By Abbey Kinzel, ’23

Staff Writer

The Fantastic Four has been done so dirty by 20th Century Fox, so much so that the highest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes has earned just 37 percent. I feel like 20th Century Fox can’t get the story right for the silver screen; they have done three films, but some force of nature is keeping them from being any good. But after Disney purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019, the rights returned to Marvel’s hands, so hopefully the story can finally be done right.  Marvel has announced that its MCU Fantastic 4 will hit theaters in February 2025. So let’s dive in and talk about the things we hopefully won’t see in the upcoming movie.

Fantastic Four (2005): The first movie actually got the origin story right, (I’m looking at you, 2015 remake). Reed Richards and Victor von Doom are smart, Reed’s friend Ben is bald and strong, Susan Storm is Victor’s girlfriend and Johnny Storm (Susan’s brother) likes to do stunts. They all go into space and get radiation poisoning from this cloud, and that gives them superpowers. The Fantastic Four minus Victor have to fight the super villain Doom, absolutely no relation to Victor in any way, shape or form (wink wink). With the CGI looking passable, it’s a decent movie standing at 28 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007): In this movie, Reed and Susan are getting ready for their wedding but Reed also has to help the government figure out the cause of multiple supernatural events. The four learn that Silver Surfer is the cause of these events, big surprise. He says he is the “message” that will bring Galactus to Earth so he can munch munch crunch the planet. And it’s up to the Fantastic Four plus Victor von Doom to save the planet. It feels like this was better than the first movie and it has a higher rating, 3 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

Fantastic Four (2015): I absolutely love to say this was a total disaster. This movie deserves every bit of hate it gets. The origin story isn’t the original, Victor and Reed are supposed to be the same age but it seems like Victor is 4-5 years older, and none of the characters’ ages match the story from the comics. The only person that is even close to their comic book age in the movie is Johnny.  I also hate how they go to a different planet and get powers rather than in space, and I can’t say anything else without spoiling it even though I highly recommend watching something else. But if you want to watch it, you better be ready to laugh at it. The movie earned only a 9 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which I think is way too generous.

Featured image: https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2015/08/10/box-office-4-reasons-fantastic-four-flamed-out/