It says a lot about the Fantastic Four movies that John Krasinski’s minute-or-so of screen time as Reed Richards in Dr Strange and The Multiverse of Madness was, until this week, probably most fans’ favourite big-screen incarnation of the character. Few would argue that it’s been anything other than a rocky road to Matt Shakman’s excellent new movie, but with First Steps now stretching into cinemas and those earlier efforts disappearing into the background, what better time to look back and take stock?
For our ranking of every Fantastic Four movie to date below, we’ve focused on the standalone movies. So, don’t expect Dr Strange to feature. Same goes for that Thunderbolts* teaser—as things stand, we still can’t even be sure who’s on that rocket….
Honourable Mention: Fantastic Four (1994)
Roger Corman really did do everything. The legendary filmmaker had 490 producer credits to his name on IMDb when he passed away at the ripe age of 98. One that’s still there despite never being officially released is his mythical 1994 take on Marvel’s first family. The story goes that German producer Bernd Eichinger hired Corman to make a movie for $1M so as not to lose the rights—similar to what Sony is speculated to be doing with movies like Madame Web.
Despite the cast being told it was real, even going so far as to attend conventions, there was never any plan for Fantastic Four (1994) to see the light of day. This hasn’t stopped the movie from gaining a cult following or for bootlegged versions from doing the rounds online. Just keep your eyes peeled: word has it that the movie’s four stars each have cameos in First Steps.
Fantastic Four (2015)
Every Fantastic Four movie before First Steps had problems. The originals are guilty of that early-00s-coded over-reliance on digital effects, but the 2015 reboot was its own kind of dumpster fire. Before the shoot, things seemed to be falling into place. Despite the awful online trolling of Michael B. Jordan, the casting looked fresh, and the director, Josh Trank, was coming in hot off the success of Chronicle, his found footage superhero movie. Everything seemed to point towards a younger, X-Men First Class style reboot, but then 20th Century Fox got cold feet.
Trank’s ending was rewritten during production, and the studio was soon calling for reshoots. The patched-together final product—in which the foursome travel to another dimension and come back with their powers—went on to receive the worst reviews of any Marvel movie and left theatres without turning a profit. Flame off.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
There isn’t really much of a story to this one. Rise of the Silver Surfer is, for better or worse, probably the least remembered of any Fantastic Four feature. The two things people usually recall are the Surfer looking pretty good, in that T1000 kinda way, and Galactus looking like a big cloud.
The movie—which brings back Von Doom as the Surfer heralding the end of the Earth—hasn’t aged too badly; it just happened to land a year before The Dark Knight and Iron Man came along to show everyone how it’s really done.
Fantastic Four (2005)
The first wave of modern superhero movies arguably peaked at the start of the ‘00s with the release of Blade II, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies and Bryan Singer’s X2. The drop in quality that followed probably had as much to do with a drop in standards as it did with the paradigm-shifting arrival of Cristopher Nolan’s Batman movies. Still, among those awkward years, Tim Story’s likably earnest Fantastic Four—an unadventurous retelling of the origin story, set in the present day—stands out as the best of a bad bunch.
Re-watching it today, the effects hold up pretty well, and it’s still fun to watch Chris Evans in his pre-Cap days, rocking that smarmy energy and those boot cut jeans.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
Two decades after Tim Story and one since Josh Trank, Marvel finally got it right, delivering a movie worthy of its title and, perhaps, of rekindling the magic of the MCU. You could say that Mat Shakman’s First Steps owes a lot to The Incredibles, but that’s a bit like saying Casino Royale owed something to Bourne, or any of the other Bond imitators—say what you want about the previous movies, Jack Kirby got there first.
It’s telling how much Shakman has talked about Kirby’s influence in interviews. His film not only brings back the originals’ ‘60s style, but also the era’s hopes and anxieties. None of which would be possible without this remarkable cast and gorgeous production design. To quote Anthony Lane’s Incredibles 2 review (not that part), the movie lets us “imagine, for a couple of hours, what it would feel like to live inside an Alexander Calder mobile.” Damn true.
Where To Watch Every ‘Fantastic Four’ Movie, Including ‘First Steps’
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