The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

[mwynn]

[Show spoiler]For the Silver Surfer, they just went for the straight comic route she sacrificed herself for her planet. With that kind of responses she became the mother of everyone on the planet. Which will probably play out more with Franklin in Doomsday and Secret Wars.

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by Ky-Fi

Also, really good job with the pacing. I loved going through the origin story quickly, and showing bits of their earlier battles to get a sense of the villains in their world, and then moving on to the main story.

Oh, and to quote myself here, that element reminded me of The Incredibles--and thinking about it some more, the whole movie reminds me of The Incredibles, which was essentially the Fantastic Four anyways!

[Damon1281]

Originally Posted by 50strat54

Someone mentioned that they didn't like Ioan Gruffudd but I thought he looked more like Mr. Fantastic than Pedro did. Plus no mustache but this is the "alternative universe" so anything goes! Even a female Silver Surfer. It's a whole new supposedly different world.

He looked more like Reed Richards, but he acted like Darren from Bewitched. Hated him, zero gravitas.

[Ky-Fi]

Originally Posted by Damon1281

He looked more like Reed Richards, but he acted like Darren from Bewitched. Hated him, zero gravitas.

Ha, great description! I've liked Gruffudd in other things--he's a good actor. But yeah, his anxious, nerdy take was not the Reed Richards of the comics.

I always thought George Clooney would have made a great Reed Richards in his younger days.

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by Ky-Fi

I always thought George Clooney would have made a great Reed Richards in his younger days.

Clearly you’re not the first person to think of it



Personally I think he’s too handsome to pull off a nerdy scientist type.

[david_blu]

Saw it today, great movie.

Superman 6/10
Fantastic Four 9/10

I got into this, cared for the characters, actual things at stake rather than Saturday morning fluff.

This had heart and emotion, the whole cast was great, Pedro was so reserved and great as Reed and Sue, Ben and Johnny were also great. Not sure the plans for the multiverse but it's Very clear at least one of these characters could play someone else eventually...

After my disappointment with Superman, this felt genuine, adult, less cartoon like and a family I could give a damn about. I don't know why Superman is getting similar ratings to this, F4 was ten times better!

[Prohibida]

Finally saw it. It was good, but Thunderbolts* and Superman are still better. I just hoping it would be more than just a better version of Rise of the Silver Surfer, but I understand Marvel couldn't take any risk with Fantastic Four. So it is what it is.

3/5 or 7.5/10 Good, but could have been better.

[Maryona]

I went in expecting another lame superhero film after being burned many times by the genre but stayed for the retro future production design and Shakman's treatment of the characters. Pedro Pascal with Vanessa Kirby provide the eye candy as the power couple and are strong classic old school film stars in the age of zero charisma 'actors'. The romance landed and they acted like a real couple dealing with the events of the film. It helps that the leading lady is treated as a lead character than just side plot like in Superman. The film doesn't take the audience for granted throwing one joke and action punch after the other. It felt refreshing.

[Britbuffguy]

Thinking back to my thoughts on Thursday, another knock on this movie was

[Show spoiler]the scene where they got the entire world to agree to use less electricity.

Could you imagine even 20-30% of us Americans agreeing to do anything to save the planet? We are very stubborn and selfish as a people. And that's just one country. I imagine other countries would be the same.

While watching the movie the thought made me do the 'huh' face, but thinking about it now, that plan would make zero sense.

[BluBonnet]

[Show spoiler]

Originally Posted by Britbuffguy

Thinking back to my thoughts on Thursday, another knock on this movie was

[Show spoiler]the scene where they got the entire world to agree to use less electricity.

Could you imagine even 20-30% of us Americans agreeing to do anything to save the planet? We are very stubborn and selfish as a people. And that's just one country. I imagine other countries would be the same.

While watching the movie the thought made me do the 'huh' face, but thinking about it now, that plan would make zero sense.

There is so much to unpack here.

Let's start with the fact that we don't live on Earth 828. So we simply have no idea what the people of Earth 828 could or could not be able to accomplish. It is shown early in the movie that Sue Storm, heading the Future Foundation, convinced all of the nations of the world to give up their arms. That's right, she almost single-handedly accomplished global disarmament.

One of the great things of sci-fi/fantasy is the ability to imagine other worlds or other timelines, where things are not like they are in our reality. That's what makes the genre so appealing to many of us - the ability to just imagine what the world would be like if things were different.

So, that, together with the fact that from our vantage point this is a retro-futuristic world, should give us a clue that we simply don't know what we can or cannot expect to happen here. It is its own universe, with its own rules, and the people there, as far as we can see, are different from the people in our reality - even different from what people are like in the Sacred Timeline.

Because I go in willingly suspending my disbelief, I have no problem accepting that in this reality, this is how things would naturally happen. I do not bring expectations of what people would or wouldn't do in our reality (I don't need to pay anything to look at our reality, and as we all know, you get what you pay for!).

[mwynn]

Originally Posted by Britbuffguy

Could you imagine even 20-30% of us Americans agreeing to do anything to save the planet?

Isn't this the basic theme of Star Trek?

[mwynn]

[david_blu]

Regarding the everyone agreeing thing in my view it is a mute point because

[Show spoiler]
1. I suspect everyone was a bit more civil to one another in the sixties, yes there were riots but not when the government wasnt taking sides and just suggesting everyone do the same thing for their safety.
2. Who controls the powergrid in 1960 vs 2025?, regardless of what the people want if the powers that be (excuse the pun) decide to turn off all the lights in the World, the public will just have to get on with it.

[Yautja_Warrior]

That was great, really enjoyed it, actually liked it a little more than Superman. It definitely feels like actual good MCU territory again, and not just a movie made to set up the next movie.

The cast were great, they really have good chemistry with each other, they really nailed that aspect of F4 and cannot wait to see more of them. Galactus and the Surfer were both great too, very intimidating with their presence, I would have like to see even more of them but what we got was decent, especially the Surfer, she is a badass. Also really enjoyed the retro/future world they live in.

The CGI was really good too, a few shots here and there with the baby looked a little off but the rest was really solid, all the space stuff looked great.

More of this please Marvel, don't go back, now we are going in the right direction again.

[Mr. Chaverria]

Originally Posted by mwynn

Humberto Ramos, the artist of that cover. I could tell his art by a mile away by how he does cheekbones, eyes, and jaws. He's a fun one for the medium.

[harry o]

Robert reed from " the Brady bunch" would have been perfect back in the day as Mr fantastic in my opinion .

[filmbuffTX]

Originally Posted by harry o

Robert reed from " the Brady bunch" would have been perfect back in the day as Mr fantastic in my opinion .

He definitely looks the part, but might have chemistry issues if he had to do romantic scenes with Sue Storm.

[BloodshotUSA]

I was expecting this movie to be a disaster. But I loved it. It's not perfect, but its a really fun and entertaining. This is the best Marvel film since Avengers: Endgame.

The cast was damn near perfect. I think Ebon Moss-Bachrach's The Thing might have stolen the film. I want to see more of him with Natasha Lyonne. Vanessa Kirby is the heart of the movie. Joseph Quinn creates a more compassionate Johnny Storm than we've seen in previous versions. I think Marvel could've done better than Pedro Pascal as Reed. He's good enough to hold his own with the rest of the cast, but I think he's the weak link.

I liked the feel of the movie. It felt earnest, much more so than Gunn's Superman in my opinion. It's because of the chemistry between the family. You felt like they were actually a real family that cared about each other. Anyone of them would lay down their life in a second for another member of the family.

Galactus and the Silver Surfer looked great. All the special effects were well done. I hope the Fox executive (probably Tom Rothman) who decided to make Galactus a cloud in the Rise of the Silver Surfer watches this and feels like a fool. Galactus felt imposing and epic.

Movie was tight and just got right to business. It doesn't feel over long and bloated like so many other movies (including previous MCU movies) have felt. Felt perfect at just under 2 hours. You introduce the cast, then you have the herald introduced etc. No time wasted. Because of that you can definitely feel there was a lot cut out of the movie, especially with Paul Walter Hauser and Natasha Lyonne's characters. You can definitely tell they probably had bigger roles in the original version of the movie. Especially Hauser, he feels too big for the role he has in the film, like 2 mins of screentime. The character John Malkovich originally played is name dropped in a montage but not shown.

I think Julia Garner's Silver Surfer also got short changed a bit. It feels like there should have been more there. Even when it comes to her connection with Johnny. I wonder if she was originally more involved in the finale.

I liked the final battle with the team all working together to protect

[Show spoiler]Franklin

from Galactus. I bet that we'll find out in a later film that

[Show spoiler]Reed teleported him near the 616 Universe.

One minor complaint is that I think the movie was too optimistic when it came to the people on Earth. Especially when Reed revealed what Galactus wanted in exchange for sparing the Earth. In real life, one speech from Sue wouldn't change anything. The world would've turned on them, kidnapping probably would've been attempted, Governments would've tried to force them to give up

[Show spoiler]Franklin

. But maybe I'm just a cynic.

Movie is a 9/10 for me. I felt excited when it ended. I've been disappointed with nearly all of Marvel's output since Avengers: Endgame. I liked Thunderbolts and I loved this. Maybe Marvel is back on track?

[BluBonnet]

Originally Posted by BloodshotUSA

One minor complaint is that I think the movie was too optimistic when it came to the people on Earth. Especially when Reed revealed what Galactus wanted in exchange for sparing the Earth. In real life, one speech from Sue wouldn't change anything. The world would've turned on them, kidnapping probably would've been attempted, Governments would've tried to force them to give up

[Show spoiler]Franklin

. But maybe I'm just a cynic.

As I said earlier, it's Earth 828, it's not even the Sacred Timeline.

And it's clear that people act very differently there. Sue Storm is literally able to achieve world peace early on in the movie (getting all the countries of the world to give up all their arms).

I'm pretty convinced now that this is part of the point, this is very much a near-utopian society, and it's going to inform where the F4 are coming from when they get to the Sacred Timeline. From their point of view, the humans of the Sacred Timeline are bloody barbarians.

[salz4life]

Originally Posted by venom0706

Surprised we've not had a steelbook announced for the film yet.

M:I-8 and Superman both had steelbooks announced and up for pre-order on their respective Friday opening weekends.

For whatever reason, the last few Marvel outings they seem to wait until about six weeks to 2 months from the release to put up the pre-orders.