To be cliche, this movie was fantastic–truly. And I’m not saying this as a Marvel Cinematic Universe stan, but as a movie goer who was genuinely blown away by what they did.
This will be a full spoiler review because there was just too much that I want to talk about, and I don’t want to make two posts.
The team specifically told us that they wouldn’t be going back through their origin stories. This is not an origin story, but for those who are recently enrolled in the school of the MCU, they did do a cheesy ’60’s recap. I’ll allow it. Mainly because they didn’t ask my permission. But it was one of those obligatory montages for that that are new here, like I stated before. They don’t have to do it, but you kind of have to. I did like the approach that it wasn’t a main character monologuing or it wasn’t a flashback, per say. It was a commercial, in a way.
I saw some posts about the Silver Surfer. Julia Gardner looks GREAT as Silver Surfer. I love the layer that they gave us, and I really enjoyed that Johnny was one of the real heros of this movie. Her graphics looked way better than the graphics in the trailers we saw before the movie. It didn’t look bad in the trailers, but it did look stiff. They fixed that. As fans, we have to calm down on these trailers. Let the animators and graphics people cook.
Thanks to Johnny, we also learned that her surfboard is not part of her body. Lowkey, when he asked this question, I wanted to really know the answer. Thank you, Susan, for giving us that answer around five minutes later.
Speaking of Silver Surfer, I can’t remember the other terrible films, but I don’t remember Silver Surfer having a solid backstory. I liked how her backstory with Galactus mirrored Sue and Reed’s dilemma with Franklin. She saved her planet, but at what cost? Does she get to be who she wants to be? Does she get to be with her child? Was her sacrifice worth it? Also, random, why give her a surfboard and not something else? I have questions!
Speaking of graphics, I loved how they showed us Mr. Fantastic’s abilities. Well, everyone’s abilities really. You could tell they thought about why and when they would use their abilities. How they used them also went with their personalities, in a weird way. I noticed Reed only used his abilities when he wanted to multitask or when he was really in action. When we was testing the teleportation device, when they did the montage of him fighting various, and a couple other subtle moments. It was never anything flashy, which I also appreciated.
Natasha Lyonne is in this movie? Why didn’t anyone tell me?! I saw nothing about her being in this movie. This could have been because I was avoiding spoilers, but I was pleasantly surprised to see her walk across the street to talk to Ben. Also, I loved how Ben entertained the kids. The car show for the kids foreshadowed him throwing the car at Galactus. I see what you did there, Marvel. While we’re on Natasha’s character and surprise, it feels like they were exploring a love story for Ben but never pulled the trigger on it. You remember in a few trailers where it felt like we would explore Ben’s feelings about his new form? I enjoy when Marvel pump-fakes us like that. We come into the movie looking for those scenes in the trailer only for us to see what really happens and be like, “Oh…” Back to my point, we never saw why we didn’t go into the orphanage. I don’t know if we were supposed to draw conclusions from the trailer of scenes we never saw or what, but I was annoyed that you buttered me up for this love story and never gave it to me. Shame on you, Matt Shakman.
I couldn’t help but make parallel to Reed Richards and Tony Stark. They are two of the smartest men we’ve encountered in the MCU (aside from Dr. Doom who will appear later). When Reed gets stressed out and he can’t figured something out, his anxiety shows. He’s flustered and highly annoyed. Stark on the other hand is a person who expects failure. He doesn’t like it but he knows it’s part of the process, so he adjusts. Reed, on the other hand, does not like to fail. In his mind, he’s smart enough to know all and there should be no error. Pedro Pascal played that well. You got that feeling from how the character is played and written.
You know what I think worked in this movie versus the others? The Four felt like an actual family that had lived together for years. I think the other films just felt like we threw these people together and they wanted us to believe that they had been friends for forever. They carefully crafted this movie so we knew that they had been together for years before the accident that altered their DNA in space. It just felt like I was watching family or friends get on each others nerves but end up working together to complete a task. The task, in this case, is to save their world.
Moving to saving the world, I did not think of just moving their planet somewhere else. For some reason, that never occurred to me. It was a cool way to think to fix a problem; however, I watch a lot of documentaries (as those who follow me know) and I’ve seen plenty of criminals watch the news for updates on themselves. So, when Reed went on TV and laid out his plan, I wondered, “Does Galactus have a signal to see this because you’re giving this man your plan?” And low and behold, here comes Silver Surfer ruining your day by destroying all those portal things you worked so hard to build around the world. And Marvel writers, you better bring that device back! I want to see it successfully work.
Going backwards for a second to talk about Franklin. It was so cool to see Sue and Reed seeing their baby through her stomach! An ultrasound is one thing but getting to see through the stomach into the uterus is, again, something I would have never though to do. This is why they don’t pay me the big bucks.
Galactus is huge and you feel it!! I learned in journalism school to never shoot down on someone because it make that person look small on camera. In film, they use this tactic all the time. This is what they did with Galactus but the opposite. They shot up on him so it made us feel small. Honestly, after “Endgame,” Galactus might be the coolest villain in the MCU. They gave him a cool walk and made him seem like this team of four couldn’t defeat him (we will get to that in a minute). Apparently, he was no match for the Storm family.
Sue and Johnny were the real MVPs of this movie. I think we all walked into the theatre thinking that Reed was going to be the man who saved the day. If you play “Marvel Rivals,”Rocket has a line when he sees Reed die that is along the lines of, “Isn’t he the guy who’s supposed to know how to fix all of this?” He admitted a couple times in this film that he didn’t have the answer and that is ok. We didn’t have the answers in “Endgame” either, but we made it work.
I like how they didn’t completely follow the little brother trope with Johnny. Sure, Reed tried to shun him away when he wanted to do more, but he was flustered and trying to solve a huge mystery. So, as a viewer, it was less about Johnny being inexperienced but more about Johnny getting in his way of brainstorming all the ideas in the world. But, Johnny personifies determination, and it paid off! If he hadn’t spend all that time listening to those records to find out who she really was, and that lead to her helping the gang in the end. It was a win for Johnny and a nice addition to story to explain why she was doing what she was doing.
Sue Storm is the real co-MVP of this film. If it wasn’t for Johnny, then we wouldn’t have gotten Silver Surfer to help the Four, and if it wasn’t for Sue, Galactus would have take poor Franklin. I do wonder if Galactus has succeeded, would baby Franklin immediately be devouring worlds or does me need training? Is the Silver Surfer his trainer because he doesn’t speak great English at the moment? Galactus didn’t care so neither should I, but I am a journalist, so I want the answers to my non-important questions. Sue, in theory, died for those ungrateful people on Earth-828 to save them and her baby! And I’m going to say something controversial…Sue should have remained dead. I know! I know! It would have been just under the sadness we felt when Tony snapped but above when Black Widow sacrificed herself. Her dying did showcase the power that Franklin possessed but I was confused when Galactus told them that he hid his nature from them. We’re only aware of his powers and his brains at the end of the movie, so him telling them that at the moment felt misplaced. But Sue pushing him back and her team helping her do it had me cheering her on in the theater.
Speaking of explaining why someone was doing what they were doing. I figured Galactus was feeding on planets because he was hungry and that’s what he did. Plain and simple. No, I did not read the comics, but the MCU has a way of grounding these larger than life villains. If we go back to Thanos, he really wanted to save not only his people but the world by finding a way to preserve the limited resources we have here in this universe. Galactus didn’t want to be roving around eating planets. It was a burden that I don’t think we got the backstory to. He was looking for Franklin to take the burden of hunger from him. But and however, that burden, obviously, would be passed to Franklin. So, my man’s was selfish in a way because as long as he didn’t have it, he was ok. He didn’t want to pass it to someone to save the work or something helpful. He just wanted to lay down! Honestly, same, sir. Same. I, too, am tired.
I wondered why we made mention of Mole Man and the fact that Sue brokered a partnership/deal with him. Anyone seen “Us” recently? Remember when the movie started and they started to talk about those abandoned subway systems? When they brought everyone to Subterranean, that’s the first thing I thought of. We didn’t get enough of Mole Man. He was funny, but I can see why we only saw him when we did. Honestly, now that I think about it, did we need him at all? Sure, it’s a way to give us another character to explore outside of the Four, the Silver Surfer, and Galactus. Still, we didn’t get much from him but a chuckle, so we could have left him on the cutting room floor.
A few random thoughts about the film. This set is GORGEOUS! I love the nostalgia of the ’60’s with the cutting edge of advanced technology. I do often wonder about the advancement of technology through the ages and how it could have gone faster if it wasn’t gatekeeped as much. They picked a really cute baby to be Franklin. He was precious, and he really did look like he belonged to Sue and Reed. I love the nod to “Three Men and a Baby” at the end of the movie where Johnny, Reed, and Ben all try to collectively put the carseat, correctly, in the car.
I’ve said such glowing things about this movie that there is no way I could say something bad, right? Wrong! Marvel, although my favorite, is not above me complaining about something. Y’all!! WHERE DID GALACTUS GO?! Sue spend all that time, and died by the way, to fling this man across the universe away from them, but you don’t tell us where he is?! Is he a threat to another universe? Is that why the Fantastic Four’s ship came to Earth-616? Are they coming to warn them about Galactus just being out there in the world or Dr. Doom? I needed to know and I thought the second post credit scene would explain that. I did not and it wasted my time. after the first post credit scene that that is why they made that annoucement.
Sound off! What did you think? Is fourth time the charm? Did Matt Shakman, Kevin Feige, and team finally break the curse of the Fantastic Four? (“Superman” stans, your time will come. I have a post ready for that movie. Sound off on this movie and later, we can discuss “Superman.”)
