THE BEST AND WORST OF FANTASTIC FOUR So this is kind of an odd situation with my
best and worst videos.
Because with all of the ones I’ve done before this, there have at least been some good movies.
This is not the case.
Alright, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
Today I’m going through all four Fantastic Four movies and I’ll try to decide which
is the best and which is the worst.
This’ll be great.
Fantastic Four (1994).
So first up, Roger Corman’s 1994 film.
This was a movie that was made not because someone had a great idea for a Fantastic Four
movie, but so the studio could retain the rights.
It was never actually intended to be theatrically released and so was later shelved.
As for the film itself, it’s terrible.
It’s made on a budget of 1 million dollars, and it shows.
The Human Torch looks like a video game character from the early 2000s, and all of the effects
just look hilariously cheap.
Look, all of the performances aren’t bad, some are kind of decent, but a lot of them
are garbage.
The story isn’t interesting, neither are any of the character’s motivations.
I will say that it is sort of entertaining how everything looks so cheap.
It is so bad it’s good in a few parts.
I don’t really know what else to say about this.
It’s exactly what you would imagine a mid 90s Fantastic Four movie made on a budget
of 1 million dollars would be like.
Visual effects are bad, acting’s bad, story’s bad, villain’s bad, everything’s bad.
Only redeeming thing is that it’s sometimes really funny because it’s so bad.
But even with that it was just boring to me, and I’ll give it a 3/10.
Fantastic Four (2005).
So this is a weird movie for me.
It’s a movie that’s bad, and I know it’s bad, but for some reason I’m entertained
by it.
I don’t know why.
I’m watching it and I’m like, this isn’t good, but for some reason I’m entertained.
Maybe it’s because it’s not that long, maybe it’s because it’s light and doesn’t
try to make anything that serious, but for some reason or another, even though this is
a pretty poorly made movie, I enjoyed it.
Regardless, let’s talk positives and negatives.
On the positives, well like I mentioned, it’s not one of those bad superhero movies that’s
actually painful to sit through, like a Catwoman or Jonah Hex.
You can totally sit through this.
The cast is alright, some of the performances are pretty bad, but Chris Evans seems like
he’s having the most fun in the movie and kind of works because of it.
Sometimes he’s way over the top, but at least he’s fun to watch.
I also don’t hate the Thing’s design, like if we saw that in the newest movie it’d
be weird but it fits with this world.
That scene where The Human Torch gets chased by that missile, that’s pretty decent.
Now for what’s bad in this movie.
Well for one, I like a good villain in a movie.
Victor von Doom also kind of sucks in this movie, he’s better than in other versions,
but he’s not Doctor Doom like you know from the comics.
It’s also really cheesy and predictable and dumb in a lot of parts, and a couple of
the jokes really fall flat.
The Fantastic Four in a few scenes just act like children.
Everyone also reacts to these kinds of things really unrealistically, which is alright since
the film isn’t taking itself too seriously, but when Johnny Storm is skiing with this
girl and then he bursts into flames and crashes, inadvertently creating a hot pool of water,
the first thing he does is invite the girl to join him, instead of, you know, panicking.
It made me laugh though, whether it was intentional or not.
A main complaint I have is that while some special effects look ok, a lot of the CGI
looks like pretty terrible nowadays, especially anything Mr. Fantastic does.
So look, in the end, is this a good movie?
No, not really.
It’s corny and it’s stupid, but it is mildly entertaining for whatever reason.
So don’t seek it out or anything, but if you’re lying around on a Sunday afternoon
with nothing else to do and it comes on TV, you could totally watch it.
Even in the parts where it’s really bad, it’s funny how bad it is, so it’s a mildly
enjoyable experience.
It’s not so bad it’s good, it’s not so good it’s good, it’s just in between
for me.
I’ll give it a 5.3/10.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
So because that first film made...some money...Fox decided to make a sequel, this time with a
bigger budget and more star power.
And by more star power I mean Laurence Fishburne.
So a lot of people say this is better than the first one, some people so it’s worse,
and I think it’s pretty much the same quality level.
Well, here’s the thing.
I feel like the first Fantastic Four was the same level of entertainment throughout the
whole thing, it wasn’t good, but it was consistent.
There wasn’t a part where I was like, this doesn’t belong in this movie.
This film, there are some parts that are really bad, but they’re made up for by 1 or 2 parts
that are genuinely really good.
Alright, let’s get more specific.
Firstly, the positives.
Well first up, Silver Surfer looks and sounds pretty awesome.
I’d say design wise, the way he looks, he has one of my favorite designs in a Marvel
movie.
Also, Laurence Fishburne, I think he was a pretty good choice.
The acting is the same as the first film, some is pretty terrible, some is ok.
Chris Evans is still the best.
There’s also a new element introduced where Johnny is able to switch powers if he touches
people, and while it didn’t really make sense especially towards the end, I thought
that was at least an interesting element to introduce.
This film is also shorter than the first one, so that’s nice.
That’s not a great sign when that’s a positive, but whatever.
It also looks a little bit less cheap than the first one.
And I will say, the scene where the Silver Surfer comes and he and Johnny have a chase
through New York or whatever, that is truly an awesome scene.
It’s the only scene in a Fantastic Four film where I was smiling and enjoying myself
not because it was so bad it was good, but because it was actually really cool.
That scene elevated the film at least a little bit for me.
And finally, like the first one, it’s a survivable film.
It isn’t boring as hell or dark and gloomy, it doesn’t make your head hurt, it isn’t
very good, but it won’t kill you to watch it.
Now for the negatives.
Well, Galactus sucks.
Like, in the comics, he’s this awesome, huge humanoid guy dressed in purple armor
who eats worlds and looks awesome and does awesome stuff and whatever.
In this, he’s this really generic giant space mist and like I said, if the film’s
villain sucks, then that’s a pretty big downside for me.
Also, Doctor Doom is back for some reason, and he doesn’t really have to be in this
film, but I guess since Galactus is just a space cloud they had to have a villain for
there to be a fight scene with.
The writing is also not that great, and it isn’t really that funny.
It doesn’t have a very good pace, it takes about 20 minutes or so for something really
interesting to happen.
The CGI, I feel like they used it all on the Silver Surfer and so the rest isn’t that
good.
Especially by the end where Johnny gets all of their powers, it looks like a video game.
And like the first one, it’s predictable and really cheesy.
Something specific to this is the product placement.
Firstly, the Fantastic Mobile or whatever, with the very obvious Dodge logo on it.
But Johnny Storm’s costume, I actually groaned when he showed it off.
Like I know it’s a callback to a joke he made earlier about getting sponsored, but
just becuase you acknowledge blatant and stupid product placement doesn’t make it any less
blatant or stupid.
So look, this is pretty much on the same level as the first movie for me.
It does have a couple of weaker moments, but it does have some moments that absolutely
crush anything in that first film.
So all of this really amounts to another 5.3/10.
Fantastic Four (2015).
Yeah, I’ve already talked about this film too much.
You can check out my full review, but overall, the cast is ok, Michael B. Jordan specifically
stands out, some of the special effects are decent, and the Thing looks pretty cool.
Besides that, it’s boring, it’s terribly paced, it’s tone is all over the place,
the action isn’t very interesting, the end climax feels like it’s from another movie,
and you know how I complained about the other movies having a bad Doctor Doom?
This has one of the worst comic book movie villains I’ve ever seen.
So yeah, that’s pretty much it, I’ll stick by my 3.5/10 score, mainly just because of
Jordan, the Thing, and I liked where they were going with some things.
How those things turned out kind of sucked, but I liked where they were going with it.
If that makes sense.
So now for which is the best and which is the worst.
For worst, it’s a toss up, but I guess I’ll go with the 1994 version.
Even though the newest one is godawful, it has more things that I liked than the 94 one,
in which the only redeeming parts are the so bad it’s good parts.
And for best, again it’s a toss up, but based on just if a friend asked, hey let’s
watch a fantastic four movie, for whatever reason someone would say that, I’d probably
have to say the 2005 version.
It’s tough, because again, none of them are actual genuine good movies in my opinion.
But of the lot the 2005 version is probably my favorite.
So those are my thoughts on the Fantastic Four films.
Which one is your favorite and least favorite.
Or rank them from best to worst in the comments.
Be sure to like this video, check out my Instagram @bhl_hudson, and subscribe for more videos
like the one you just watched.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see ya next time.