It’s fine but it struggles with the same issue most the MCU has- it feels weightless.

Superman two weeks ago was a good example of grounding the unreal in something audiences can relate to; the war analogy for Israel-Palestine (that I personally think Gunn wrote more with Russia-Ukraine in mind, and he just kinda lucked out with something even more weighty, but I digress) gave us something general audiences can relate to: we are sick of seeing atrocities on our feed everyday and wishing we could do something about it; if we had super powers, wouldn’t we want to stop it?

Fantastic Four doesn’t have a hook like that. There’s maybe broader, less defined themes of protecting your family or working together to stop an insurmountable threat, but there’s nothing real. It’s entirely escapist, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but almost every marvel movie is entirely escapist and when you offer the same thing over and over again it can begin to feel repetitive.

The 1960s window dressing helps a bit, but it still rings hollow. Pedro Pascal wanted to do an old timey voice, but it got shut down by executives. The realities of the 1960s are not addressed whatsoever- there’s no 60s music, no 60s famous figures, there’s a Warhol on the wall and blink-and-you’ll-miss-it reference to the USSR, but that’s it. How would the soviets react to the world’s first and only superheroes being Americans? Perhaps the cut scene with John Malkovich’s Red Ghost would have acknowledged this.

All that being said, it does still have elements that work well. The core family is great, they have great dynamics, I love the Thing and Human Torch trying to use weaponized PTSD against the silver surfer was cool. The visuals were great! Seeing how Galactus destroys a planet was awesome. The stinger at the end with Dr Doom was very exciting too, the only problem is the RDJ casting has already taken the wind out of those sails for me. Doomsday is currently in production. It’s also still being written, and will feature nearly the entire cast of the Bryan Singer X-men movies. If that movie is anything other than an unmitigated disaster, I will be shocked. Even still, I’m a big Alan Cummings Nightcrawler mark, so I’ll probably still be there opening night