2025’s Fantastic Four: First Steps hopes to reignite the love for The Marvel Cinematic Universe. That film aims to continue the larger story at play, while also reintroducing classic heroes into an ever-expanding framework. It’s a tall order due to the history of these characters and their previous lackluster adaptations. Skipping the abysmal Fantastic Four from Roger Corman from 1994, the time feels right to take a look back at the (mostly) failed films. Fantastic Four from 2005 arrived at a time when superhero movies were attempting to evolve into what they are today.
2005’s Fantastic Four, directed by Tim Story, attempted to jumpstart the craze. Unfortunately, the finished product proved to be rather mediocre. This film takes the iconic team back to their humble beginnings. The story follows a group of astronauts, including Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), and brother and sister Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). Funded by Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) the group travels to space to study cosmic clouds. After they’re exposed to a cosmic cloud, they gain superhuman abilities. Learning to harness those abilities, the group comes face to face with now villainous Victor Von Doom.
To age myself here, I was six years old when this Fantastic Four was released. Seeing it at that age made it a staple of my childhood. Watching it again for this review, just showed the blinders I had on. Directed by Tim Story, Fantastic Four proved to be an incredibly boring rewatch. The biggest problem lies within the screenplay by Mark Frost and Michael France. To put it simply, the film struggles with a severely languid pace. The group becoming the team we know comes into the story too late. The results of which deliver a very boring watch in this modern day.
The cardinal sin is how long the film spends building this team together. This includes both dated humor and an uninteresting romantic tension. Large portions of the story are attributed to both Reed and Sue’s past relationship. To put it plainly, the film spends too much time in these sections. The story prioritizes making Sue an object that both Victor and Reed want to obtain. Clocking in at 106 minutes, that makes the pacing feel incredibly languid. When seeing a Fantastic Four movie, audiences want to see the Fantastic Four. What they don’t want to see is a “will they or won’t they” romance between Reed and Sue. Such moments don’t feel genuine, instead feeling like nothing more than ideas to move the plot forward.
It’s frustrating with such elements being a focal point within the story. The more enjoyable and emotional elements should be attributed to both Ben and Johnny. In a pre-Captain America era, Evans relishes every moment he’s on screen. He’s likable, charismatic, and charming, embodying every element of Johnny. Every time he’s on screen, the film has a much-needed sense of fun. The silliness and charm he brings to Johnny thrive as a counterbalance to Chiklis’s performance as The Thing.
Chiklis’s role can be best compared to that of Frankenstein’s monster. Not only does Ben want to find a cure, but he also loses what he loves with his girlfriend Debbie (Laurie Holden). It makes audiences sympathize with Ben and want him to find happiness. When he falls in love with a blind woman named Alicia (Kerry Washington), it gives the film a sense of heart. Once this section begins to take shape, the film is fortunately able to pivot. That pivot helps the team become the people audiences paid to see.
Once the Fantastic Four become heroes, the result is quite exciting. Seeing them work together with comedic banter is quite entertaining. The unit seamlessly feels like a team, embodying the character’s essence. Even with dated visual effects, the action remains both tense and engaging. It’s a welcome burst of energy that keeps the film from being a complete disaster. This can mainly be attributed to how the characters use their distinct abilities in the action set pieces. In these moments, a truly heroic team begins to form.
Watching the group work in synchronicity is undeniably entertaining. The script knows how to apply a joke at the right moment. Every joke in those sections feels earned and delivers on the promise of these characters’ attitudes. The jokes are undeniably cheesy and over-the-top, but feel almost ripped from the comic pages. Particularly with the third act, those moments help the film feel like something else altogether. One can only pine for there to be more of those types of moments in the overall product. Such sequences helped create a craving in the audience for more of them. Thankfully, we got a version of that two years later in the sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Calling 2005’s Fantastic Four a bad film is an understandable take. For its lengthy runtime (at the time of its release), it failed to understand what audiences wanted to see. When it gave the comedy and action in the third act, it simply felt like too little, too late. For this viewer, that makes me think Fantastic Four isn’t a downright bad movie. Instead, it exists as an incredibly frustrating one. The pieces of an undeniably great Fantastic Four movie seem present throughout. The problem is that they all appear in the wrong places. Even with the use of practical makeup, it makes 2005’s Fantastic Four a disappointment.
Fantastic Four (2005) is available to stream on Disney+.
Learn more about the film on the Disney+ site for the title.
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