I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this movie. I have seen a couple of the previous Fantastic Four movies, but don’t remember much, and though I have read quite a few of their comics, I have not kept up with the characters for a while. Nevertheless, I did go into the theatre with many undefined expectations (as I’m sure many other viewers will do) that I really hoped it would be good, and that it would provide some optimism that the superhero genre is not dead after all. Thankfully, I really liked the movie (and in fact, it has that rare quality of getting better the more I think about it).

We start on Earth 828 (which savvy viewers will know that it means we’re not in the regular MCU, where we might encounter characters we’ve known in other movies or films — so neither Sorcerer Supreme Wong nor his buddy Madisynn will be appearing) where the Fantastic Four are the popular heroes of Earth. Thankfully we don’t rehash their origin story beyond a quick recap as part of a tribute film. We start with a peek at these superheroes as a family (cooking at home, etc.) and that sets the tone for the rest of this very character-driven superhero movie. 

I confess that I wasn’t really sold on the cast at first, either. I had seen Vanessa Kirby in Netflix’s The Crown, but her role there was totally different. Here she gave a great performance as the strong and maternal heart of the team. Johnny Storm, the younger brother of Kirby’s Sue Storm, was played by Joseph Quinn. Everybody loved him as Eddie Munson on Stranger Things, but I only found him to be OK in that. I expected him to play a vapid jokester in this role, but he added a lot more depth than I expected, even while being a bold, charming, playful member of this family team. I had not really seen much of Ebon Moss-Bachrach, which means I don’t watch The Bear. In this film they used some really good CGI to make him look loveable, gruff and expressively rocky as the Thing. From what I’ve heard of Moss-Bachrach, this role would be simple for him, and he does bring some wonderful warmth to the character. (He has some sweet romantic scenes with Natasha Lyonne’s character.) Fourth, but not last, Pedro Pascal plays stretchy super-genius Reed Richards very well. I really liked his performance, but I still don’t see him as the ultra-nerd from the comics. Perhaps he seems too square and broad-shouldered, plus he doesn’t have a long, nerdy face, and he has a Latin moustache. He had a hard time replacing the Reed Richards in my mind, but still, he did a great job playing this guy: a super-genius husband and father who can stretch his body, and comes up with brilliant scientific solutions to save everyone from cataclysmic threats. In the end, the core of this movie was the interpersonal relationships within this superfamily. The performances by all these actors really made that work well.

For a movie that was only two hours long, they fit a lot of story. It’s not a complicated story: when a silver alien shows up on Earth to tell everyone they are doomed to be consumed by the planet-eating Galactus, the Fantastic Four need to fulfill their roles as planetary heroes by finding a way to prevent that promised destruction. We have a lot to do in the mean time, and the pace is non-stop, but also not too rushed. The best aspect of this movie to me was how the story really worked in a way that surprised me. Maybe I’ve become jaded by all the mediocrity coming out of Marvel Studios in the last long while. There were just many moments in this movie where I expected the plot to go in a typical or cliche direction that would just make me roll my eyes hard. And yet, each of those times they were able to resolve that plot in a way that actually felt satisfying and meaningful. It’s not that the plot was full of whiplash-inducing twists (though I do love those as well) but more like they came up with a better way to tell the story than what I feared they were going to do. 

As an example, I was expecting Johnny to be your typical overconfident hothead who has nothing to contribute but his bravado and recklessness. When they first encounter the Silver Surfer, he naturally chases her (as hotheads do). When he started to form a kind of bond with her, I thought it was going to be so corny (because I hate it when characters on opposite sides of events start flirting even when the stakes are cataclysmically high. I think that’s terrible writing.) However, in this movie they use these encounters to show how Silver Surfer was getting under Johnny’s skin, and he kept trying to figure out the mystery of her (they do this in a pretty clever way). He makes a very personal connection with her when everyone else on the team was just dismissing her as an obstacle and that actually pays off at the climax (which I won’t spoil). They took a story thread that could have gone in so many cliche ways, but instead it played out very nicely and made Johnny one of my favourite characters in this movie. 

Surprisingly, I was less a fan of the retro-futuristic, 60s-style, Jetsons-adjacent look of this movie. It was nice, but I don’t know why it was necessary. Plus, it made things seem more cartoonish. Similarly, I don’t really understand some of the choices made for the visualization of the Fantastic Four’s powers. Johnny’s flames did not look great. Sue’s force-fields always had this spectral reflection which kind of bothered me. Reed barely used his stretchy powers (so I don’t have much to say there), but Ben’s Thing look was great. The animation made his face not only comic-accurate, but gave him an expressiveness that you don’t expect from a man of rock. Also, there’s a great sight gag in the latter half of the movie all relating to his look that is too great! The Silver Surfer looked a bit odd to me. She was too shiny, but also her eyes looked creepy; and why would her hair be metallic as well? Given that the normal, male Silver Surfer is bald, this seems extra girlie. However, the best thing about her visuals was that she had several scenes of actually surfing (on space or plasma, your pick). Finally, even though it was way better than past films (yes, I’m thinking of you, giant cosmic cloud) the depiction of Galactus still left a bit to be desired. He was certainly gargantuan enough, but moved awkwardly and stiffly. He felt like last-century stop-motion animation.

Overall, I thought this movie was great. Thrilling and heartfelt, enjoyable superhero movie that bucks the trends. I don’t know if this means anything for the future of the MCU with regard to quality or what the future movies will be like (I am not looking forward to seeing Robert Downey Jr. return in a different role), but after this movie, I am quite a bit more excited about what’s to come for this mega franchise.

4 stars