The Fantasy Review‘s review of Fantastic Four (2005). I thought I’d give this classic a rewatch before Fantastic Four: First Steps comes out in cinemas!
Spoiler-Free Review of Fantastic Four (2005)
In an era of superhero movies that seemed unsure of itself, with so many duds it looked like they should just stop trying, Fantastic Four (2005) came along and wowed everyone by being mediocre at best.
This era of superhero movies was a grunge-fest, so actually Fantastic Four was relatively brighter than other movies like Spider-Man (2002) or Daredevil (2003). Unlike the other movies of its time, Fantastic Four is less afraid of being a comic book movie – but not that less afraid.
Let’s start with the characters, because that is the main positive of the movie. We meet the Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic, Ben Grimm, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm.
If you are my age and watched this movie back in the day, I hope you loved seeing Johnny (played by Chris Evans) in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) as much as I did! But that’s a tangent…
The main cast is pretty great. The acting and dialogue is typical, cheesy 00’s in style, but sometimes we love a bit of nostalgia. Julian McMahon is an intimidating Dr. Doom who absolutely steals the show with every scene he is in.
The plot is one we see in most Fantastic Four movies – it’s an origin story. Despite the characters being good, the movie struggles to give us any emotional connection to them. So, when they are inevitably in danger, or they make any kind of breakthrough, it falls a bit flat.
Fantastic Four (2005) is one of those movies we watched a lot as kids, so we remember it being fun. However, I would suggest that if you haven’t rewatched it after all these years, don’t. It’s not worth it.
Enjoy the nostalgic memories of a fun, goofy movie, and leave it at that.
