This is now the fourth iteration of the Fantastic Four franchise.
The first one was a low-budget, made-for-TV movie that was only produced for copyright reasons.
The second was the one I grew up with, starring Jessica Alba and Chris Evans, who would later go on to play Captain America. I always enjoyed this version, even though it was incredibly forgettable.
Then there was the semi-divisive 2015 version with Michael B. Jordan that completely flopped.
And now we have the Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby–led version.

This iteration goes out of its way to differentiate itself from its predecessors. The most obvious difference is the retro-futuristic ’50s/’60s aesthetic. The film also opens by immediately going through a montage of the gang’s origin story to get it out of the way.
Right away, we learn Sue Storm is pregnant. Uh oh. The Fantastic Four gang will now be the Fantastic Five. We’ll see if the sequel is named as such.

But not all is well and peachy in this alternate New York. The Silver Surfer—played by Julia Garner—makes an appearance to herald her boss Galactus, who intends to eat the Earth. Now the gang has to pay a visit to the aforementioned villain to try and negotiate, I guess. But things quickly go sideways when he senses Sue Storm is pregnant and tells them that if they give up the child, he’ll leave Earth alone. The gang is not down with this, however, and they quickly get the hell out while being chased by the Silver Surfer. After a laughable chase near a black hole that they use to lose the Silver Surfer, Sue Storm gives birth.

Back on Earth, the gang lets the world know Galactus’ plan…and how they told him to f right off. Needless to say, the people are not happy with the Fantasticles. Now it’s up to Reed Richards to develop a plan to beat Galactus. And the plan is: teleport the Earth. Yes. They plan to teleport the entire planet to another point in space far from Galactus’s reach. Sounds unrealistic, doesn’t it? Except that isn’t even the most unrealistic thing in the movie. No, that would be the entire planet working together to save humanity from a greater evil. Talk about science fiction.

All this is for naught, however, as the Silver Surfer returns and destroys all the gates needed to teleport the planet. Now the team has to improvise and figure out a way to save the planet. The new plan? Teleport Galactus himself to the far reaches of the universe. Funny Reed Richards didn’t use his big brain to figure that out in the first place. Seems like a lot more of a no-brainer than trying to make the entire planet disappear.

But Galactus is not one to be thwarted. He shows up and goes after the baby Richards, who’s used as bait to lure him into a trap. What follows is a CGI spectacle where we, for almost the first time in the movie, get to see Reed Richards using his stretchy powers to fight the bad guy. It takes a village, however, and the entire gang goes up against the Earth-eating villain and eventually lures him and pushes him into the gate. But alas, he’s too strong…until he isn’t. Sue Storm uses her newfound mom strength in the final push, and just as Galactus gets swallowed whole by the gate portal, he escapes and then…the Silver Surfer shows up and turns against him, sending them both to the nether reaches of space and time.

Sue Storm, who’s dead at this point, is magically revived by Baby Fantastic, and all is well in the world. For now.

Overall, I enjoyed this movie, even with its silliness, strange physics that make no sense, and a villain who is super threatening but somehow gets dispatched very easily. I thought the cast was charming as hell. The actors who play the Thing and Johnny Storm have a brotherly banter that works, and the robot butler reminded me of BB-8 from Star Wars. My biggest gripe is Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards felt kind of subdued. How do you hire the most charismatic actor of his generation and make him kind of stiff and boring? Julia Garner was great as well, but she didn’t have a whole lot of screen time. Her turn against Galactus was kind of laughable, as it only took Johnny Storm reminding her of her trauma for her to decide to go against her boss. Those things aside, I think this movie was safe and enjoyable enough, but there was certainly nothing mind-blowing about it. Definitely the best version of Fantastic Four we’ve had in a long time.