Embedded Files
As we come in on the inevitable mashing of universes and franchises into an amalgamation of nostalgia and cheap world building known as Avengers Doomsday, I wanted to revisit some of the marvel films of the post-Endgame world and look at where things went wrong.
9/25/26
In this series, I’ll likely cover some of my favorite films of the era because I find those a more positive and fun time to discuss, given how widespread the general sentiment of MCU sucks is. While I have large issues with the aging of the cinematic universe, especially as someone who experienced the perceived golden age in the perfect time of my life, I also love comic books and can see a lot of positive potential to learn and grow from easily the most interesting period of the marvel experiment to discuss.
As one of the most recent entries on this list I was actually excited about, Fantastic Four had several different factors going for it pre-production. First, Matt Shakman was a director whose work I liked, especially within the universe. Second, the cast was well realized and every look at the film seemed to imply a level of detail within the set design that there was optimism about. I think the biggest problem of modern marvel is the lack of real locations or tangible places and a lot of the best films of this time utilize that realism to their benefit. Last, the film had promised to adapt Galactus who is one of the most infamous comic villains of all time, especially with the previously mediocre adaptation in the rise of the Silver Surfer film of the early 2000s. These things all ended up being massive assets to the film and created a base I think was the potential for what could have been an all-time great superhero film.
When I initially saw the film initially I was pleasantly surprised by how well all the things I wanted were handled. Reed Richards felt like a man whose need to understand and diagnose is a constant burden on his life, Sue and Johnny are fully realized and genuinely feel like siblings and Ben has all the heart you would want. My problems start at the beginning of the movie but not in the way you may expect. I love how the film starts, but Marvel has developed a technique at the beginning of some of their bigger films of flashing through a montage to establish the new status quo and I hate it. It feels like, at both the beginning of this and Spiderman: Brand New Day, they montage through the film I really wanted to see to speed into the rest of the set up for the plot they don’t even really properly give the time to allow breathe.
We see The Fantastic Four building their reputation and popularity, but instead of being allowed to develop feelings for each of them individually, the movie communicates exactly how we should feel and exactly what happened, so the movie can zip along. I am not asking for a 4-hour Fantastic Four film but this film feels like one cut to the bare necessities as far as character work is concerned. Every scene is to advance the plot and establish the character secondarily. Rarely do these scenes ever achieve something that creates the feelings you are being told to feel, unless we’re talking about the propulsive chase by the Silver Surfer that feels like its from a different film. After this sequence, however, the only thread that truly works is Sue’s incredible ability to utilize compromise and Reeds impending doom as he tries and fails to figure out the way to save his child from the mythic space god that hunts him.
It’s a shame how this film turned out because I do ultimately think there is some greatness here and moments where the film I wanted was realized in front of me. With that being said though, I’m concerned that a lot of this film that could have been a new franchise tentpole at the level of their best. What were left with is simply what could have been & what will be, with the universe and my interest cratering torwards RDJ as Doom.
Written By Blank Thought: linktr.ee/b1ankthought
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