The first half of this review is spoiler-free. The second half contains spoilers.
This movie was great—it did the Fantastic Four justice. It was genuinely well-done, especially when it came to the characters. Take the Human Torch, for example. In multiple scenes, I expected him to behave like he did in the 2005 version—constantly chasing women and acting like a shallow playboy. But he didn't. While he still had that charming, playboy personality, the film showed that he had other interests. He loves space. He actually made a major contribution to the mission completely on his own, without being told what to do. He took initiative, and it ended up helping the team in the long run—even when Mr. Fantastic overlooked the issue.
That scene alone proved he's not just comic relief; he's smart. He wasn't going into space for fun or fame—he was going because he earned that spot. He was one of the best. That's something a lot of other adaptations fail to show.
Spoiler Section Begins
As a whole, the movie felt like a real comic book come to life—just like Superman. However, I'll be honest: the hype from Superman did slightly affect how I viewed this one. It made me enjoy Fantastic Four a little less, especially the ending. Not because the ending was bad—it was actually pretty good—but because the final battle was incredibly disappointing.
I mean… what was that? That wasn't even a battle.
All they did was hit Galactus while he was casually walking through the city, and he looked completely unfazed. He barely reacted. Galactus was just swatting them away like flies. He didn't even use his powers! Why?
If the idea was that the Fantastic Four were too weak to force him to take them seriously, I could've accepted that. But during the final push, when Invisible Woman was literally pushing him toward the portal with her powers, he still didn't use them. All he did was grab buildings to stop himself. No cosmic energy. No reality-bending. Nothing.
How is that a final battle? It was just them throwing attacks at a walking brick wall and then pushing him into a portal at the last second. Compare that to Superman, which had an actual climactic fight. And just to be clear: I'm not saying every superhero movie needs a final battle to be good. Thunderbolts, for example, technically didn't have one—and it was still amazing. But in that movie, the lack of a final battle was intentional. It fit the story.
Here, it just felt like they didn't know what to do with Galactus. They didn't do him justice at all. Just one proper feat of strength or a glimpse of his powers would've been enough. But we got none of that. Just physical strength and nothing impressive.
Still, outside of that? Every other part of the movie was pretty fantastic.