The Fantastic Four is one of the most celebrated superhero comic book teams ever. Despite that though, their cinematic adventures have essentially been one disaster after another. But the need for content exists (both in terms of movie studios and the media click-based ecosystem) so these films are just going to keep coming out I suppose.
We luckily have a fantastic podcast series – Fantastic Fouray – from one-time site editor, Matt Waters, and sporadic site podcaster and contributor, Kevin Ford, breaking down the past, present, and future adventures of the Fantastic Four on the big screen.
Episode #1: The Fantastic Four (Unreleased) & Doomed! Documentary
Episode #2: Fantastic Four (2005)
Episode #3: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Episode #4: FANT4STIC
Episode #5: First Steps
(Also, read: 8 Takeaways from the Black Panther Episode of Fantastic Four)
And with that, it’s time for me to rank all the (futile) attempts to make a Fantastic Four film.
5. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [2007]
This is basically not a movie at all. It is a rushed-out cash grab. The superhero film market was still mildly unsaturated (at least compared to what was to come), and Fox had what could be considered a financial successful enough property. Thus, it was time to strike while the iron was tepid. It is the same cast with Tim Story still in the director’s chair and Mark Frost (???) the one consistent name on the screenplay. The same issues from the first film (to be discussed below) are at play, and they are in fact amplified with additional, half-baked characters and an abbreviated runtime that just screams a lack of confidence in a film from the studio. The 2005 film was bad. The sequel was an insult. There is truly nothing to see here.
This infamous “bad” movie is basically a fine episode of television that would feel at home during the children’s television block that included Power Rangers. It is the best possible home movie version of a superhero movie in 1994. Despite the cynical birth of this film, there is a sincerity in the execution that makes it mildly endearing. A good movie that does not make however.
After the success of X-Men and Spider-Man, it was unsurprising that the movie studios would try to capitalize on all the most famous comic book properties. Daredevil did not work out too well for Fox, but they tried again with the Fantastic Four.
The biggest connection between the success of X-Men and Spider-Man is that talented directors were hired and the key roles were cast correctly within the director’s vision. Excellent actors like Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Willem Dafoe, and Kirsten Dunst elevated material that could have flopped otherwise. Clear visions from Sam Raimi and Bryan Singer increased the margin of error so much on the films that weaker actors like Halle Berry and James Franco being cast did not drag anything down.
Well, Fox did not recognize the key to those two film series’ success at all. Tim Story is a nothing director, and while all five main actors in this series have been good in other roles, they were not put in a position to succeed here in any way at all (Chris Evans was good but in the least essential role probably to making the film work). Creatively, this film is a total flop in every way. There is close to nothing* redeeming about what happened on screen at all. And yet, due to studio incompetence, this is the second best Fantastic Four film.
*Okay, I do appreciate that this film basically has the exact same setup as the first Christopher Reeve Superman film. Rushed origins story, hanging out with the characters for 90% of the film, extremely rushed climax with the villain. But that film is beautiful to look at, and this one is ugly.
2. Fantastic Four [2015]
After two truly uninspired F4 films from Fox in the 2000s, Marvel took over Hollywood. Fox was looking to cash in and decided to reboot the Fantastic Four.
And it bombed. Hard.
It was not a good film at all, had a troubled production, and the second half of the film is laughable in its rushed conclusion. They hired a “hotshot young director” who was completely in over his head. Just google “Josh Trank” and you will find out plenty. I dismissed the film instantly upon seeing it and rarely if ever thought about it again.
But with time comes perspective, and I have a slightly more nuanced take on this film now after rewatching it a decade later. Let’s get this out of the way: it sucks. I was struck though by the overall ambition of the project this latest go-around though.
There was something here that was completely missing from the Tim Story films: a vision. This film attempted to do a very bleak, as-“realistic”-as-plausible interpretation of the Fantastc Four as teenagers/college-aged kids-ish.
To be clear, that is an insane choice for a variety of reasons. But it is A choice. And that is something that is often missing from too many of these superhero movies. Too many of them feel generic, perfunctory and impersonal.
This one though had ideas.
The only real time the ideas paid off unfortunately was immediately after the team got their powers and the pure horror of it all was overtaking them. Jamie Bell’s terror as he pleaded with Reed for help was actually really affecting! Unfortunately, Josh Trank was just not up to the task to make this a good film overall.
I refuse to fault the thought process behind this film though. They attempted to make a big budget, offbeat, tonally jarring version of a known superhero property. (If only more of these films were like that! I dream to make a Batman that is a direct shot-for-shot remake of Elaine May’s A New Leaf.)
The margin for error on this project was nearly impossibly small, and then they missed the mark by a million miles. But in a landscape with these characters where the first attempt was a cynical rights-keeping scheme and the other two were soulless flaccid ventures, I will take this failure above the others for merely being interesting. That’s right: the bar is beneath the surface for this franchise.
1. The Fantastic Four: First Steps [2025]
For the fourth time in the last thirty years, someone has attempted to bring a fresh Fantastic Four team to the big screen. And for the first time, there is a basic level of competency on the screen and behind the camera to make one not feel like they have wasted their time watching the film.
While this film does not reinvent the superhero genre or do anything radically impressive, simply by sticking to the core principles of what makes the characters/team work, having any idea of some sort of vision (mildly campy retro feel), having a good enough script and casting (with Kirby really carrying this in many ways), they have themselves a fine day at the movie theater on their hands. That is something Marvel has been in short supply of for more than half a decade now and something that has never been achieved by with the Fantastic Four team.
The Reel World 