Fantastic Four (2025) Dir. Matt Shakman

Marvel’s post-Endgame output has been rather patchy and I had all but given up on the whole thing by avoiding all their films and TV shows for the last 2 years.  Thor: Love and Thunder was the breaking point for me.

However, after catching 2025’s Thunderbolts* just a few weeks ago, which I rather enjoyed, there may be a glimmer of hope after all. And with The Fantastic Four, Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox means they can have a go at adapting the comic which started in 1961.

Off the bat, the 60s (and 50s) provides a great backdrop of production design for this version as the superhero quartet exist in a retro future akin to The Jetsons. This combined with their origin story being told in flashback means there’s an efficiency to throwing us into an already established alternative world.

A great cast sees Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic), the genius leader of the group whose stretching ability doesn’t always help him with the stresses with his wife. His partner is Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm (Invisible Woman) who learns in the first scene she is pregnant and has to balance impending motherhood with her super powers. Ebon Moss-Bachrach stars as Ben Grimm - the rockman known as The Thing and Joseph Quinn rounds off the team as as Johnny Storm, the fiery Human Torch.

The story sees the team face off against Galactus, a huge space being whose arrival towards earth is heralded by the Silver Surfer, and it is she who lets the team (and the rest of the globe) know that he’s coming to devour the planet.

The film makes clear early on that the foursome are already known and respected by the public and so they head off to bargain with the evil giant but all doesn’t go to plan. This is especially dangerous given that Sue is due to give birth to her baby any day now.

After the unsuccessful encounter, the team return to earth with Galactus’ unpalatable offer and a globe divided by the options left on the table to defend themselves.

Filmmaker Shakman was the director of Marvel’s Wandavision which for me was the best of the TV series they’ve made. And he’s used that show’s great dive into old TV shows as a template here as well. It’s easily the best version of the comic characters to date, and seeing Galactus on a BFI IMAX screen was a sight to behold. Definitely go and see this on the biggest cinema screen you can! And Ralph Ineson’s bassy baritone voice added gravitas, making him one of the better, if slightly underdeveloped, villains that Marvel has featured in a very long while.

Despite the positives, there is quite a lot included here that we've seen elsewhere in the MCU. Outside of the other F4 films there’s also a huge dose of The Incredibles - granted, itself originally inspired by the team. A couple of cosmic clashes, planet destroying giants and some sky beam antics (teleports) have an air of boring familiarity.

The cast do well and have palpable chemistry on screen, but the standout for me was Vanessa Kirby's Sue Storm. Mother and master of invisibility, she maintained a great balance of strength and compassion. The Thing felt a bit underused, with his catchphrase providing a number of comedy moments but some threads were left unresolved and, surprisingly, a little more action wouldn’t have gone amiss.

For me, the brightest spot is the excellent production design. Inspired by both comics and cartoons it uses 50s and 60s iconography, filmstock and TV to hark to a “golden age” given it a unique aesthetic in comparison to the bland Marvel visuals we often see. LP records, tape machines and UFO-space skyscrapers created a unique feel - with the added flying cars, robotic servants and interstellar travel all adding to “fantastic” world building.

Michael Giacchino (whose breakthrough film score was *looks down* The Incredibles, natch) has composed a brilliant retro score which is another highlight. Its mix of choir-focused vocals and epic fanfares create an emotional and optimistic score linking the retro visuals and music together well.

Its central motif of the 'world as a family' gives the film a heartwarming theme to hang its plot around and the film avoids the same old same old bland visual and jokey style the MCU is known for. It at least attempts new things and Marvel should 100% focus on that uniqueness as it moves forwards.

The Fantastic Four doesn’t all work. It plods at times and doesn’t completely reinvent the franchise formula but by taking an imaginative retro world and fusing it with a solid cast and central theme, it harks back to the best of Phase 1’s variety before the staleness of recent MCU fare set it.

★★★½

3.5 / 5

Michael Sales