Saw movie on Sun July 27th, 2025 while daughter was sick. Took son & daughter, wife didnt want to join. Some spoilers below.
General review - we just saw Superman, so its good to compare. Superman was full of meaningless action, but was flawed and showcased new heroes. FF4 was subtle, had a tone and style, and had a cohesive story and tried to make fully realized multi-dimensional characters. Happily, both movies skipped thru origin stories -- FF4 spent more time on origin recap while Superman skipped it entirely.
Not comparing the movies and just looking at FF4, I first question the Human Torch casting choice. All other picks were enjoyable, but he was glaring in his lack of charisma / attractiveness which used to be his trademark -- now his sister was the charismatic one.
While the 50's alt universe look was fun, it had some strangeness -- civil rights was on my mind, as well as women's equality, but those topics weren't acknowledged.
Overall a fun movie, entertaining and yet another movie with touch CG and not enough tension, and the finale (particularly around Galactus) didnt make the sense and was not in line with comic book power levels.
The Good
Reed Richards' (Pedro Pascal's) acting and some of his responses.
Franklin Richards - Im excited what he represents.
CG Silver Surfer in the worm hole was cool.
Casting pick wins - Reed, Sue, and Ben = great picks. (Galactus worked, I suppose.)
Herbie was a scene stealer (but I kept thinking about the AI/robot looming takeover IRL so he was distracting, also didnt like that Herbie couldnt speak).
The Bad
General lack of action, and absence of Marvel's 'witty banter'.
Galactus power level.
Silver Surfer missing some expository dialogue.
Reed Richards frequent "I don't know what to do" as a story device. The global teleport seemed really interesting for setting up multi-dimensional tech / crossovers, was hoping that might be on the table.
Sue Storm's incredible pain management -- action child birth, and force fielded Galactus (should've been outside of her power scope).
Galactus did not use sufficient power, and him coming in person made no sense when Silver Surfer is the tool for the job.
The plot 'give me baby or I destroy the planet' seemed painfully flawed.
Johnny Storm - casting pick didnt work for me, and his story line didnt make sense either. Why didn't Reed obsess (or even analyze) the recordings??
Johnny Storm's argument to bring Surfer to Earth's side was absurd.
Ben's romantic storyline didnt really resolve. Also was surprised to randomly go to a Jewish temple.
The credit scenes slightly disappointed, but entertained. (Doom was better than cartoon, but a few lines of dialogue from Doom might've been nice for superfans.)
I've identified some missing things that would've helped.
Other heroes, even if they aren't famous. The absence was jarring, since there were FF villains.
Reed's intellect and wealth explained. Is he a billionaire due to his inventiveness? How was he funding everything and launching a spaceship off city streets?!?!
What did each of them contribute that they were 'the best' for space travel?
Any more on Negative Zone.
Some links between Galactus, Eternals, etc. Take the power scale up and explain a little of it?
Anyway, my son said it was a 4.7 out of 5 stars. I'd say it was more of a 3.8 out of 5 stars, but it was still entertaining and I liked it.
