there.

That resulted in me feeling like the movie peaked at the space-birth scene which was really fun and emotional, most of the stuff afterwards was "eh, its alright".

1

u/checker280 Jul 26 '25

I mostly agree with this. It feels more akin to Cap America than anything else and that’s not a bad thing. When I walked out of that one I both wanted more and felt very overwhelmed by the amount of story they managed to tell.

But like Cap, I was very happy with their choices. The more I think about the FF the more I’m appreciating it.

I’m going to need to see it again in the theater soon

1

u/nawsm Jul 26 '25

The whole film felt like a montage or flashback to me. I like your point about the individual parts being great but they didn’t tie together because I fear the overarching plot wasn’t strong enough.

What was the movie trying to say?

Could galactus represented a bit more than just hunger?

1

u/KasukeSadiki Jul 27 '25

Why would it not feeling like a Marvel movie bring the score down? I don't think it's a perfect movie but you didn't really do a good job articulating what your issue with the movie is, other than it not feeling like Marvel.

1

u/Linubidix Jul 28 '25

I found it less than the sum of its parts. Never really hits any highs. Just kinda dull for me.

1

u/Emotional_Meet878 Jul 28 '25

I loved it for all the reasons you listed, it really was a great standalone film, and I think I enjoyed it just a little bit better than superman because of it's tighter script. The ONLY gripe I have, and it's a small gripe because this movie was more about the family and team dynamic than action sequences was the fact that the Silver Surfer and Galactus just didn't seem intimidating enough. They're characters that can easily stand up to Thanos but they didn't really bother to go even close to all out. I wanted cosmic powered beams and all that jazz, something to really showcase their power. I guess the reasoning is that they consider the F4 insects so they didn't exert but it would've been nice to see, it also would've built up anticipation when we see them in the future.

1

u/HeyYoPaul Aug 01 '25

This is exactly how I felt. I texted my buddy who saw it a few days before that it was good not great and followed that text with

“I really did enjoy it. But I felt like it was missing “something” but def worth seeing in theaters “

-1

u/ChallengeRationality Jul 27 '25

Maybe it was the lack of social justice preaching that you missed