Through circumstances I ended up seeing this twice opening weekend. One was an IMAX showing Thursday night, the other on Saturday in standard format. Before I get deeper into my review, first some spoiler-free comments. This was incredibly refreshing for a Marvel movie. While many people liked Thunderbolts* and claimed it was a return to the feeling of the MCU during its earlier phases and that was nice in a certain sense, this one was truly different. Set in a different dimension/timeline from the majority of the movies so far, the retrofuturistic aesthetic was such a great fit for this group. If the feeling of Thunderbolts* is classic MCU, then perhaps the feeling evoked by this movie is classic comics. If you have been experiencing “superhero fatigue” or just been uninspired to see anything specifically Marvel, this should be an exception and I recommend you see it. It even works as a standalone movie.
Now for those of you who dislike spoilers, take the recommendation and get out of here. For the rest of you, here’s some more detailed thoughts.
A quick note, I haven’t seen any of the other Fantastic Four movies that have come out, so I can’t really make any comparisons. I’m sure this movie is better than what has come before based on what I do know. Johnny is shown to be not just some womanizer but also has a good amount of intelligence, figuring out how to shoot in a wormhole with weird gravity and deciphering a whole language. I feel they perhaps cut out some scenes with Ben, it feels like they were building to more with often showing him in the neighborhood he grew up in, but it never amounted to much. I still really like him and I hope if we see more of the Fantastic Four in the future that Ben gets to be a bigger focus.
Reed Richards is shown as a very scared but self-aware man. It works well for this movie, and I think it helps give somewhat of an explanation for why we see less of his powers. While it was almost certainly related to VFX difficulties, he is shown to regret what happened even 4 years later and all the good their powers have brought. Relying on his science talents makes sense. Sue on the other hand seems to have embraced who they are, and even her pregnancy does not concern her to the same extent it does Reed.
Sue’s pregnancy is a major part of this movie. It is revealed right at the beginning and plays into the whole fight against Galactus until the very end. I’m sure Dom Toretto would be proud of the family messaging this movie has, and you really do feel it in their interactions. Franklin, the child, will also be an interesting character as he apparently has great power. With Kevin Feige having confirmed a reset is coming, Franklin could perhaps be a driving force as apparently in the comics he helped form a new universe.
Galactus was crazy to see, they really made his scale something you could appreciate. He was also incredibly menacing, and the movie really captured a certain hopelessness and impending sense of doom that you would expect. At the same time, there is a certain optimism that comes with the Fantastic Four and how they’ve been shown to improve the earth as a whole. I did expect the movie to play out differently because of the post-credits scene in Thunderbolts, indicating that the scene might not have just been filmed as part of what was going on for Doomsday but may have been lifted from the movie, similarly to Ant-Man having a scene from Civil War.
The mid-credits scene for First Steps gives us our first look at Doom in the MCU, as we see him from behind holding his mask. It certainly had an ominous energy, and I find myself really looking forward to Doomsday now.
Overall this was a really solid movie. It could have perhaps been a little longer, again mainly thinking that Ben got skipped out on a bit, but no complaints otherwise. If anything it makes me think the Multiverse Saga could have been fun to see play out more like this the whole time. A mix of movies from the main universe along with movies set in others like this, all of which would converge with Doomsday/Secret Wars and lead to our reset. It would have given Marvel more freedom to experiment, although perhaps been messy for the casual audience. Still, this movie ranks pretty highly for me within the MCU catalogue, and is a solid kickoff to the final phase of the Multiverse Saga.
Verdict
Definitely Watch