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The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) - Full Reaction (Patreon)

Published:
2026-01-10 13:00:14
Edited:
2026-08-19 19:00:33
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Marvel is always fun to jump back into, and always fun to watch with Carly! I won't spoil our exact thoughts but what did you guys think of this one?

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The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) - Full Reaction - Popcorn In Bed

Watch the full reaction to The Fantastic 4: First Steps on Popcorn In Bed.

Comments

Richard Maurer

One of my favorite superhero movies is what I thought.

JohnnyUtah

I thought it was great, especially after thunderbolts* and where we are going with Doomsday... buckle up

Christian Becker

I'm curious about this one. It's my first time watching this one, too. I gave up following the superhero genre a while ago. It became too much and, more often than not, increasingly stupid. The last one I really liked was The Batman. But maybe this one is fun? Let's find out...

aarswft

"It's kind of like the Incredibles" This hurt my heart.

Alex Gorell

I have not watched a marvel movie since the most recent spider man movie. I’m just so burnt out by superhero’s. But haven’t been told by many that they were pleasantly surprised by this one.

Larry Darrell

Same here, except I’m still interested in superhero tales. I’m just burnt out on mid to bad storytelling. This makes me look more fondly on Fantastic Four (2005). At least they all worked together in the end in that one.

Richard Maurer

Yeah, it’s like when someone says something in LotR reminds them of Harry Potter, it makes me cringe and say “No! It’s the other way around!”

Richard Maurer

I’ll just say it: The Incredibles were based on the Fantastic Four. Hope that clears it up for anyone who didn’t already know that.

McShades

I wasn't a fan of this one, didn't care for the ending, it should have been a team effort and not a solo effort.... I thought a lot of the movie was rather boring, it didn't have that fast pace of the older Marvel Movies the ones made before End Game....

Dan M

I kind of gave up on the MCU after Thor: Love and Thunder. Since then, it’s been nothing but one disappointing movie after another (with the exception being Guardians of the Galaxy 3). But Thunderbolts gave me hope that the creative team over at Marvel have gotten back on track. I’ve been wanting to watch this movie since then, but I specifically held off knowing that you would reacting to it on the channel. So here we are…and with Spider Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Doomsday coming out this year, I’m once again excited to continue on with the MCU journey.

Cole Jennett

I think it will renew your interest.

Doc Larry/old geezer

The new Fantastic Four underperformed at the box office. I did appreciate the costume throwbacks they clearly echo the 1960s cartoon series, which was a nice touch for longtime fans. Reviews were mixed, and there’s been a lot of talk about “Pedro Pascal fatigue.” Many critics felt he was miscast in this role, though I’ll reserve final judgment until I see it myself here on the channel. As someone who’s been a superhero comic-book fan since the early 1960s, the recent run of weak productions from both Marvel and DC has definitely dampened my enthusiasm. Hopefully, at some point, that spark comes back.

Walter

I thought this was a good movie. Some incredible visuals. A great opening. Unfortunately, the weakness of the movie (for me) is the main cast. Johnny is not that interesting in this movie (completely overshadowed by Chris Evan’s version). Ben is criminally underused. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue is incredible strong - best performance in the film. Then Pedro - I find him to be incredibly compelling to watch in everything I’ve seen. He plays the emotions of every scene perfectly. But he is no reed Richard’s to me. He’s really good, but never feels like the character. My 2 cents.

Johnny Bullis

Im glad you two finally watched this.. yes that was Joseph Quinn who was in Gladiator 2 along with Pedro Pascal who was also in G2.. that was Dr Doom in the mid credit scene.. now we just have to wait til December to see Avengers Doomsday .. to see how this all plays out.

Johnny Bullis

Is anyone else having issues with their membership? I just watched the full reaction and now the screen where the reaction was is saying to sign in to confirm Im not a bot? I know im logged in to the correct account.. I just watched this movie with them.

Cole Jennett

I thought everyone nailed their roles.

Cole Jennett

I think Thunderbolts was the turning point and we are ascending again. Next two movies after this are Spiderman and Avengers.

Steve Mercier

Having grown up with the comics as a kid, this one for me got everything right. Also, I love the casting here: the Fantastic Four is perfect, but also Mole Man, Galactus, and especially Julia Garner as this universe's Silver Surfer. Good stuff.

Above Average Dave

I grew up with the Fantastic Four comic books and it was my long-time favorite (Crystal was my first crush — at age 7), along with Spider-Man, The X-Men (original and new) and Captain America. Full circle—since Cassie mentioned THE INCREDIBLES—I actually had a pitch meeting with Marvel and Avi Arad, who I'd met a few years earlier before the first X-MEN movie premiered. My pitch meeting was a few weeks after THE INCREDIBLES premiered and to say they were not pleased at Marvel is an understatement, especially with some scenes and characters that were all but direct lifts from FF and Marvel. There were talks of lawsuits but Marvel had just established themselves as player in the town with the success of SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2, THE X-MEN and X-MEN 2, and were about to drop their first Fantastic Four movie. They were also launching various properties with most of the major the studios to spread risk (and maximize profits), but they were not the behemoth that was Marvel Studios, yet. I think because of this, and because they were building relationships with all the studios, pursuing litigation was tabled. Safe to say, Brad Bird dodged a big bullet.

Walter

That’s cool. I think Johnny and Ben were underutilized and should have had more to do.

Richard Maurer

It…was a team effort. The rest just followed the strongest member’s lead.

Above Average Dave

Also, Cassie, George Lucas basically stole Dr. Doom, made his costume black, and called him "Darth Vader." There was wide consensus on this back the the late 1970s early 1980s. Only difference is Doom was an even bigger bad-A in the comics, much more powerful, and much more intelligent (though he did, and continues to have, a flaming temper and the bouts of hubris that sometimes accompanies genius).

Dan M

My interest with the MCU was re-ignited with Thunderbolts. Now I’m hoping it will be bolstered with this movie.

Richard Maurer

REACTION SPOILER ALERT - I suspected Cassie and Carly would love this movie. I didn’t say anything about that before they watched it because I prefer to let them decide that for themselves.

Clarence Newman

And The Fantastic Four was inspired by The Fab Four, which is why Cassie should watch A Hard Day’s Night next.

Clarence Newman

I'm not a fan of superhero movies. I didn't say so before because that would've been a Lack of Expectation spoiler.

Richard Maurer

That’s not an expectation spoiler (or lack thereof) - it’s your personal opinion. Telling someone else they’ll love or hate something is setting expectations.

Clarence Newman

I've never really agreed with that. As you say, "You'll love it!" or "You'll hate it!" is just a personal opinion, and opinions are like noses. Stating *why* you think Cassie won't like it (or will) - ie drilling down into specific scenes - I think *that* becomes an expectation spoiler, and therefore needs to be avoided. But just saying whether you think she'll like it or not doesn't spoil anything. She's too much of a battle-hardened uber-reactor to fall for that. I think I just impressed myself. I have briefly become more articulate than the average lorry.

Tyler Hale

Excuse me but it should be Zack Snyder’s Justice League, my good sir.

Richard Maurer

I know you’re not serious but I’m going to pretend you were anyway - the FF were created in 1961, The Beatles in 1963. Therefore the FF inspired The Beatles.

Clarence Newman

Dammit. I should've known I had literally nothing to contribute to a superhero post. I have to correct you on one thing, though. The Beatles, in their final form, were created in 1962. That was when Ringo's nose entered the building.

Clarence Newman

Also worth noting (and this is coming from one of Cassie's traditional white knights), I am far less likely to warn her off a tough movie now than I was before Passion of the Christ. With all the stuff she's opened herself up to since, what's the point?

Richard Maurer

Some people are definitely influenced just by a person saying that they’ll love or hate something, so I prefer to avoid it. But someone saying, for instance, I personally hate a certain season of a certain series is NOT a spoiler. It’s a personal opinion, also known as a review.

Clarence Newman

Agreed, and in the case of GoT, always wrong.

Richard Maurer

And go tell google that it was ‘62 - it says ‘63.

Clarence Newman

Maybe. It probably took Ringo's nose a long time to enter the building.

Clarence Newman

Google can suck it. Ringo joined the band in August 1962 after Pete Best was fired. You're on my turf now, brother!

Richard Maurer

DON’T MENTION GoT - it could be a spoiler!

Richard Maurer

They watched the better movie first - jk not jk.

Vak

...wait, what? The FF comic came out in 1961. The Beatles didn't even start becoming popular in the UK until 1962 with "Love me Do," their publicist hadn't coined the Fab Four term yet, and they wouldn't be on Ed Sullivan until 1964. Stan Lee may be a bit overhyped in some quarters, but the FF was completely the idea of himself and Jack Kirby. I don't know where you heard the Beatles thing, but I humbly suggest that you were misinformed.

Clarence Newman

See that, Richard? 1962. I jest, Vak. I am one of those Beatlemaniacs who never passes up the chance to plug my boys. I have already bowed to the Fantastic Four FRACTIONALLY beating The Fab Four to the party.

Richard Maurer

This is Much Ado About Nothing at this point.

Richard Maurer

It should be. Personally as much as I liked Thunderbolts, I like this one a little better.

Mark White

Cassie, i will wait for the YT edit. I did watch F4 just last week with Lucy. I found it to be a ok. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t love it either. My Wife really didn’t like it at all! However the week before we watched Thunderbolts (Lucy’s first time) and she really liked that. I think I got Lucy expectations up to high, because I told her F4 had similar RT ratings to Thunderbolts. I liked Thunderbolts more too, however I felt the F4 was a good comic book movie. Thunderbolts is more grounded and has heart with some good messages which aren’t rammed down your throat. F4 has some good Special effects and if you know your Marvel characters, I think you would say this is the best version of the Fantastic 4.

Milton Reduxed

Superhero 'films' feel more like T.V now—Each one is a prelude to the next one and follow the same safe formula. Netflix buying out Warner Brothers and hence D.C mean that trend is only accelerating

Nick Ireland

First time watch for me. This was...fine. Didn't find the story particularly exciting or engaging and the CGI baby was creepy. Overall a bit bland, but I've seen worse.

2-Can

What a day to sleep in late and immediately head out for errands. The Beatles were already established in 1960 and were playing in Hamburg under that name. True, there were five of them then, but they can’t be said to be based on The Fantastic Four for the simple reason that The Beatles’ movies never sucked. The lads got their stuff right the first time.

TinCan Cosmanaut

Thats fine you like this movie better. I would love to see the reaction to JL

Richard Maurer

It’s on its way, they already said they’d watch it.

Richard Maurer

Okay, this is just silly now. The Beatles were a better Rock band than the Fantastic Four, and the FF were better superheroes than The Beatles. Now it’s settled.

Scott Macaulay

Having known a few babies in my time, CGI babies always creep me out regardless of how advanced the cgi is. Real babies rarely if ever creep me out. Except one, but I don't have to worry because he isn't even a baby anymore.

Kevin Farrell

This movie is fine. I watched it within a few days of Thunderbolts and think think the latter is way better.

McShades

SPOILER ALERT: I'm talking about at the end of the movie where Invisible Women soloed the main villain Galactus by herself, it felt like a forced "girl power" moment. Given it was a team movie and not a solo movie, it was just bad writing IMO...

Catherine LW

I am having issues too. I can’t check for my January movie submission, and Clay made a list and mine isn’t there, though I am sure I submitted one.

Richard Maurer

Spoiler alert - I was talking about the final fight too. Didn’t you see the Thing help knock that building down that Galactus was holding onto? Or Reed rescuing Franklin? Johnny starting the matter transporter (attempting to knock Galactus back into the portal, although I doubt that would have worked) ? And of course Sue did most of the work her force field power is comic canonically the most powerful of all the members of the FF. In fact in comics it’s even more powerful than in this movie.

Cole Jennett

Hey be nice to us poor moderators😉

Cole Jennett

I liked both but F4 is much more rewatchable imo. There hadn’t been a lot since End Game that I can say that about, but I didn’t hate any of them. Just most weren’t up to the standard we had set for us.

Cole Jennett

It’s ok for the female to be the most powerful. Not sure why that’s still an issue these days.

Kevin Hooper

I saw it in the theater and really liked it. To me it was like picking up an old comic book.

Clarence Newman

The dancing baby in Ally McBeal always creeped me out. "Hooga Hooga Hooga Shaka!"

Vak

No worries, Clarence - I think several of us were jumping in simultaneously with the dates, so I didn't mean to contribute to a sense of piling on. If you're a diehard Beatles fan, you owe it to yourself to check out the guys on YouTube who completely re-recorded the whole "Sgt. Pepper's" album, but as a spoof of the original Star Wars, complete with fairly spot-on voices and full-track "music videos." I won't post a link to it here as it's Cassie's page, not mine, but it's easy enough to find. I completely lost it at "Luke Is In The Desert and Whining." WAAA-AAAAAAAH!

Mojo One Thousand

"It's like the Incredibles"... it's actually the other way around, with "The Incredibles" likely having enough differentiation to be defensible against potential lawsuits. To be fair, characters being similar is pretty much a tale as old as comic book time. However, there would still be many that argue the "The Incredibles" is still the best "Fantastic Four" movie around. Carly was bang on about Joseph Quinn ("Johnny") being in "Gladiator Ii" as one of the deranged Co-Emperors. Pedro was also in there. Cassie was right that Ebon Moss-Bachrach is in "The Bear". However, he has appeared on the channel previously in "The Lake House" with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. He played the brother of Keanu Reeves character. Julia Garner played "The Silver Surfer", who we recently saw being terrorised in "Weapons". She was only seen briefly with the costumes, and "Gladys" may be the key takeaway from that movie. Ralph Ineson provided the voice of "Galactus", who we saw recently in GoT season 3 as the first mate of the "Iron Born" crew lead by "Theon Greyjoy". Paul Walter Hauser("The Mole") was on the channel in "I, Tonya" and seems to always have a way of bringing an interesting humour to his characterisations. Cassie said it felt like "WandaVison", that might have something to do with Matt Shakman. He directed this, and was also heavily involved with "WandaVision" including direction. Although I did like this when I saw this in theatres and again rewatching now, I still think I liked "Thunderbolts" a little more. I don't think I have outright disliked any of the Marvel movies, but they do seem to be on an upswing. It may have something to do with them deciding to pump the breaks on the volume of things being released.

Jenny_M

I also really enjoyed this one! It's not perfect, but it's a nice return to fun Marvel form, where I come away caring about the characters and wanting to see more of them.

Daniel John

Gotta admire they keep trying to re-do this movie. 3rd time this century. Maybe a 4th time and I'll care lol

Richard Maurer

I like this considerably more than Incredibles. I’ve thought it (The Incredibles) was amusing but it borrowed too much from both the FF and Watchmen.

Clay F

I saw the trailer (done well) in the theater but was unsure -- never been into Fantastic Four. Yet, I will watch the movie along with the reaction, which I have not done yet. Julia Garner is an awesome actress. I like Ralph Ineson. I am a fan of Vanessa Kirby. She's beautiful and a good actor. She is awesome in The Crown as Elizabeth's sister (Princess Margaret).

Larry Darrell

There is no, nor has there ever been any issue with powerful, strong women in film. See… Alien, Kill Bill, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Edge of Tomorrow, Star Wars, Firefly/Serenity, Terminator, The Fifth Element, Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Mulan, A League of Their Own, Thelma & Louise, Charlie’s Angels, Jackie Brown, Working Girl, Mildred Pierce, His Girl Friday, Nick and Nora Charles, Torchy Blane, Maisie Ravier, etc… The only issue it seems these days, is that in order to elevate a woman into a powerful position, the men around her, have to simultaneously be brought down and portrayed as weaker, inferior, dumber and sometimes even completely broken. (Indiana Jones) See… Stranger Things, M-She-U, Disney Star Wars, Rings of Power, modern Star Trek, Alien films/shows post Ripley, Terminator Dark Fate, The Matrix Resurrections, Twisters, Mulan remake, The Little Mermaid remake, Charlie’s Angels remake, etc… The amount of times this has happened over the past 10 years… it almost feels spiteful. (Which is odd considering the first list of films and series given, which was only a small fraction of what was.) Hollywood should know by now that, even if the female character is canonically more powerful than everyone else, giving her (and another female gender swapped character) the biggest hero/sacrificial moment to be had almost entirely on their own, with only minor help from their male teammates who used pretty much the least of their abilities… then there’s going to be a large portion of your intended audience that is going to give one big consecutive Eye Roll.

Larry Darrell

Same with Superman. I say go back to the ORIGINAL ORIGINAL source material and start there. How’s that for a novel idea?

Clay F

I like Thunderbolts. Florence Pugh is captivating.

Clay F

I've never read a comic book, except for maybe a page or two.

Clay F

In 2017, my girlfriend at the time wanted to go see Thor: Ragnarok (2017) in the theater, so we went. I typically didn't watch those type of movies but was suprised how much I liked it. Seemed different -- in a good way. I like Thunderbolts. Florence Pugh has such a presence. Have not seen F4 (2025) yet.

Cole Jennett

Yeah, but some of us aren’t so fragile as that.

aarswft

Anyone who read the "original original" source material for Superman is either dead or in Congress. Why would they make a film for that audience?

Walter

I definitely liked it more on this second viewing. I still think Pedro is miscast, but he's a great actor. I wanted more of Johnny and Ben because they were really great together. Loved the look of the movie. Yeah, generally pretty good.

Walter

I liked it more on this second viewing

Walter

I really liked the 2005 version of Fantastic Four and I think you guys should check it out. Very different in tone, but it is fun.

Daniel John

Well the biggest movie of next year nobody's great great great grandparents were alive for the original source material lol

Larry Darrell

That’s right. The newest generation today doesn’t like history. 100 years from now, all pre-21st century history will probably be erased from the books, and kids will only learn about the beginning of the New World Order.

Steve Smith

The reason I didn't like this movie comes down to two words: Pedro Pascal. The fact that he called more than half the country "Nazi's" was a bad idea. This flick would have done a lot better if not for him.

Larry Darrell

You’re right, only “some” aren’t.

Clay A

No improvements are ever made with modern remakes... you should watch the originals.

Clay F

I respectfully disagree. Quite often, I like remakes better than originals.

Chris Thom

The one from the early aughts is pretty fun. Don't think you have to rush out to see it or anything. But the cast is great and it has some entertainment value. Plus it's not beholden to any extended universe.

Chris Thom

Was the Fantastic Four comic really popular back in the day? With the amount of adaptations it has, I'm thinking it's either in the public domain, or was very well known at some point.

Clay F

Cassie: "You're never going to watch Game of Thrones, right? Carly: "I know, I can't handle it." Cassie: "Yeah, I know you can't too. He [Pedro] has a stint in Game of Thrones ... and it only made me love him more."

Walter

I’m one of those that think The Incredibles is the best Fantastic Four movie. It balances the elements of FF better - the family dynamic, the comic book action, the humor. Everything is done so well, it elevates the film beyond just a “Fantastic Four rip-off”

Richard Maurer

Larry - while I’m not going into all that you wrote that is not what happened in this movie. All the team members were very supportive of each other including Sue. There wasn’t any “Girl Boss” in this team - despite what some YT hate grifters might say.

Richard Maurer

There were three attempts to make live-action Fantastic Four movies before this one. The first in 92, was so bad it was never officially released. The second attempt in 05, and its sequel in 07, were at the time well received by the public, but like many older superhero films they are kind of cheesy and mediocre by today’s standards. The third attempt was also mediocre at best. The current version is the clearly the best version, it captures the feel of the original comic and is generally well received by both critics and fans. The only real objection to it has been from YT grifter critics, whose opinions have proved to be useless as they clearly are economically incentivized to give baseless negative reviews to appease their followers.

Richard Maurer

The cast, including Pedro, was great in this film. I had reservations about Pedro, not about talent or any other reason than he seemed miscast for the role. But he quickly changed my mind. He was easily the best version of Reed on film and I’m glad they cast him.

Richard Maurer

Jessica Alba was the weakest link in those films. Her acting in those films mostly seemed to consist of being pretty. That was in least partly due to poor writing though. For their time they were mildly acceptable superhero films, and Micheal Chiklis and Chris Evans were good as the Thing and Human Torch, but I can’t watch those films now, especially in light of this new version, as they seem so cheesy and ridiculous.

Richard Maurer

They went to the original source material with this FF film, yet some still want to trash it. It seems there’s just no pleasing some people these days. If this were a bad film, especially a bad superhero film. I’d be the first to slam it, I rarely miss an opportunity to trash Thor Love & Thunder after all, and I’ve never been known to be shy about my opinions. Fantastic Four First Steps and Superman 25 are good films. I don’t care what any dubious YouTube critic says.

Richard Maurer

Chris - Fantastic Four comics were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961 and were very popular in the 60’s, being the flagship title for Marvel at the time, and having a tv cartoon in ‘67. Their popularity has fluctuated over the decades since but they’ve been a staple at Marvel comics since their creation.

Richard Maurer

Larry - They all worked together at the end of this movie too. Did you even watch it? Sue took the lead, as she has the best and strongest power set of any of the team, which has been canon in the comics for a long time. But the entire team contributed to the fight and she couldn’t have won without them.

Clay F

Didn’t like as much as Thunderbolts, but liked it. I liked vintage 60s-70s setting and look. Thought Pedro and Vanessa Kirby were cast well. I liked Ben’s demeanor and dialogue. The Human Torch is a good guy. I remember babyproofing our house for our first kid. The after-credit scene was both creepy and enticing. “Benefitting from rock-solid cast chemistry and clad in appealingly retro 1960s design, this crack at The Fantastic Four does Marvel's First Family justice.” F4 (2005). IMDb 5.7, Metacritic 40, RT 28%, RT Audience 45% F4 (2007). IMDb 5.6, Metacritic 45, RT 38%, RT Audience 51% F4 (2015). IMDb 4.3, Metacritic 27, RT 9%, RT Audience 18% F4 (2025). IMDb 6.9, Metacritic 65, RT 86%, RT Audience 90%

Richard Maurer

Clay - I liked this slightly more than Thunderbolts but both films are great.

Clay F

The actor who portrayed Harvey (Mole Man) was stunningly good as the main creepy guy in the awesome Apple TV miniseries “Black Bird“ (2022) (thriller) [IMDb 8.1, RT 98%] (6 episodes) with Taron Egerton as lead. Based on true story. Taron Egerton nominated for both Emmy and BAFTA for best lead actor.

Richard Maurer

Look at those scores for this film, especially the audience scores. Really, the only bad reviews I’ve heard of were from certain YT critics, who, given their track record, probably never even watched the film anyway.

Mojo One Thousand

Richard, that's fair. I not a big enough "Fantastic Four" fan (or comic book for that matter) to have an opinion either way of how much is borrowed from where. I watch the cartoon when I was a kid, so I am aware of the characters, but that's about it. I believe this is probably the best overall live action version, but even that for me is not based on complete information. I have not seen the '05/'07 versions completely, I have seen parts so know the characterisation, but not all the way through, and the 2014 version I am sure I saw on a plane, which I thought wouldn't be ideal. But after seeing it, maybe it was a fine way to see. I may give at another chance one day... but Cassie reacting to it is probably its best chance of me rewatching it.

Clay F

Florence Pugh (captivating) and some of the story w/her character got me for Thunderbolts. But the more I think about this FF4, the more I like it -- I just finished watching it 2-3 hours ago -- Pedro and Vanessa Kirby were great.

Clay F

Pedro and Vanessa Kirby were great. Both cast well.

Above Average Dave

Some are quite compelling, which is why some of the super-hero movies ring true. If you're ever of the mind, I would suggest either: "The Watchmen" by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist) 1986, which was a 12-issue series now collected as a single work in a graphic novel. True street-level world-building that portrays its characters more as masked vigilantes, that is until a real super hero shows up. "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller (writer and artist) also 1986, which was a 4-comic series, now collected as a single work, in which Batman has been gone from Gotham for more than a decade but suddenly reappears, in his 40s, with all the physical and psychic wounds from his career as a crime fighter. He's grimmer, more determined and with fewer rules. And the government gets...interested, and doesn't like it. The characters are in both are richly drawn, physically and narratively, and the plots intricate and well-constructed. Both have larger societal messaging, especially "The Watchmen" (Alan Moore was pretty far left, even by today's standards, Miller left of center in 1986, though he had a rightward conversion after 9-11). Miller admitted recently in an interview that most of his biggest influences at the time came from the movies of his youth, especially the Westerns of John Ford and the movies of Kurosawa that he discovered in the early 1980s. Those arcs can be seen clearly in a lot of his work (Batman, Daredevil, Electra, etc.) with the "lone gunslinger" motif, or group of gunslingers, overcoming hurdles to fight evil that's descended on a town/city (he's also the man behind "Sin City," "The 300" and the cult classic comic "Ronin" — not to be confused with the Robert De Niro movie of the same name). Both writers in the above works explore what happens when leaders don't lead, law enforcement leaves a segment of society to fend for itself, and the result are people such as Batman or the various members of Watchmen. Safe to say, they are nearly all decidedly not The Fantastic Four. Also, sadly for the paper medium, but great for comic fans, comics, including the above, look spectacular in their digital version, especially tablet form. I revisited a few of these during the pandemic when I needed a brain cleanse, including The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, The Avengers and Captain America. It was so fun! For what it's worth, Clay.

2-Can

DJ - excellent rebuttal - made me LOL!

2-Can

Tbh Richard - your defense of this movie is the only reason I’ll watch it. Eventually (I’ll break up some Amazon orders to stack up some credits first - looks like everyone has raised their rental prices so I’m going to reduce demand in protest).

Mark White

She certainly is. I think they need to try and centre more stories around her. It’s probably controversial to say, but I now prefer the character of Yelana to Natasha.

James M

Cole, the woman being a powerful figure will always be an issue for some people. You can't bring up any movie where that happens without someone remarking that it's the "worst ever". I try to ignore them knowing there will always be #thatguy around.

McShades

She handle like 90% of the fight, I would say the same thing if Mr. Fantastic handled 90% of the fight, like I said, it's a team movie not a solo movie. When you say it's comic accurate, your complete wrong, given Invisible Woman is powerful, she's nowhere as powerful as Galactus, that's why I said it should have been a team effort, not Sue soloing 90% of it, because it felt like a forced girl power moment, and as another poster pointed out, there are ton of movies that have powerful women in them that plays out organically, this one didn't IMO.

McShades

James, the same can be said about guys like you, your trying to setup the conversation so that nobody can criticize a female character ever or they're #thatguy.

Ike

I really enjoyed this! Although FANTASTIC FOUR isn’t a comic book we read as a youngsters - it seems that the feel, family vibe and setting was definitely in the spirit of what Jack Kirby intended. To place this on another Earth in the multiverse was a genius move - this way the Fantastic’s “Art-Deco” (?), 1960s vibe need not be sacrificed to conform with the current MCU of our universe. [sidebar] …remember ladies, it’s not about timelines - “Multiverse” means multiple histories (of Earth and everything else) running in parallel and they are all different to some greater or lessor degree. (Tom Holland fought with the Avengers, while Andrew Garfield is like the wha…?) Now, will they come to this [MCU] Earth is probably the question. Anyway, I enjoyed this more today than during its release because we also saw Superman in the same week and enjoyed that one slight more. Great reaction folks!

Richard Maurer

McShades - you’re seeing what you expect to see - a “girl boss”. I saw a team effort lead by the most powerful team member - who happens to be a woman. And she’s been considered the most powerful member of the FF since at least the 80’s. Notice I said most powerful, not strongest, that would be Ben Grimm. But her force fields are much more adaptable than brute force. And she contained Galactus with her force field in a comic story (FF #50 all the way back in 1966), so this isn’t something they made up for the movie.

Just Plain Bob

I enjoyed this more the second time than my initial viewing. Glad to see a proper representation of Galactus, not just some ridiculous space cloud. Here’s hoping we get a Silver Surfer movie and that next time it’s the true Surfer, Norrin Radd. Also hoping that he won’t look like unpolished pewter. The Chris Evans version of the Fantastic Four was very meh, but at least they got the Surfer’s look right.

Cole Jennett

It seems like they do come to our Earth based on the post-credit scene in Thunderbolts

VOCFM

I remember when I posted about Pedro in Game of Thrones about him being weird around woman, wondering which wives he was "anxious" with and having people come out of the wood work to defend his honour and it being exceptionally weird and it resulted in a lot of blocks lol. Ai posts to "debunk" the "smear campaign". It's all very odd, The Cult of Pedro. He's like Hollywood's resident "exotic" man and they're going to get as much use out of him as possible before no one cares anymore

Chris Thom

I do appreciate when each movie can have it's own style and vibe. That was always part of the fun with these comic book things IMO. Granted, the way they keep them strung together for the Avengers has been very impressive.

Stephen Dias

I actually saw this one in the theater. Love the retro-futuristic look of this movie (among other things).

DSM The Editor

It's funny you keep mentioning that a "Fantastic Four movie with Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans" movie, you're conflating two movies. Chris Evans was the Human Torch in the 2000s F4 movies with Jessica Alba, but his movie with Dakota Fanning was just a random original superpower movie called "Push" (cause telekinesis)

Chad Laurence

That wasn't the reason, Steve. The weird obsession people had with him regarding him around women, especially his costar in this movie kind of what VOCFM said (he's being ridiculous too with this cult of Pedro narrative thing he invented lol). The nonstop "how touchy he is around women" thing was the "problem". I think people were just making stuff up and exaggerating (because if you really paid attention they were all touching HIM, but they keep lying about it like VOCFM is doing). I honestly believe the fake outrage they pushed is simply because they are "tired" of seeing Pedro in a lot of different films and franchises.

Richard Maurer

I always thought the Silver Silver in the Chris Evans movie looked too much like chrome on an old fashioned car bumper but either way it wasn’t that big of a deal to me. Shalla Bal (this movie’s Surfer) was the love interest to Norrin Radd, the Surfer in the “Evans” movie and in the main Marvel universe comics. But Shalla Bal was the Surfer in an alternate universe in the comics - and this film took place in alternate universe from the main MCU films. So there’s always a possibility that the Norrin Radd version could show up in the MCU at some point.

Just Plain Bob

I remember her as Norrin Radd’s lady love but NOT as the Surfer. I used to read Silver Surfer when I was a kid so it seemed odd to me that I didn’t remember her stint as the Surfer. I assumed it was something like Falcon’s or Bucky’s time as Captain America. That is, that she took over for a time in Norrin Radd’s absence. So I looked it up. Apparently, she was the Surfer in an alternate universe on two pages spread across seven panels. I thought it was a cop out to use that as an excuse to make her the Surfer in this movie. It’s blatant gender swapping, made more obvious by the studio’s absurd insistence that it wasn’t. Before the usual litany of “you’re a misogynist” and “we’ve moved past gender stereotypes” crashes down on my head (not from you, Richard, but others seem all too ready to smear those they disagree with), let me point out that film and comics are both very visual mediums. Superman has black hair and blue eyes, John Constantine has blond hair and an omnipresent rain coat, Hellboy has a tail, Dylan Dog looks suspiciously like actor Rupert Everett, etc. These things matter to the fans of the comics and, since the fans supported these franchises for decades before the MCU, the comics fans SHOULD matter to the filmmakers. Ok, I’m off my soapbox.

Richard Maurer

I generally don’t care about gender or racial swaps on minor characters, as long as it makes sense for the time period/reality of the film. And I’m fine with Sam Wilson being Captain America after Steve Rogers (it was Chris Evans who decided to leave the role) as it was comics canon anyway. But it would have been weird if they had race-swapped Steve Rogers, mostly because he’s an older, established classic character. As for Shalla Bal being the the Surfer, I didn’t really care, it’s an alternate reality, one which the FF will be leaving, at least for awhile, so who knows, they may bring Norrin Radd in at some point.

Just Plain Bob

I actually like Sam Wilson and don’t consider that any kind of race swap. I like his character better than Bucky and he served for a time as Captain America in the comics. I think the criticism of him has been way off base. I just wish the MCU had given him better tv shows and movies to star in. The Chris Evans’ Captain America films were some of the best MCU stories. Brave New World was one of the worst. The Leader was just awful and the movie was dry as dust. Didn’t even think Harrison Ford was that good in it.

Richard Maurer

Yeah, Brave New World was mediocre, at best. Anthony Mackie had just about the only good performance in the movie. Harrison Ford and Giancarlo Esposito both seemed like they were there just for the paycheck - and they probably were. But there were definitely people who had a problem Sam Wilson being Captain America, and despite what they might claim, the reason was primarily his race (obviously don’t mean you).

HonkyPete

I thought Push was the best movie ever when I was a kid

Mike Lemon

That isn't the original. Also, Rise did The Surfer dirty too. But parts of it were enjoyable, though they do need to release the original audio. It was so much better than the dub.

Mike Lemon

People's problem with Mackie being Captain America is he was a great Falcon, build that role instead of shoehorning him into Evans' him hand-me-downs. "...two pages spread across seven panels...cop out ... blatant gender swapping..." Yep. To quote South Park, "put a chick in it and make her lame and gay". For the last 10 years, at least, that has been the directive above "make good movies". There is a female Herald out there, but they wanted to sex swap the Surfer.

Mike Lemon

"unreleased 1994 version" So there is one before 2005. "so why would I even mention that for them to watch?" You wouldn't, it's terrible, but that isn't what I replied about, is it? "Like why did you bother..." Did you even get to my second paragraph?

Richard Maurer

I wonder if those people would have had the same problem with “shoe-horning” Bucky “into Chris Evans’ hand-me-downs” as he was the other obvious choice. Both Falcon and Bucky were comic canonically Captain America at some point. But Bucky makes less sense in the MCU as he was a (unwilling) terrorist and assassin, while Falcon was a war hero.

Richard Maurer

As for the Surfer gender-swap, I was “put off” by it for about a second, then I realized the actress made a better surfer than the previous ‘07 incarnation, and the storyline was more about an adaption of a comics story about a girlfriend of Johnny Storm’s who became a herald of Galactus (yes, that happened) known as Nova, which made it more interesting. So yeah, it was a gender swap - so what?, It worked., Don’t care. She’s currently the best version of Silver Surfer on film. The ‘07 version was a blank slate with zero personality, I honestly can’t remember if he had even a single line in the movie, which shows how bland he was.

Chad Laurence

Going to repost this since some yahoo wanted to start pointless arguments on my original post- The original TWO Fantastic Four movies are just fine. Fantastic Four (2005) and its sequel in 2007 (Rise of the Silver Surfer). P.S. (There was an unreleased 1994 movie but it's terrible from what I read and I wasn't going to mention it because I was trying to AVOID a convoluted comment and not overwhelm the Cassie/Carley gang with pointless information on a movie they'll never watch lol (but thanks to some rando arguer guy, I need to include this so I dont attract another dunce lol, sorry).

Richard Maurer

Can I just say this new one is much better - imo.

Rick Williams

Fun movie and great reaction ladies. This was an interesting new take on the Fantastic Four. One this earth they are the only superheroes. But then Dr. Doom shows up. So, it looks like the Avengers are going to be in the next movie. So, the superheroes and villains are expanding.

K, Zachary

You we watched in this in theater we watched when it first came to Disney+. Hmmm just wasn't the same without the two with your we ❤️ Pedro Pascal we saw him in Eddington, we saw him Law Order SVU and oh yes The Equalizer 2. That's the one I was thinking of. GOT is next at 3 episodes tomorrow? Maybe?

Mark Duedall

The 1994 movie is a HOOT! So awful it is fun.

Nathan Steele

I mean half of your country voted ina fashion that has so clearly turned out to be embarassing. If he hurt your feelings than you're kind of telling on yourself, right?