Fantastic Four: First Steps Spoiler-Free Review

Fresh off watching this movie, it seems that the MCU had a similar idea for the Fantastic Four as the DCU had for Superman (2025): do away with origin stories, and present heroes as already established and living in an already full realized world lore-wise. So, in this Multiverse-tale, the Fantastic Four - Reed Richard (Mr. Fantastic), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (The Human Torch) and Ben Grimm (The Thing) - are based on Earth-848, and have been in action for 4 years since they gained their powers post-exposure to cosmic rays. I am glad to say that unlike Superman (2025), it was actually refreshing to get a montage of the superheroes at work. A lot of the montage had already been used in the marketing of this film, and even more of it was added online with the recent release of the first 5 minutes of the movie. Their powers are very well presented, particularly Mr. Fantastic's stretching powers, and the Human Torch's ability to basically suck up surrounding flames to put out a runaway fire is an awesome permutation of the power that I never knew he had. However, the Fantastic Four is more than just their powers: Reed Richards contributes a ton to technological development due to his intellectual prowess, and Sue Storm has quite the knack for diplomacy. Though it's a very short moment, the opening chapter of this movie shows us why this world idolizes the Fantastic Four, and it very quickly introduces something that Superman (2025) seemingly lacked: Stakes!!!

However, peace and serenity doesn't rein for too long; the director isn't "burying the lead" in this movie. Therefore, it doesn't take long before the Silver Surfer pops up on the scene heralding the eventual destruction of the earth, thus setting the tone of the movie; this is a disaster movie plain and simple.   

If I had to rename this movie (because I simply never understood the whole "First Steps" idea), I would've gone with Fantastic Four: Year 4...which I understand is "on the nose" with everyone trying to squeeze as much mileage out of the "4" as possible; it just works. The movie does a good job of showing that the FF who've never had secret identities are celebrated and fully integrated into the life of this society. They have a cartoon which endears them to kids & kids at heart, and Johnny even gets to ink an ad deal. However, far from their celebrity, we get to see that Reed wrestles with the guilt of the team's cosmic rays exposure, and especially what it may pose for any of his potential children; Johnny, despite his fame and his eligible bachelor status (no womanizing this time around), finds himself itching to return to space. Ben has a more subdued struggle this time around; though he's the most obviously disfigured of the bunch and Reed's biggest regret, the movie didn't hype this up as much as has been done in other iterations...but the loneliness is still palpable.  

Personally, this felt like a well-crafted movie. The retro-futuristic aesthetic was done to perfection. The environment is its own character, and it just feels believable that if the world was allowed to progress as it should, this is one of the workable permutations. Along these lines, I initially didn't think the introduction of Herbie the Robot would work so well, but Herbie can be added to the list of useful loveable droids in the line of R2D2, Wall-E and BB-8. It was a deep-cut to pull him in - originally a character from the animated series - and plop him into this film, but it worked. He is a welcome addition who goes so far as to dabble in some tasks that Reed abandons, and he is essential to the team on their space missions (just like R2D2).   

I am glad that they got Galactus right this time around. Comic book accurate Galactus is perceived in a form that is familiar to the planet dwellers who are about to be destroyed, but choosing to make him a big ominous cloud in Fantastic Four II: Rise of the Silver Surfer rubbed people the wrong way. This time we get to experience him as the massive gigantic force of nature that he really is. His gigantic eyes peering down on the heroes very easily evokes Dormammu from Dr. Strange. He is a complex character, knowing what he used to be before, and transformed into a slave to his hunger; however, he is somewhat ambivalent. His relationship to his herald and her responsibilities also adds to the complexities of his actions. 

The action was top-notch. It felt well-deserved after the setup had been laid. I think Mr. Fantastic got a lot more screentime in the thick of things than he has in previous iterations, and the CGI looked great. It also made sense. One decision bt Galactus during their battle reminded me of the World War Hulk panel below, and it made perfect sense in context and in real-life too. It was a bit distressing to almost witness "spaghettification" onscreen though. 

 

This movie probably did the most to elevate Johnny Storm's character because it actually turned him into a genius. Gone is the airhead who'd mistakenly sleep with Dr. Doom's fiancee, and in his place is a subtle soul who provided one of the most important breakthroughs in the movie. Definitely didn't have this one on my bingo cards. Also didn't have Reed and Sue pegged as the kind to give us one of the movie's darker moments, but it was pragmatically handled.

The MCU and director Matt Shakman have knocked it out of the park with this film. The casting was great, and everyone felt suited to their roles. The movie is bright and colourful, the science and tech is great. Take a bow.

This movie is an A- in my books. 

God Bless.

Definitely going to watch it again...for the culture. 

Superman (2025): Spoiler Review

I have really been going through a whole set of emotions since watching this movie. It seems like a large majority of people watched and enjoyed this movie (my twin brother included), but I seriously can't relate to any of them. Initially, I thought that perhaps the Codeine + Diphenhydramine syrup that I'd taken to stifle my cough might have impaired my judgment a tad. I was actually thinking of going to watch the movie a 2nd time to see if a 2nd viewing might change my mind, but I decided against it. I figured that I already knew the major beats of the movie and a 2nd watch would be really unnecessary. In fact, I challenged myself to write down the major beats from memory unassisted; I figured if I could do it well enough, then I'd prolly remember the movie well enough to dive into a spoiler review. So this is how that looked. 

• Prologue
• Krypto to the rescue + Healing Scene; Destructive Krypto
• Back to Metropolis (Hammer of Boravia’s return to LexCorp)
• Off to The Daily Planet
• Dinner @ Lois Lane’s + Interview
• Releasing the Kaiju
• Kaiju shenanigans in the morning + Lex and Co. break into the Fortress of Solitude
• Jor-El and Lara outed
• Supes retreats and then returns to the Fortress of Solitude
• Faces off with Lex @ LexCorp
• Has a heart-to-heart with Lois (Solaris|Justice Gang Fight in the background)
• Supes turns himself in in the morning and is sent into the pocket universe (Metamorpho irradiating Supes with Kryptonite)
• Daily Planet: Lois and Co. query Supes' disappearance; Jimmy gets the scoop about the pocket universe
• Lois visits the Justice Gang; gets Mr. Terrific to help
• Mr. Terrific kicks ass, then activates the portal to the pocket universe; sends his T-spheres to look for Supes
• Metamorpho ceases the Kryptonite poisoning; recreates a mini-sun to power up Supes.
• Supes frees Metamorpho’s child, then rescues Krypto
• Fight out of the pocket universe; Mr. Terrific stays to prevent the collapsed portal from being re-activated
• Supes is taken back to the Kents to heal from the radiation poisoning
• Lex reactivates the damaged portal causing the pocket universe to become unstable and “leak out” into the real world (to draw Superman out).
• Invasion of Jharanpur is imminent, but Supes is forced to return to Metropolis
• Attack by the Engineer and Ultraman; Engineer injured and Ultraman revealed to be a Superman clone
• Justice Gang intervenes in Jharanpur
• Krypto to the rescue Part II and Ultraman|Superman fight
• Lex’s private army defeated
• Confrontation at LexCorp
• Supes + Lois reunite
• Supergirl Reveal    

I'd say that pretty much summed up the whole movie. It's not usually my intention to give people a direct blow-for-blow breakdown for what happens in movies, but this situation is kinda special. I've already mentioned in my previous review that this movie should've probably been named "Superman: Year 3". Apparently, at this point, everyone knows how the ol' Superman story goes, so James Gunn decided to do away with the origin story. He wanted this world to feel like it was a fully realized and lived-in world. I feel like his mantra while coming up with this movie was something along the lines of the meme below.

The problems with this movie began from the prologue. James Gunn decides to give us the cliff notes of this universe: 

• Metahumans around for 300 years; 
• Clark has been around for 30 years; 
• Clark has been Superman for 3 years; (most powerful of the metahumans)
• 3 month ago, Supes inserted himself into Boravia's invasion attempt of Jharanpur;
• 30 minutes ago, the Hammer of Boravia came to Metropolis to draw Supes out;
• 3 minutes ago, Supes lost for the first time

From here, we're inserted into the already released clip of Supes pancaking onto the ground, his rescue by Krypto, healing by the Superman bots, and his return to Metropolis for a 2nd short ass-whooping. You've literally watched the first 7 minutes of this movie (sans-Prologue) if you just watched those 3 clips together. My stomach basically churned once I learned that Superman had been defeated. This is not the first time the Man of Steel has been defeated onscreen. I remember him fleeing from Zod and Co. in Superman II, falling to Nuclear Man in Superman IV, being manhandled by Lex and his goons in Superman Returns, etc. I remember connecting with the characters vulnerability at each of those moments, and eventually enjoying Supes being able to power through the challenge, and triumph.

In this movie, the ass-whooping is treated like an afterthought. Superman takes such a beating that it results in broken bones and damaged organs, but all this happens offscreen; that's just another level of insane because how is it that someone who watched the whole movie and someone who watched the clips know the same level of nothing about the ass-whooping. The Superman bots manage to essentially heal him about 80%, and then he just flies away to get summarily whooped all over again. Then we have the opening credits, and Superman shows up all spick and span, and ready for work at the Daily Planet. Supes was until then considered the most powerful metahuman, has already endeared himself to the world by his heroics, but yet we get such a muted response from the whole world when he falls. Mr. Gunn basically commits the same mistake that Zack Snyder did with Man of Steel: the sin of "Tell NOT show." Even the precipitating event of Boravia invading Jharanpur (Part 1) is only alluded to in Superman's interview by Lois Lane. Even the relationship between Lois and Clark - dating for 3 months - is just something that's there. The way it goes down, it honestly felt like Lois was being a "dick" to Superman; she just can't seem to empathize with a being who basically sits above us all, and who is morally and duty bound to help people when the situation calls for it; borders and lines on a map and political platitudes are not barriers to him like they would be for mere mortals. Lois is always portrayed as a hard-hitting reporter and I realize that this was her "Bad Cop" routine, but the scene honestly could've profited from her tempering her approach afterwards to accommodate her boyfriend's very specific conundrum.

Things aren't left to marinate for too long in this movie. A whole lot of conveniences happen which are there merely to set up the next series of events. Something that feels really off in this world is the technology available. Superman's next challenge comes from a Kaiju; Lex's henchmen pretty much release it when it's a 2-footer in the middle of the night, by morning it's grown to 7 feet, and at midday it's several storeys tall. Superman kind of empathizes with the creature, embracing the fact that it too might be alien, and would be better off "housed" in a special setting; however, he has to share this moment of heroics because we get the insertion of the Justice Gang whose response is hit first and ask questions later. Supes subsequent heroics in this scene (rescuing child, woman, squirrel, etc.) end up being in response to the fallout from the Justice Gang taking on the Kaiju. The Justice Gang is brash, callous, and end up executing the Kaiju!

In this 2 hour movie, it feels like James Gunn felt the need to load this thing with so many easter eggs that some things end up being portrayed poorly. I'll just list off a couple of these contrivances:

1. Supes' Kryptonite weakness is already known, but apparently there's none currently available on earth. Thus, they throw in Metamorpho - who's basically having his child held hostage - in lieu of creating Kryptonite
2. Ms. Teschmacher is, apparently, Jimmy Olsen's "love interest". She's pretty much a sleeper agent whose only role is exposition, exposition, exposition.
3. Krypto. He is cute and a ball of mischief. Unlike other interpretations, Clark and Krypto don't have a tight relationship, and he views the dog as a sort of nuisance. Clark lets on that Krypto is not his dog; in the end, Krypto, apart from being a Deus ex Machina, is a "tether" here for the introduction of Supergirl.
4. The collapsed portal, which Lex reactivates ends up setting the stage for a "world ending" event, which draws Superman back to Metropolis; the Justice Gang is also here to intervene in Jharanpur because Supes is held up. (which feels like Supes and the World Engine from MoS). Hawk Girl has the dubious distinction of dropping a president to his death, which can't pose anything good for superheroes from here on out. 
5. Solaris, an existential threat from All Star Superman, is thrown in as a background character whom the Justice Gang fights in the background as Superman sulks about the reveal of his parents' evil plans. 
6. This iteration of Lara and Jor-El are pretty much James Gunn's insertion of his movie "Brightburn" element into this story. MoS elevated Jor-El to the detriment of the Kents, but Gunn goes in the opposite direction demonizing the Els to elevate the Kents.
7. Ultraman is a Superman clone courtesy of Lex who was able to collect hair samples after one of Superman's fights. (kinda like Nuclear man in Superman IV). He's for the most part mute and "slow"; their way of getting past this was incorporating the "video game combo" system that Lex uses to wire him fight commands. I'm guessing this was their incorporation of Bizarro into this universe. (How in Hell do we already have a clone saga this early in this cinematic universe?)

There are just too many irons in the fire, and things aren't given time to marinate. Perhaps they could explain away some of these advancements as the influence of smuggled tech (a la Intergang), which is an element in the animated series, comics, etc. that usually end up involving Apokolips. This movie would actually have been a better fit as a follow-up to Henry Cavill's Man of Steel, not the jump-off point for a brand new Superman. A lot of what happened offscreen could've actually made this movie a whole lot better. Maybe Mr. Gunn can only do team-up movies at this point, which would be detrimental because Superman is a big enough draw to hold up his own movie. Every minute spent on these extra characters was time taken away from the real star of the show. Stashing Supes away for about 20 minutes so that the Justice Gang and Lois & Co. could get their shine just felt like wasted time.

Lastly, I gotta take a pause for the cause to talk about the mischaracterization of the Boravia/Jharanpur conflict. A lot of people are trying to make this a direct Israel|Palestine comparison, but that is more inferred. Conflict between countries have been shown multiple times in comics, animated features and DC movies. Heck, I can still remember that one of the points in Superman IV: The Quest for Peace was the destruction of nuclear weaponry. One scene that comes to mind specifically was the airplane assault scene from Superman Vs. the Elite.

Since the 2 warring nations - Bialya and Pokolistan - were evenly matched militarily, Superman's solution was to disable both their fleets to give negotiation of peace talks a chance. In the Boravia vs. Jharanpur conflict where Boravia is the obvious aggressor with military might basically swung their way by Lex, comic-accurate Superman could ONLY act in one way: even things out by protecting Jharanpur. (comic-accurate Superman wouldn't haze the Boravian president by propping his back against a cactus though!!! Damnit James Gunn, this is Superman: Year 3, NOT amateur hour!!!) If we really wanted to do a deep-dive with real world analysis, you already actually know where a comic-accurate Superman would stand on the Israel-Palestine conflict; there just wouldn't be any other possible choice. 

I wanted to love this movie, I really did; but its moments don't feel "deserved". This is a brand new Superman, and should've been treated as such. I just can't invest myself emotionally in characters that are portrayed as THIS familar without any work being done to flesh them out. This just doesn't feel like my Superman as of yet.

Superman (2025) "Spoiler-Free" Review

 

With the draft of changes that were made to the DCEU as we've known it thus far, I was looking forward to seeing what that would spell for a new iteration of Superman. Henry Cavill's Superman portrayal was rather broody, and I had a whole bunch of gripes about Zac Snyder's read of the character, and the industry's need to Nolanize everything under the sun.

Originally, this movie was to be known as "Superman: Legacy", but that eventually ended up being dropped. If I had the chance to name this movie, I would have named it Superman: Year 3. At the very beginning of the movie, we are presented with a bunch of factoids: Metahumans have been around for a while, Supes was sent here to earth 30 years ago, and he's been in action for 3 years. This time around they've done away with the need to present an origin story; the assumption is that everyone knows the typical beats, so they're depositing us into a fully lived in world. 3 months ago, Superman partook in some international incident for which we are about to experience the blowback.

For such major storybeats to be presented in this manner was certainly jarring. You feel like a lot of the story only happened offscreen. I feel like we would actually have profited from seeing Superman in the thick of the action to get a feel for what this new lore is like. My gripe was precisely that with the last iteration: they spent so much time telling us that Superman was great, and was supposed to be this big beacon of hope, but they spent very little time showing it to us. So we're immediately thrown into a fight whose ramifications don't seem to match up with what's being presented onscreen. 

We get introduced to his Clark Kent persona, which I have to say, was only sprinkled in sparingly through out this movie. He and Lois are already in a "situationship", which the movie never really elucidates. Gone is the mystique of the steps leading up to her discovering his identity, so it's a case of "Less Mystery, More History", which means we get a helluva lot more of Superman. It wouldn't be a Superman movie without the villain du jour, Lex Luthor (played very menacingly by Nicholas Hoult). This has got to be the most menacing maniacal vision of Lex Luthor that we've seen onscreen. Gene Hackman played it suave, but ever so intelligently devious; Michael Rosenbaum played him as a betrayed childhood friend; Kevin Spacey's impression was menacing with a sort of aloofness; Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor (Jr.) was an annoying rich techie with frenetic mannerisms and unexplained rage. Nicholas Hoult's impression is rather sadistic, jealous, cold and calculating, and you immediately understand that he feels Superman is the bane of his existence.

Superman is not alone in the heroics this time around; a sponsored team - The Justice Gang (consisting of Mr. Terrific, Green Lantern Guy Gardner, and Hawk Girl) is acting parallel to him at this point. The standout of the group was Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), but the adddition of this group to the mix does exactly what the JSA did to the Black Adam movie: it detracts from the story of the main character. I can't for the life of me figure out why James Gunn chose to play things this way. One moment which seemed pivotal from production stills was Superman seeming almost sullen and defeated as "Solaris" run amok in the Metropolis background. What should've ideally been a moment of gravitas, ends up being tossed aside as a joke. The movie is just too busy with "too many irons in the fire". 

One thing that'll also stand out is the technology of this movie. Going along with the theme of this being a "lived in" world, seemingly impressive technology just exists. I don't know if this is James Gunn preparing us for the influence of Intergang and technology smuggled in from Apokolips, but I just couldn't get a grasp of it. Due to the fact that I've watched the Superman and Justice League (Unlimited) series, I can kind of see what they're trying to do, but without it being couched in the new lore that they're setting up, I feel rather rudderless. 

At least James Gunn got the Kent parents right; you don't see too much of them, but you get the impression that they care about Clark and they're happy about his decisions. You could actually see Clark wanting to be a Superhero this time around; however, for the life of me I do not understand why they take such a sharp U-turn with Lara and Jor-El. We already know the beats of this story and that Clark can benefit from the influence of both his biological and adoptive parents; there is no need to change such foundational truths, and then just leave us stranded like a bunch of hobos. 

Whereas Zack Snyder left us with the impression of spectacle and grit, James Gunn has given us spectacle and whimsy without any sort of emotional tether. He's dug deep and mined the intellectual property for deep cuts that might make sense in future, but for now we can't really see how all those things fit together. It turns out that even the introduction of Krypto (the dog) is something that's there as a placeholder.

This movie really broke me. I wanted to love it. I enjoyed the music which harkens back to a lot of John Williams' original theme. Perhaps there is a story to be told here, but it is concealed by all the responsibilities that this movie has to bear as the rebirth of this DC universe franchise. The hullaballo about Immigration, Wokeness, etc. is misplaced. It's shown up multiple times onscreen (Heck, it was very well done in "Superman vs. The Elite"), and any Superman fan knows that as an idealized figure, he typically stands above the typical selfish nationalistic tendencies seen in typical life; as an alien with an affinity for earth, he's expected to make the most benevolent choice.

As much as it pains me, this movie is worthy of a "C Grade". I might watch it again just to see if a repeat viewing will help tie all these concepts together in a better fashion. 

God Bless.