Watched: 08/06/2025
Format: Drafthouse
Viewing: Second
Director: Matt Shakman
Note: Blogger added a 'add hyperlinks automatically to your post' feature, and I've tried that out with this post. I don't think it's too annoying.
Jamie was out of town, and nonetheless saw Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) with Dug, K and Rob. This is how I saw the movie by myself at 9:00 AM a couple of weeks back. But we two decided to catch it again together before it disappears into an eternal twilight of streaming on Disney+.
I was pleased to find that, even knowing what was coming - from story points, to the design, to gags and the incredible score, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit again on a second viewing. I still want to spend more time with these characters and their problems and their world. It is, of course, impossible to know how much of my pre-disposition to like the FF in general and want a not-terrible FF movie plays into all of this, versus how someone coming to the FF fresh might feel.
I've seen comments online from folks, and of course that plays into how you see a movie, whether you like it or not. People seem to like the movie but feel like it's missing something. That feelings has been characterized a few different ways, but what I think is that it was that they didn't *quite* connect the way they wanted to.
At the end of the day, I suspect it's because the movie is very short - a listed runtime of just under two hours, and basically 15 minutes less than Superman. And for all the characters in Superman, those characters exist to show you who Superman is and is not - the movie is about Superman and reminding the world who this character is supposed to be. Other characters are points of comparison.
Fantastic Four has far fewer characters overall, but it does have four characters who could each carry their own movie. And that's before we include Mole Man, who clearly needs his own flick. So, the characters are in a bit of competition for minutes, and no one's personal arcs get all that much attention.
We don't get a complete romance with Ben and Rachel. A lot is hinted at about what's going on with Johnny, but we don't get closure on anything. And Reed and Sue have a conversation about Reed's ability to entertain the darkest stuff possible to find a solution in advance that does play out narratively for them both in the last act, but never really gets commented upon. Also, (highlight for highly speculative spoilers)> I suspect that we're headed toward some "incursion" stuff for the MCU that will require Reed to come up with a plan no one likes <(end spoiler).
Instead, the movie starts, tells us losers to get in, and hits the gas, sometimes slowing a tad, but then it's right back to moving at a brisk pace. It's incredible how *fast* this movie seems to whiz by. It's working in near bullet-point narrative style, showing us only the absolute essentials, and those include character beats. Ben stops to taste the sauce HERBIE is making, but that sauce isn't quite right - Ben is so kind, he's treating the making of sauce as a teachable moment with a robot rather than just delivering instructions. Now we know Ben - this is no monster under the rocky facade. It's a movie where *everything* matters. But it's a lot for that limited time with butts in chairs.
But, yeah. I, too, would have liked more time with these characters and to see more fleshed out on all fronts.
In a way, it's fascinating to see a movie that acknowledges the super power origins, but the thing about the FF is that they are who they are with or without powers. Ben would still be a good hearted guy wanting to set the world right, Johnny would be a bit goofy and more than he seems, Reed would be one of the most brilliant minds on Earth and Sue would be a force of nature and a statesman. The incident of obtaining their powers shoved them into the limelight, and it's why there's a movie - but if there were no powers, they're still fully formed characters. And we'd never think to ask about their origins before their powers.
On a second viewing, it's a bit of a bummer that there's no Doom storyline. But this FF lives on an Earth different from 616 - so maybe that's how the Future Foundation was able to make actual progress on this world. There's no Alicia Masters, either - instead we get Natasha Lyonne as Rachel Rozman (current talk around the nerd campfire speculates that's a nod to Rosalind"Roz" Kirby, Jack Kirby's better half and a rumored bad-ass). The reasons for erasing Alicia I'll leave open to speculation, and I am sure FF purists will find it unnerving. I am not that guy, so I'll roll with it, but I get grouchy when people suggest anyone but Lois for Superman.
Adventure and suspense were what I dug, not some Mortal Kombat derivative endless fighting. So, yes, I think the scene where Sue is in labor and still having to help is pretty great, actually. That's a heck of a sequence even if nary a fist is thrown.
The sentimental me wishes Stan and Jack had seen this movie. Stan was lucky enough to see the full blossom of the Marvel Universe on screen - his dream of decades. Jack, who had a far more difficult relationship with the Big 2 comics publishers - passed in 1994, before his work got the big screen treatment it deserved. But, man, when Galactus is on screen - I feel like Jack would be happy as hell.
While the ending is clearly CGI heavy - it's treated naturally enough (no Quantumania nonsense here, as Jamie mentioned on the way home) - it's also not a fight that doesn't know when the getting out is good. And despite a few comments I've seen online - I never, not once, thought the movie lacked for action or suspense.
As a movie about people working together to build hope against crazy, insurmountable odds - to me, this one delivers. But I also know this one hits me right where I fell in love with superheroes as a kid, even before I was reading comics.
I would love more FF, and I have no idea what form that will take. But I'm guessing we're all about to find out.
I am happy to say that Vanessa Kirby remains extremely foxy on a second viewing.
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