danteism

Like so many others, I've been disappointed by many of the post-Endgame offerings. That said, everyone forgets that there have been SOME excellent exceptions. Guardians 3, Shang-Chi, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Deadpool & Wolverine were all very good, and Black Widow wasn't bad either.

Fantastic Four: First Steps definitely joins that list now and while it doesn't reach the epic heights that the best pre-Endgame MCU movies reached, it's arguably the most flawless entry since the Infinity Saga.

Absolutely nailed the Mid-Century Modern retro-futuristic stylization and was a thoroughly enjoyable ride from start to finish.

The only criticism I can seriously offer is that it's not as epic or as moving as the best franchise has offered.

It's a step up from Thunderbolts and on par with Deadpool & Wolverine albeit an altogether different kind of film. With those three movies in a row I'd say Marvel Studios may finally be getting back on track with 3 out of 3 movies released in the last year all being financially successful and something I can recommend to even those folks who gave up on the MCU after a string of bad shows and the dumpster fire that was Quantumania.

Let's hope they can level it up even further with Doomsday, though I must confess I'm a bit skeptical on the ability to pull off such an enormous ensemble cast when it's not building on over a dozen super successful movies immediately preceding the way Infinity War did.

Granted, I only rated it a 6.

If I was allowed to use decimals, I would have given a 6.4 and I have pretty demanding standards for what I want out of any given film depending on the genre. No fanboy apologist or hater here either. I love the best of the Marvel and DC films, as well as serious dramas, arthouse, foreign films, select horror and more.

Given the dismal reviews here and from critics we went in with very low expectations and were pleasantly surprised!

While it's nowhere near the high bar that has been set in recent years by other comic adaptations it's not even the worst Marvel movie in recent years. One of those in my party said they liked it better than Eternals, and I think it's markedly better than the Edward Norton Hulk, the first Thor film, the first Suicide Squad, the theatrical Justice League, and X-Men Age of Apocalypse / Dark Phoenix as well.

Even marginally better than both Venom films in my opinion.

That's not to say it's great, but it had enough fun moments and redeeming qualities to make it worth a watch.

Apart from the first action scene which was solid, most of the rest were not particularly thrilling.

Jared Leto was solid enough and Matt Smith was great.

Plot was a bit thin, dialogue was proficient, and pacing was good.

Special effects were good, general tone and atmosphere was well done, and the styling of Morbius' monstrous side was perfect.

If the trailer held any appeal whatsoever and you go in with very measured expectations there's more to enjoy here than the current ratings would suggest.

Pretty shocked by the very low rating. Yes, it pales compared to the original, but it's actually a step up from the second and third movies.

If you're someone that found Reloaded and Revolutions disappointing and go in with measured expectations, this is definitely worth seeing on a big screen.