This Fantastic 4 flick is approximately the fourth attempt to turn this team of Marvel superheroes into a blockbuster movie franchise. I say "approximately" because the first Fan4 film I know of was really made just to keep the film rights and wasn't really commercially released, and the next reboot (the one with Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans and Ioan Gruffudd) actually managed to get two movies deep in what was supposed to be a trilogy before it was quietly canceled. And nobody, but nobody, wants to talk about the most recent, tonally inappropriate, disastrous outing featuring Miles Teller, Michael B. Johnson and I'm not going to look up the other two because I frankly don't care. Though the Gruffudd-Alba foursome made some fairly decent movies that were relatively successful at the box office, I've noticed a growing consensus among fans and critics that there just hasn't been a good movie adaptation of the Fantastic 4 comics, and maybe there can never be one. Well, never say never. I think this movie was pretty darn good.
First of all, F4FS is set on an alternate earth, Earth-828, part of Marvel's cinematic multiverse (I guess), which has a 1960s-ish, retro-futuristic look – kind of like the Jetsons, or more to the point, like the original comics – in contrast to the Alba-Gruffudd era's cutting-edge modernism and the gritty expressionism of the Teller-Johnson, um, instant. Despite the dark threat looming over all life on earth, and the earth itself, it has a cheerier, more color-saturated look. It has visual character. It has exciting special-effects sequences, big sci-fi spectacle, action, thrills, property destruction on a massive scale (you actually see a whole planet, 13 percent larger than earth, go through what's essentially a gigantic rock grinder) ... but it also offers sharp dialogue, a thought-provoking storyline, relatable characters with real chemistry and touching relationships, and the rather weird experience of being able to see exactly what's going on instead of motion blur and mud, like you get in (say) Zack Snyder's type of movie, cross myself and spit on the ground. It also skips, thank God, the otherwise seemingly inevitable rehash of the superhero origin story, other than in a sort of bullet-point summary to bring the audience up to speed.
As Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), it stars the current face of movies right now, Pedro Pascal (Game of Thrones, The Mandalorian, The Last of Us and Gladiator II) portrayed as a ruthlessly logical scientific savant who is so heartbreakingly aware of his shortcomings as a relatable, sympathetic human being that he goes full circle and becomes relatable and sympathetic. There's Vanessa Kirby of The Crown and Pieces of a Woman as the Invisible Woman (Sue Storm), his wife, who is already pregnant with their first child as the story begins, and whose fierce protectiveness of their child brings out both her immense strength (my goodness) and her vulnerability. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, a guy I've seen in other things but whose face never sticks in my memory, gets the motion-capture CGI treatment as The Thing (Ben Grimm), a lifelong friend of Reed's who has become as good as family, and whose ability to emote (or grow a beard) isn't much hampered by his transformation into an anthropomorphic boulder. Finally, in the role of the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), there's an up and coming young heartthrob as usual – in this case, Joseph Quinn, late of Gladiator II and Warfare – as less of a womanizing hotshot than as played by Chris Evans and more of a tragically eligible bachelor (he finally meets a girl who interests him and she's, like, the Silver Surfer) who's always proving himself to be smarter than he looks. But yeah, still good for comic relief.
Also in the flick are Sarah Niles (Ted Lasso), Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai), Mark Gatiss (Sherlock), Julia Garner (Ozark), Ralph Ineson (Nosferatu, The Office) and the voice of Matthew Wood ("General Grievous" in the Star Wars franchise) as HERBIE the robot. It features gorgeous, emotionally stirring music by Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Star Trek 2009, Up, etc.) And its director, former child actor Matt Shakman (Just the Ten of Us), also directed MCU's WandaVision.
So, before I forget to drop a bit of synopsis in this review, here's the idea of this movie. The F4 are already established superheroes when the tale begins, a family unit entrusted with a glitzy skyscraper, lots of technology (such as a reusable rocket that can pair up with an orbiting faster-than-light drive), and the responsibility of protecting the world. So, it falls on them to answer back when a shapely alien on a silver surfboard drops in from outer space to announce that the earth has been marked for destruction by a devourer-of-worlds named Galactus. They stand no chance of stopping him, but they try to reason with him. The only offer he's willing to make, in exchange for sparing Earth-828, is for Sue and Reed to give up their not-quite-born-yet son, Franklin, who is apparently the only being of sufficiently godlike powers to take Galactus' place in a personal hell of world-devouring, eternal hunger.
"Hard no" is the obvious answer, from the Fan-4's point of view, but not everyone on earth sees it that way. At first, the planet kind of turns against them. But then Sue makes a really terrific speech, and folks pull together again on a plan to stop Galactus from devouring Earth. But as the saying goes, no plan ever survives contact with the enemy, and a lot more stuff happens but at the risk of spoiling the ending, the Richards-Storm-Grimm family will be back again, at least for an upcoming Avengers movie – or so the card at the top of the end credits claims. Who knows? Marvel has promised many things that it didn't deliver. But if the promised Avengers flick never materializes, I don't think it will be due to this movie. It's too good and, I trust, the viewing public will recognize it and reward it as such.
Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Franklin Richards becomes the first human being born in faster-than-light space flight. My, what a thrilling scene, with so many moving parts and emotional beats that all hit their target! (2) The Silver Surfer interrupts whatever Johnny Storm is doing as he yells, "Tell Franklin his Uncle Johnny loves him!" (3) The look Ben Grimm gives Sue Storm before he says, "You're pregnant, aren't you?" For a heap of rocks, that dude has an expressive face.
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