The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review

This is a DynaMic Network Podcast. 

And I'm his twin brother Johnny DC. 

And in this episode we are reviewing the Fantastic Four First Steps film that came out this past week. I'm excited to talk about it. I thought it was fucking fantastic. Hashtag FF. For fucking fantastic. 

Hashtag FFS. Fantastic First Steps. Towards a better MCU. And I mean what a great time to be a comic book movie fan right now. I mean not earlier in the year but right now. 

A Marvel fan for sure. I have the opinion that it's never a good time to be a DC fan. 

So I mean we'll see if the box office agrees with you right? What does the box office have to do with anything? I don't know. Superman just looks like he's coming on top so I thought I would rub it in. 

You don't know that and the ongoing bet is for the final worldwide box office figures. Not just opening weekend. For the entire theatrical run. 

That's fair. But a movie does make a majority of its money in the opening weekend. I think that's true. I don't know man. Superman's doing pretty well. I think a lot of people are happy with both films really and they should be because they were both great. Yeah. 

Marvel's put out three decent to great movies this year. DC has put out one movie. 

That's great. That's super you could say. It was decent. 

So yeah. This whole Marvel DC rivalry where Marvel's winning is still going strong. 

Yeah winning gets sucking. But we're going to talk all about our thoughts on the Fantastic Four First Steps movie later on in this episode. 

Before that we're going to break down the latest comic book movie news to come out this past week of which we got two trailers. One for Peacemaker season two and one for Aztec Batman Clash of Empires. As always we list our segment times in our episode description so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic. 

Our artificially intelligent dual simulator AJ and NK has a quick message for our listeners. So listen up. 

Why hello there. Do you want even more from this podcast. Then become a part of the dynamic dual community on Patreon where you can choose from three tiers. The dynamic to a tier gives you access to our discord chat server. 

The Fantastic Four tier gives you two bonus episodes each month and the X Force tier makes you an executive producer of this show. Lastly the Dynamite podcast network tier lets you create your own podcast using this Monte Carlo simulator. Johnny and Joe will help you develop your show provide graphic support and consultation and get you simulation results. Pitch the twins your ideas via email at dynamic dual podcast at gmail.com. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic dual. Pip pip cheerio. 

Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast. 

Be sure to tune into the other shows in the Dynamite podcast network this week, including the console combat podcast where hosts John and Dean simulate battles between popular video game characters. In yesterday's episode they determined who would win between solid snake from Metal Gear and Gabe Logan from Siphon Filter. 

Over on the Max Destruction podcast hosts Scotty and Gilly pick your favorite action heroes from film and television against each other. This week they will be finding out who would win between the DCU Superman, David Cornswet and the MCU's Sentry. 

On the Sentry World podcast host Zachary Hepburn speculates on fights between fan favorite anime and manga characters. In his next episode Zach is going to reveal who would win between Enjin from Gachiakura and Naito Mudano from Tugin Anki. 

Visit dynamicpodcast.com or click the link in our show notes to listen to all the shows in the Dynamite podcast network. But with that out of the way, quick to the no prize! 

A no prize is an award that Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic Dual No Prize, is a digital award that we pushed on Instagram for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked, for those of you who have seen the Fantastic Four first steps in its opening weekend, what did you think? 

Yeah we got a few answers, let's go ahead and run down the honorable mentions as well as the no prize winner. Before we get any further, I do want to put a spoiler tag on all of these answers. All of our reviews are spoiler reviews for this podcast, so if you haven't seen the movie be sure you go check it out before listening to our review or even listening to these no prize answers. There's your warning, go ahead and hit the pause button now if you haven't seen the movie go see it and our first honorable mention goes to Alex Albro, 

who said, Hey guys just got back, I'd read it at seven, my wife said six and a half. I really liked Read and Sue, they were really really well done, I'm sold on Pedro. The thing in the Surfer I didn't really like, the thing was too comedic like Smart Hulk and Endgame. Surfer didn't feel integral to the story, but seeing Galactus for real was really cool and I can kind of see where Franklin fits into Doom's potential plan for Secret Wars. I thought that the Earth moving was going to be the cause of incursions and kind of start the playing field for Secret Wars, but they kind of spurred me there. Overall, I thought it was a pretty good movie. 

Yeah, there's a point in the movie where Reed tries to teleport Earth away from Galactus. I also thought that maybe that was how the Fantastic Four were going to find their way to the Earth 616 dimension since they're from Earth 838, but the movie didn't do that and actually for the end credit scene of the Thunderbolts we see the Fantastic Four's ship arrival to the main 616 dimension. I thought they were going to address the why of that in the Fantastic Four film, we never got that answer so it looks like we're not going to find out what's going on there until the actual Avengers Doomsday movie. 

Yeah, I guess the film would have been pretty anti-climactic if it just ended with them in a new universe, either superimposed over the existing Earth or possibly on the opposite side of the sun. Something like that, we really would have been able to see a final battle with Galactus if that happened in that moment it was supposed to. 

Right, and I'm glad we did get that climactic scene. In regards to the thing, the thing is not the Hulk, he's not supposed to be dark. I mean he does have moments of self pity, but he's the ever-loving blue-eyed thing, you know? He is a little bit witty and funny. 

Great answer, Alex. Our next honorable mention goes to Cornelius Robinson, who said... 

Hey guys, this is Cornelius and I've just seen Fantastic Four and it is literally fantastic. I just love the cast and the chemistry between them, which was a standout for me. Galactus was terrifying and the visuals are just out of this world for the MCU up to date. And it's the most comic book MCU film that I have ever watched, aside from Superman, and it was one of the best. 

Now, I should clarify, Superman is not a part of the MCU and it doesn't want to be. 

Yes, it does, but yeah, I would say that the Fantastic Four movie was comic book-y in the sense that it pulled a lot of inspiration from the 1960s comic books written by Stanley and drawn by Jack Kirby. It felt very much of that era. 

Which is interesting considering that both Superman and Fantastic Four both kind of kicked off their respective comic book universes in Action Comics Number One and in Fantastic Four Number One, The Golden Age and the Silver Age of Comics, as it were. 

Yeah, I mean Marvel was around in the Golden Age, but they didn't really become the pop culture supergiant that they were until the 1960s. 

So it's kind of cool that both of these films feel like they're among the most comic book-y films of the genre. Great answer, Cornelius. 

Our final honorable mention goes to Lorenzo Valdez, who said, This is Lorenzo Valdez. 

I just came out of a Thursday screening of the Fantastic Four First Steps. I loved it. It is Marvel Studios' best looking film from a visual aesthetic standpoint. The final climactic battle scene is super intense. The end credit song is beautiful. The movie's still not as good as Superman though. Clown of Forever and Always, boba! 

You know what? I don't want Clark and Lana to end up together. I guess I never did before, but like, I'm more for sure about that now. Fantastic Four was a great movie. Superman was pretty good. I'll say that the Fantastic Four's artistic direction with the retro-futurism style was a lot more interesting. I agree with Lorenzo in that the Fantastic Four movie is probably one of Marvel Studios' best looking films to date. 

Yeah, I definitely agree. I think the design approach they took with the movie did a lot of favors. For sure. 

We want to give a quick shout out to By Dear Bangora for taking the time to reach out to us and leave an answer, but the winner of this week's snow prize is Gil Camacho. Who said? Ili Macho. 

And I, Zezay Macho. And we are the Machos. Woo! That was a good movie. We liked the movie. Only one word to describe it. Fantastic. Zey, what time is it? Clobbering time. You're darn right it's clobbering time. Flame on! 

Hell yeah, it's clobbering time! Although I gotta admit that due to Scotty Camacho's answer, when we asked a similar question regarding the Superman movie a couple of weeks ago, not gonna lie, I thought his son was gonna say it's clobbering time bitch just for continuity. 

I was also anticipating that. Although Johnny didn't say flame on in the movie. 

Did he not? I don't remember. Yeah, I don't think he did. That's fine because that was probably another catchphrase from the cartoon too, you know? 

Marvel hates catchphrases. Jerks. 

Thanks for the fun answer, Gilly. You win this week's snow prize. If you the listener want a shot at winning Giro no prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another question of the week. And now that that's done, on to the news. 

Okay, so this past week was Comic-Con. And though Marvel and DC didn't really have any kind of major movie presence there, Peacemaker did have a panel to which James Gunn showed up and revealed a new official trailer for Peacemaker season two. Peacemaker season one, which was a spin-off of James Gunn's film, The Suicide Squad, was a really good show. If you guys listen to our review, you'll know that I really liked it. 

It was surprisingly really heartfelt, as well as being freaking hilarious. And it looks like season two is going to be no different. Although now we have the gist of the story in that Peacemaker is down and out in his universe. And thanks to his father, he has portals to other dimensions where he could go and find better worlds to live in. It looks like Ric Flagg Sr., the father of the man that Peacemaker killed in The Suicide Squad film, doesn't like that. 

And he wants to either shut down or confiscate Peacemaker's portals. But it looks like it's going to be good times. I love the cast of this show, from Harcourt to Johnny Conomos, but my favorites are definitely Adebio and Vigilante. 

Yeah, they're fantastic. Does it seem like this season is really setting up what the DC multiverse is and how the DCU will compare to the DC EU? 

It kind of seems that way, right? It almost seems like this show is a way to bridge the gap between the DC EU and the DCU, which is kind of strange because it's coming out after the start of the DC EU. But honestly, any kind of clarification is better than none. And so like why some elements from the DCU are the same, like John Cena as Peacemaker and why some aren't. 

Like David Cornswet as Superman. Right. I'm guessing in both dimensions though, Peacemaker still killed Ric Flagg. Why would you think that? Because otherwise the story would be about Peacemaker escaping Ric Flagg senior through an alternate dimension and then the conflict is kind of just settled in that way. I think there's something more to it. 

I don't know if there's any more to it. What I think would be hilarious is if it would kind of be like that one Treehouse of Horror episode in The Simpsons, where Homer Simpson messes with a toaster and ends up traveling like through time and creating different parallel worlds. And like each one has something wrong with it. I kind of see that happening here in a sense. Like in the end, though, he kind of finally realizes maybe that his world is best for him. 

Yeah. And then deal with the consequences of his actions. Right. 

Exactly. The portals to the other dimensions through these doors, it reminds me a lot of the Shazam Rock of Eternity. I wonder if they're going to make some kind of tie into that considering the producer of the Shazam films was Peter Saffron, who is also now a producer on all of the DC Studios projects. But we'll see. I loved the doorway to that like giant skull spider dimension. And Tim Meadows just looks at the other person is like, no, let's not go there. 

That was good. 

There's a lot of really funny moments like that, including the beginning of the trailer when vigilante is like tossing beers to economist and he just can't catch them. And then at the very end, when vigilante is like, we're going to my secret layer, you're not allowed to come to his mom. 

And she just follows them and starts like blabbing about how he thinks economists is a huge dork, something like that. Season two is starting up here soon on the redubbed HBO Max, no longer just called Max. It's coming out to August 21st, and we'll definitely be reviewing it. The trailer definitely got me excited. I don't know if it was as good as the first teaser, but this one definitely got me intrigued as to what explanations could be offered regarding this new DCU. In other DC news, we got the first trailer for Aztec Batman Clash of Empires, which is a direct video animated film that's coming out in mid September. Now we've known about this film coming out this year for a while. And I've been looking forward to it, particularly the animation style, because apparently all of the animation was done in Mexico. 

Oh, interesting. Yeah, in the same way that the Batman ninja films were done all in Japan, I do have to say I thought the art style would be different, like a lot different than what we're getting. I'm kind of disappointed by that. But the premise seems intriguing, at least. It's sort of like revisionist history, where the conquering of the Aztec Empire by the Spanish conquistadors leads to the creation of an Aztec Batman. Apparently this Batman is named Yo-Haw-Li Ko-Waddle, probably not the correct pronunciation, and Cortez murders Maktuzuma in front of him. So Yehwalee has to flee and train with one of the Aztec priests in the Temple of the Bat God, Sina Kang. 

It was interesting to see the Aztec version of other characters like Catwoman and Poison Ivy as well. 

Oh yeah, Catwoman is actually going to be called Jaguar Woman, and I guess she was like a female Jaguar warrior. It was interesting that Poison Ivy was kind of like this forest goddess, and that Cortez himself apparently is going to be Two-Face. 

Yeah, it's a pretty cool concept. I'm really wondering how many of these, like, what-if scenarios DC is planning on putting out for Batman, because we've had, you know, Lovecraftian Batman, there's Ninja Batman, of course, there was Steampunk Batman, a whole bunch of different kinds of Batman. Now we have Aztec Batman, what else does DC have in store, I wonder? 

Well, I mean, Steampunk Batman and Lovecraft Horror Batman, those are both based off of graphic novels, but the Batman Ninja and Aztec Batman projects are original. It's pretty interesting to see where else they could take this for sure, and that brings to our question of the week. If you could reimagine a Marvel or DC superhero in an ancient culture, what superhero and culture would you choose? 

Yeah, this should be a fun one for you guys. Just let us know, like, what the character would be like, and how it would affect their origin and or power set. Record your answer at dynamicdool.com by clicking on the red microphone button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen, which will prompt you to leave us a voicemail. Your message could be up to 30 seconds long, and don't forget to leave your name in case we include you on the podcast. We'll pick our favorite answer and award that person a Dynamic Duel No Prize that we'll post to Instagram. 

Be sure to answer before August 2nd. But that does it for all the news for this episode, so let's go ahead and move into our main event where we review the latest Marvel Studios film to hit theaters, The Fantastic Four First Steps. Okay, The Fantastic Four First Steps was directed by Matt Shackman and stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss, Bach Rock, and Joseph Quinn. 

It is the start of phase six in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it's the second reboot of the franchise in as many decades. The Fantastic Four have always kind of struggled on the big screen with the earlier entries under 20th Century Fox being okay to just like fucking downright awful. And the big hurdle that this latest iteration of the franchise had to clear was giving fans and audiences an actual worthwhile story. And in my mind, The Fantastic Four First Steps movie just soared over that hurdle and gave us not only a movie that's better than previous attempts, but also one of the best films that Marvel has ever put out, period. 

Yeah, doing better than the past attempts was a low bar. Yeah, totally soared over that, becoming my new favorite Marvel Studios film of all time. And this is coming right off of Thunderbolts, which was my previous. 

They just keep getting better and better and better. I don't know if it's my favorite Marvel Studios film of all time, but it's definitely one of my recent favorites. And I'd probably put it like in the top five. 

And that's pretty high praise considering the quality of some of the movies that Marvel has put out. If you haven't seen the film, that's really all you need to know. Like what more recommendation do you need to go out and see it? Like don't spoil this movie for yourself by listening to this review. Go see the film. There are some wonderful visual and emotional moments in this movie that you don't want to ruin the impact of by knowing what happens beforehand. 

Just trust me. Go see the film, then come back and listen to this review. Now, Jonathan, you know that I've been a big Fantastic Four fan for a long time and like it killed me to hear other people over the years. Like even Marvel fans say that they think the Fantastic Four are lame. I'm always like, yeah, maybe they haven't had like the cool factor of the X-Men or Spider-Man or the Avengers and they never really had a good movie, but they've always had kind of a soft spot in my heart because they're the ones that really revitalized Marvel comics back in the 1960s under Stanley and Jack Kirby. Those early books really captured the fantastical side of like science fiction and had heartfelt character dynamics that no other comic books at the time were really doing. 

Yeah, honestly, I don't see how you can't see the appeal of the Fantastic Four. I've always thought they were interesting back when I liked Marvel and even when they moved on to DC Comics, they're really kind of the perfect team. Like they're a more solid team in regards to not only their personalities, but their powers than even a lot of DC teams like the Justice League. 

Yeah, they play well off each other and that's the big appeal. Their books kind of tapered off for a long time, but I think that Mark Waits work on them in their early aughts and then Jonathan Hickman's run in the 2010s brought them right back to some of Marvel's best comic book stories at the time. They're rich characters, they go on amazing journeys and because of that, I always knew that their potential on the big screen was massive and I've just been spending decades waiting for that to manifest. 

And I'm thrilled to say that that potential finally came to fruition. Like if you see this movie and you don't like the Fantastic Four still, I don't know what to say, there's no hope for you because this really feels like the quintessential Fantastic Four movie. Not only did it tell the story of one of the team's greatest adventures against the coming of Galactus, but it also gave a spot on characterizations of the heroes from the books and it captured the tone of who the Fantastic Four are. 

And it also captured the theme that has been with the Fantastic Four since its inception that family is paramount and it did it here in a really profound way, I thought. For sure. 

Yeah, the Fantastic Four are a family. They're not, you know, a cheesy band of one dimensional cartoon characters like in the 2005 franchise and they're not like a reluctant alliance of simple acquaintances and estranged relatives like in the 2015 franchise. They're a family in like the strongest sense of the word who love and protect each other while exploring what's beyond the unknown. And they're so versatile, you know, like they can save Manhattan like the Avengers, but they can also take a journey to the edge of space like the Guardians of the Galaxy. They can also travel past the edge of time in reality like Doctor Strange. The fact that they journeyed light years in this movie to talk to a space god like it was a walk in the park, I think really captured that whimsy from the books in a way that made it seem like anything was possible. 

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. The ambition of this film blew my mind. Like it was much higher than I thought it was going to be. It was almost like the same reaction I had to the Pocket Dimension in the Superman film. It was just very high concept and I loved that. 

Yeah, I thought it was fascinating that in the movie they were like, let's go talk to this galactus guy. Tony Stark wasn't scanning deep space for Chitauri energy signatures like you probably should have after the first Avengers film because he was too busy building the Ultron program. 

And yeah, Tony Stark cracked time travel via the Quantum Realm in Avengers Endgame, but that kind of like out-of-the-box problem solving was always more of the Fantastic Four's bread and butter. I'm really glad that they captured that in this movie. I think another thing that makes the Fantastic Four as a team so appealing is the emotional heart of their stories. Like as a family, they just care about each other a little bit more as families should. And so when they're in danger, it hits a little bit harder because you're going to have more at stake when you're fighting to protect your sister or your father or whatever close relative you have as opposed to fighting to protect like a co-worker or something like that in the case of the Avengers. 

And you know, every team has interpersonal conflict, but when Riden Tsu argue, it's more like your mom and dad are fighting. It feels more personal. It's like a whole new set of emotions with family. And I think the Fantastic Four first steps nailed that because I felt for these characters. Like when Franklin was being born as they tried to escape the gravity well, that was like such a beautiful moment. And when Tsu fucking died, trying to save her baby, holy shit, like I'm going to tear up again just thinking about it. And I bawled my eyes out in the theater when that happened. And I don't know if it's just because I'm a father now and like becoming a parent kind of rewires your emotions, but I thought there was a lot to connect to in this movie in terms of being a new parent. I don't think any movie I've ever seen has nailed the anxiety of having a newborn quite like this movie did or like showing the vulnerability of being a new mom or the strength that you muster when it comes to protecting those you love. This movie just had that in spades. 

Yeah, I mentioned that the film was profound, not only in regards to how well it captured the feeling of being a parent, but also just in the notion that they were asked to give up their only child to save humanity. It's almost biblical in proportion. 

The stakes right off the bat were so much larger, I think, than your standard superhero fare and so much more personal, so much more real. 

100% the stakes in this film is how you do stakes in film with superheroes. Like honestly, watching this, I was like, Superman should have done that. Like the stakes shouldn't have been the city of Metropolis being destroyed, but the world, because that's a Superman level threat, in my opinion, and maybe we'll get down that road in a sequel with like Brainiac or something like that. And I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that yes, the fate of the world was in the Fantastic Four's hands considering the villain was Galactus, but they did such a good job of showing the reaction of the people and what they expected of the Fantastic Four and how much faith they put in this team that yeah, it's like, how could you let all of these people die? It was a true conundrum and they did it really. Yeah, 

it was like a trolley problem, but like on a global scale. 

Yeah, absolutely. You have to appreciate a truly epic ethical dilemma like this film, and I wish more superhero films had something like this. 

Yeah, it's always neat when the story is dive into the philosophical, right? 

It's my favorite part of superhero media. 

I'll say for as much as I connected with the characters in this story, it took a while for me to get there because the first act was entirely a montage. 

Almost, yeah. The film really struggled to hook me in the first act, actually to the point where I was like concerned that I wasn't connecting at all with the heroes, because it's all set up an exposition and background for like a solid 30 to 40 minutes, I think, until the movie starts its narrative flow and we settle into the actual story right around the point that they venture into space to confront Galactus. And that's when you see the stakes beyond what's just being told to us. And right after that, you know, we got the birth scene and the press conference scene, and by then I was like, okay, I'm in. And I really thought that the second and third acts went a long way in saving the film. 

Yet, narratively, the plotting of this film is kind of strange because there's so much that happens offscreen as it were. And then you kind of get these cute little interludes in between that with the family just kind of reinforcing how much of a family they are. But yeah, I would agree, the film definitely picked up once they went to go seek Galactus. 

The first act to montage was a much different way of introducing audiences to this new universe than say the recent Superman film, which began with like eight lines of text on the screen and then dove right in. 

In the end, I'm not sure what approach worked best because Fantastic Four First Steps felt more satisfying in terms of worldbuilding, but more clunky in execution, where a Superman felt less satisfying in terms of worldbuilding. But that movie was able to get to the story right away. I don't know what was the right approach, but either way, I don't envy the writers of the film because it's got to be so hard to get people to forget like some of what they may know from previous franchise versions of the characters, but still remember some of the things like the origin. Reboots have got to be so hard in terms of writing because it's all just a delicate balancing act. 

Yeah, I mean, I don't love the fact that we're kind of moving on from origins because I personally love origin stories. I would have loved to have seen them get bombarded by cosmic radiation. I feel like that whole thing was sorely missing from this film. 

Well, I would have liked to have gotten a scene of Superman being rocketed to earth from Krypton, but we don't get origin stories anymore, Jonathan. Fuck! Which, yeah, I agree. I don't like that. But speaking of things that I did not like, let's talk about Shalabal. If you've listened to this podcast, you'll know that we were never entirely sold on Shalabal, but like I held out hope that this movie would actually have a good reason for going with her instead of Norrin Rad, who is the traditional silver surfer from the comic books. And this movie never had a reason. 

The only reason was to make Johnny Storm his kind of classic playboy ladies man type character. And I don't think that's a solid reason. 

No, I mean, because they barely even touched upon that. Like she was a real love interest for Johnny Storm. They should have leaned more into that to make the gender swap to Shalabal worth it. But then maybe they also should have gone with Frankie Ray instead. You know, the Herald known as Nova, who is romantically tied to Johnny Storm in the comics. And she still would have looked cool too, being gold instead of silver. 

That's what I was thinking the entire movie. I'm just going to imagine this is Frankie. 

I mean, beyond the Johnny thing, it's also possible that they were going for like a motherly theme with the character of Shalabal to draw a parallel between her sacrifice for Zenlau and Sue's sacrifice. 

But I also think that you could have played on that theme with Nora and Rad just as well, just saying that, you know, as a father, he sacrificed for his daughter and for his planet. Right. So really, there was no good reason. Marble definitely dropped the ball there. And it doesn't really negatively affect the movie so much as piss me off as a silver surfer fan. I don't think fans are happy at all with the fact that they went with Shalabal. And it sucks because like as soon as Julia Garner was announced, everybody was decrying the choice. Like they knew better than to do this. And yeah, Julia Garner was fine in the role, but it should have been Nora and Rad. Because if and when we finally do see him in Earth 616, he's going to feel redundant, and his best story has already been told. 

Yes, everything that we were afraid would happen is going to. Right. And Julia Garner is a good actress. I thought that was the main reason why they wanted to work with her. Mm-hmm. But it's not like she gave a fantastic performance here. Like it was pretty by the book, I would say. 

It was pretty hidden in the special effects, too. 

Absolutely. Yeah, the best parts of the Silver Surfer were seeing her surf different things, whether it's like a wormhole or a lava wave. Yeah. I loved seeing that. I loved what they did with the special effects here. Just it could have been Noren. Right. Imagine how cool it would have been if it was. 

Well, I feel like I would have connected with the character more just because I know him from the comic books. You know, Shalabal was the Silver Surfer for all of a few panels in the Earth-X graphic novel. 

But you know, I don't think that's enough precedent to give the character the spotlight in a whole movie. But where they went wrong with the Silver Surfer, I am happy to say that they finally went right with Galactus. Like he's not a cloud this time for sure, but we'll definitely talk more about Galactus in our character breakdown. 

So let's dive into that, starting with Mr. Fantastic, aka Reed Richards, played by Pedro Pascal. Prior to seeing the movie, I was never fully sold on Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards. Like, I knew he'd do fine because he's a great actor with a general affability that makes him likable in any role he's in. But mostly, I thought John Krasinski, you know, who played Reed Richards and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and his wife Emily Blunt would have crushed these roles without breaking a sweat. 

And I really hope they're fucking kicking themselves right now, because Fantastic Four first steps gave Reed and Sue their greatest arcs yet as they stepped into the world of parenthood. And yeah, Pedro Pascal did great. You know, he's an inoffensive actor who I think is mostly believable as the world's greatest mind. But where I think he really shined in this movie was in his performance of parenthood anxiety. You know, as he mentions in this film, his mind is constantly running through worst-case scenarios in order to be prepared to handle them. 

And when you're the father of a potentially genetically altered infant on the world stage where you have multiple enemies and even more responsibilities, yeah, there's a lot to worry about. And Pedro Pascal's performance was full of subtleties. Like, it was really easy to pick up on his internal struggles as he dealt with the things around him. 

Yeah, I could have said that better myself. And I think it wasn't just parental anxiety. I think he's probably suffered from that for a long time. It was almost like an OCD level of intrusive thoughts of worrying about the worst and just needing obsessively to find a way to solve that. They captured Reed in this film so much better than any other films. It's embarrassing. And this is the way the character should have always been. It's a fantastic take. 

For sure. It was interesting, like, as you could tell just by looking at him, that he knew that the ethical action from, like, a utilitarian perspective would be to hand over his only child. But, like, what's great is that Reed is too smart to be bound by such limitations. And I love how he was always able to think of a solution and adapt to the problem at hand. Whether it was sucking Silver Surfer down a gravity well or teleporting the earth or, you know, getting Galactus to walk into a teleporter. He just always had a solution and that felt very true to character to me. 

Yeah, this is the first time I feel like we've seen Mr. Fantastic as a genius over prior films, because I never really got that sense. He was made up like BS junk science, but like, oh, techie on pulse and stupid stuff like that. But here he was actually coming up with solutions to problems that we understood. 

Yeah, they made sense. You could see his thought process. He didn't try to flash freeze Galactus by having Johnny goes supernova and then break a fire hydrant and squirt him with water like chemistry 101 stuff in the 2005 Fantastic Four movie. 

What happens when you super cool molten metal? 

One thing that the 2005 movie did get right, though, was the suits. I think I don't love the suits in Fantastic Four first steps. I don't love the color. I don't love the material. I don't love the inconsistency in their uniforms. I know that the film is set in the 1960s and these outfits are like for sure better than like Adam West's spandex that we saw superheroes wear in the 1960s. But I do think that there was a better solution to keep the outfits in the time period and still not make them look like cotton sweatsuits. 

Yeah, seeing Mr. Fantastic suit rip. I was like, no, yeah, that shouldn't happen. 

No, yeah, it's supposed to be unstable molecules. Why is it ripping like a cotton sweater would? That was definitely a gripe I had with the movie. And that pertains to all the members of the Fantastic Four, including Invisible Woman, a.k .a. Sue Storm Richards, played by Vanessa Kirby. Dude, Vanessa Kirby fucking cooked in this role and she ate. 

She cooked and then she ate what she cooked. She was such a good Sue Storm. I don't think I've ever seen Vanessa Kirby in anything else. Like I knew her name when she was cast and was generally pleased with the casting. But I didn't like know that she would fucking embody the character of Invisible Woman as much as she did. 

Yeah, I'd seen her in The Crown. The television series. And it was a completely different performance. She's a really talented actress. 

I thought she nailed the emotional strength of Sue, who really is the glue that binds the team together. I thought she perfectly encapsulated the power and the grace and the beauty, but also the vulnerability that comes with being a new mother and how moms will fucking pull up when they think their kid is in danger. 

Yeah, she got pretty aggressive at times, especially with Reed. Actually, I was sitting next to a lady in the movie theater when I went to see the movie and I heard her lean over to her partner and say, wow, she's kind of a bitch. That lady could fuck off because 

like Reed is pulled in a million different directions, you know, with his anxiety, you know, always thinking of the worst case scenario, all these responsibilities. Sue is the one that really is always focused on what truly matters. And that's always been an interesting dynamic in their relationship and the comic books. You know, they don't have a relationship where they never argue, but they do have a perfect compliment in each other. 

Yeah, that was clearly evident in this film. I love what they did with her speech in front of the crowd because I was with Reed. I was like, I mean, I think you kind of should ethically give up the kid. And I couldn't understand like where she was coming from in regards to her not wanting to do that or feeling like she just was refusing to do it. And I was like, come on, be reasonable. But her speech sold me in the same way that I think it sold everyone. 

Yeah, I mean, like she didn't give a fuck about utilitarian ethics. She knew that there was no way she was even considering handing over her son. And to the rest of the world, yeah, that may have seemed selfish, but I do think she said it best when she said, I will not sacrifice my son for this world, but I will not sacrifice this world for my son. You know, she had faith in her family that I thought was on spiring. And, you know, her willingness to sacrifice for that family was tear jerking. Like I was just amazed by this characterization of Sue. 

Yeah, ultimately, she wasn't willing to sacrifice her child, but she was willing to sacrifice herself. 

You know, there's few things sadder in this world than seeing a baby cry over his dead mom. And yeah, my eyeballs were really leaking during that last scene, especially with the wonderful acting performance of Petra Pascal. Yeah, and Johnny. Yeah. The thing I'm not so sure about because it was hard to tell what his emotions were. 

But let's go ahead and talk about the thing, a.k .a. Ben Grimm played by Ebon Moss Bachrock. Ebon Moss Bachrock was in this movie. Don't get me wrong, I like the guy. I also thought he was a great micro in the Punisher series as well. But his approach to Ben Grimm in this movie was so low key that it bordered on almost generic. Like the special effects, of course, did a lot of the heavy lifting, but it was so hard to see Ebon's performance behind the special effects. Even in those quiet moments where you see Ben's internal struggle in his eyes. I actually think he needed to go a little bit bigger with his acting to actually have it come through Ben's rocky exterior. 

Yeah, he should have been more what's the word I'm looking for? Gruff, I guess. Yeah, I would agree that I did not see his performance in the role in the same way that you see Mark Ruffalo's performance in the Hulk or even saw Michael Chickless's performance in his interpretation of the thing. 

Yeah, I mean, the character design was great. But as it was, you would barely even know the guy had an arc. You know, basically it was that he felt closed off from the world. And as everything came under threat, he got the push he needed to open up and reconnect with the world around him, specifically through the Jewish day school teacher, Natasha Leon's character. And think is a deep character. You know, this whole arc is a far cry from the this man, this monster story in the comic books where he's like in full self pity mode. And that just makes me hope that Eben has more to do with the thing in future installments. 

Yeah, this version of the thing definitely feels like a psychologically healed version of the thing. Yeah, like they didn't really delve into the self pity that the character is known for. Right. So you kind of lost the tragedy of the thing, which I thought has always been the most interesting thing about the character. 

Yeah, I mean, they kind of touched upon it. And like you saw more of Reed dealing with his guilt regarding Ben's appearance, then you saw Ben worry about his own appearance. You know, that was a little bit weird. It was like Ben reassuring Reed about the situation. 

Usually it's the other way around. I said that the character design was great, but I do have to ask what the fuck was up with the thing's beard? Like, is that something I'm just going to have to get used to now? Because fuck that. 

It wasn't just the beard. He was growing hair on his head. And I was like, why is this necessary? I don't know. 

Like he grew it because of the world energy conservation efforts for the teleportation machines, but like those efforts were just temporary. Right. Like, did he end up keeping the beard just because Johnny said it looked good? And like, was Johnny fucking with him when he said that? And if so, where was the payoff where he made fun of him for keeping the beard? 

I have so many questions when it comes to the thing manscaping and none of them are fun to ask. And all I know is that the beard has got to fucking go. I was so disappointed that he didn't have his classic look for the film's climax or even by the film's end. 

Yeah, I guess the beard is going to have to carry over into Avengers Doomsday, which better not. 

Yeah, it better not. I'm convinced that the thing should never grow rock hair. Like that's just not a thing that should happen. Weird choice for sure. Let's go ahead and move on to the human torch, aka Johnny Storm, played by Joseph Quinn. I thought Joseph Quinn was a solid Johnny Storm, but more than his performance, I appreciated the characterization of Johnny here. 

Like, sure, it wasn't as funny as Chris Evans' role, but it did feel more real. Like Johnny is a ladies man in the comic books, but I wouldn't say that's his defining trait. Like to me, Johnny was always an adventurous, immature, mechanic with his heart always in the right place who could just never really settle down. 

I think they captured most of that in this movie. And Joseph Quinn seemed entirely capable of taking on even more substantial work in the future if the story calls for it. 

They definitely made him smarter in this film than he has been depicted in past films, and it kind of makes sense because Reed was saying, you know, I'm going up into space with the smartest people I know. And if they didn't make him smart, I'd be questioning why Johnny was a part of that team. 

Yeah, they made him maybe a little bit too smart because I could understand Johnny being a skilled mechanic, but I can't understand him being a skilled Xenolinguist. Right. That just made no sense to me. But his attempt to connect with the Silver Surfer did lead to a change of heart that ultimately saved the day. And that was a good culmination of his arc in that he was yearning for adventure. You know, he was wanting to go back into space, trying to get new spacesuits made and looking into outer space transmission recordings. I think the Silver Surfer really filled that void that he had at the start. And maybe that's why he was so motivated to get to know her language. Right. 

Yeah. I think that was pretty explicit that he wanted to get to learn her language because he was attracted to her. You know, it was just his driving force, I think. 

On a small note, I'll say that Joseph Queen does look more like Invisible Woman's brother more than any of the previous film adaptations. I know like they had Kate Mara be adopted in the Fantaphore stick movie, but I didn't think Chris Evans looked anything like Jessica Alba. I could kind of see where Joseph Queen could resemble Vanessa Kirby. 

I could kind of see where Joseph Queen resembles Robert Danny, Jr. What? Yeah, I heard someone say that he looked like the splitting image of Robert Danny, Jr. when he was younger. And when I was watching the film, I actually couldn't unsee it. Like even with his mannerisms, it's pretty spot on. 

Never say that out loud again. Like I don't want to get stuck with that in my head. It's it's true. 

Like if they were ever going to recast Tony Stark, maybe like DHM, Joseph Queen would have made a good one. You would have, but he can't know. Hey, it's the multiverse. Anything is possible. 

Yeah, which is not always a good thing. Let's go ahead and move on to Galactus, who was played by Ralph Inneson. There's not too much to discuss here regarding Guinness's performance because it was largely hidden under the special effects and that helmet. But I got to say that the design of Galactus was inspired. He looked so damn cool in this movie. Like why did they ever make him a cloud in the Fox films? Because the creative potential to render this space God on the screen visually is such a great opportunity and they totally seized on it in this film. He looked badass like when his eyes would light up and stuff like that. Oh, it was so good. It was perfect. 

It was absolute sheer perfection. And I really wish we would have seen this version of Galactus before we saw like any celestials. 

Yeah, that's interesting regarding the celestials because, you know, this movie never touched on why Galactus hungers for planets. In the comic books, it's insinuated that he eats planets as part of some universal balance. And in Earth X, they explained that the celestials would seed life on planets as a means to protect the celestial embryo growing at the core and that Galactus served as a sort of check on the celestial population. And considering that they did address that there was a celestial growing inside of Earth 616 in the Eternals movie, I thought it would have been interesting if they addressed Galactus's cosmic purpose here. 

I'm honestly really hoping that Reed accidentally teleported Galactus to the 616 universe, although I guess that would mean Silver Surfer went with him. Never mind, I take it back. I just hope eventually we get to see Galactus again one day. That would be cool for sure. I do want to touch on one other character real quick. 

I'm going to state it right off the bat. I don't like Herbie. I thought he was annoying in the movie. 

Is it because I said crypto was annoying? Like every time he was not on screen, I was really off. Herbie was a total scene stealer, but like in the wrong way. 

You just got to get over the fact that crypto sucks and that I hate him. Don't take it out on Herbie. It's totally innocent in this situation. 

I also hate Herbie. 

How does that feel? No one does. No one does. It would feel bad if I believed you, but I don't. Let's go ahead and move into our story highlights. 

In a world where fantasies collide and heroes clash, one podcast network rises above the rest. Prepare yourself for the ultimate showdowns in comic books, video games, movies, and anime. The Dynamite Podcast Network presents Consul Combat, where video game legends brawl every Monday. Dynamic Duel, where comic book titans smash every Tuesday. Max Destruction, where TV and action heroes battle every Wednesday. And Sendro World, where anime champions clash every Thursday. Join us as we speculate on the matches and armed with the power of mathematical simulations, discover who will emerge victorious. Visit dynamicpodcast.com where we settle the debate and settle the score. 

In 1964, on Earth 828, Reed Richards and Sue Storm learned their pregnant on the fourth anniversary of the day they were bombarded by cosmic rays while on a mission in space. The world celebrates them and Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm as superheroes and recounts their efforts protecting the planet from villains such as the Red Ghost, and their diplomatic efforts such as garnering federal rights for the Mole Man and Subterranean. That night, during their weekly dinner, Reed and Sue reveal the pregnancy to Ben and Johnny, and the four begin preparing for the baby's arrival over the next few months. Reed conducts tests on Sue to determine if their cosmically altered DNA has affected the baby. He also meets with Johnny regarding their suit designs while testing a teleportation machine and recording deep space transmissions. 

The robot assistant Herbie baby-proofs the house while Ben meets a friendly teacher at a Jewish day school. One night before dinner, the Silver Surfer arrives to herald the coming of Galactus who will soon devour the Earth. Reed tracks the Surfer's energy signature to the disappearance of a half a dozen planets, and the team decides to meet Galactus in space. Now that was a lot, but that was all mostly told in montage. Dude, yeah, that was way too much. That was like the whole first third of this movie. 

There was a lot to get through. Interestingly, a lot of little tidbits and Easter eggs thrown into the montage, like references to Red Ghost and Mole Man. We got to see the team fight Giganto as their very first villain, which was true to the comic books, as we can all see on the very first cover to the very first issue of The Fantastic Four. 

Which is a total ripoff of Justice League of America number one. I just want to say that. 

There were a lot of nice touches here, I thought. Like the Future Foundation, which is like their philanthropic science foundation in the comic books, but here they made it more like a diplomatic type organization. So they were affecting the planet, not just through their super heroics and their inventions, but also through like politics. It was all pretty interesting. 

Yeah, Sue was pretty much a politician in this film the way it came across. 

She was like a UN ambassador. 

Well, yeah, that's what it seemed like the Future Foundation was to me, was the UN. And it almost seemed like The Fantastic Four were the head of the UN. 

Not the head, because that one lady was the CEO, but they definitely helped facilitate it. And like apparently the country of Latveria never showed up to their gatherings, which I thought was like a funny little Easter egg too. 

Well, it just made me wonder where Dr. Doom was during this whole thing. Like, I don't think he would have been OK with The Fantastic Four's actions in this film. Like, if anyone would have had an issue with The Fantastic Four willing to sacrifice, essentially, the entire planet for their son, it would have been Dr. Doom. 

Well, if I had to play devil's advocate, knowing the character of Dr. Doom, he probably would have been mostly focused on why Galactus would want their baby, which was a question that the rest of the world wasn't really asking. 

Yeah, not even read and sue themselves. 

Well, they didn't know. But Doom would have definitely put his resources to work on figuring out why and then probably just try to steal the kid for himself or usurp his power. And I think that's exactly what's going on in the midcredits scene of this movie. 

That's fair. What did you think of the way they did the Mole Man? Like, it wasn't really Mole Creatures. It was like under grand construction workers. 

Don't get me started on Mole Man. I hated Mole Man in this movie. What really annoyed me was that when he was on screen, a lot of people in the theater were laughing, even though I didn't think he was doing anything funny. Like, I always thought the perfect Mole Man actor would be like Danny DeVito or something. I always thought Mole Man should be wearing rags and not really be well dressed and wearing gold rings and stuff like that. It was a very different take on the character that I wasn't entirely pleased with. 

Yeah, I suspected it as much. I don't really care too much about the character, but I'm not surprised that fans of the comic didn't care for the interpretation. 

Some might. I don't know. To me, Mole Man is just a very different character from the books that I read him in. Red Ghost was in the movie, though, for a little bit. Originally, he was played by John Malkovich, but they cut him out of the film and then they just got some random guy or maybe he was a CGI creation. 

I don't know. I thought that was a little weird. I knew that Natasha Leone was going to be in this movie. I wasn't sure who she was going to play. I thought maybe she was going to be, I don't know, some kind of gender swapped villain or something like that. But I was surprised that she wasn't Alicia Masters. She was like this random original character to the movie who taught at a Jewish day school and seemed to be romantically interested in the thing. I don't know really what was behind her character. 

Yeah, I don't really think any of that was needed in the movie. It was really just a way to give more screen time to the thing, I think. 

I think so. They needed to give him something to do. So they had him like go on these frequent walks through Yancy Street. Back to the story. Venturing through a wormhole device, the Fantastic Four followed the surfer's energy signature to a distant planet and witnessed its destruction. Pulled into Galactus' ship via a tractor beam, the team learns that Galactus is a cosmic being who feeds on the life force of planets but is willing to spare Earth in exchange for Reed and Sue's son, sensing immense power within him and believing he can transfer his hunger into the boy. He induces Sue to go into labor as the team escapes back into the ship with the silver surfer in pursuit. They temporarily lose her in the gravity of a neutron star as Sue gives birth to baby Franklin and they return home. 

There are a lot of terrifying scenes in the sequence, which was a fantastic sequence. Like when the scanner was going across the ship and then settled on Sue's belly, I was like, oh, crap. Yeah. And then seeing the planet explode and stuff like that. That was incredible. 

That was insane. The scale of that planet exploding with this drill coming out of it did such a good job of setting the stakes of what could happen to Earth. The team lost their minds. 

They were like, what the fuck? I thought that was great. I also thought the silver surfer was a really effective villain in this scene when she was chasing their light speed ship. You know, they thought they lost her by going into the wormhole. But then all of a sudden she went into the wormhole. I remember my wife was like, holy shit. When she saw that because she doesn't really know that the silver surfer can traverse the galaxy at light speed. But yeah, that whole thing was a lot of fun. 

Yeah, she was like Michael Myers. There's just no stopping her, no escaping her. 

She was like the terminator. She was like T1000. 

Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Although I have to say I was really confused what happened near that black hole because she was like chasing the ship and then she like saw the ship get destroyed or something. And then it turns out that wasn't true. How did that happen? 

They turned the ship invisible and had her follow the light speed engine portion to the point where she got too close to the gravity well. So that was all Sue's doing. 

OK, she saw the light speed engine. Wait, didn't they need that to get back to Earth? 

They were still able to approach near light speed with their ship without the assistance of the external engine. 

OK, makes sense. I guess so. 

The scene where Sue gave birth to Franklin was so tense. I don't know, it just felt very real. And it kind of reminded me of like the tension that I felt in the delivery room when my wife was giving birth to our daughter. Yeah, I loved it when Sue was like, Johnny, killer. 

Yeah, that was nuts. Back to the story. After revealing the situation to the press, the public turns against the team believing they should give up their baby to protect the planet. The Fantastic Four work on finding a solution to stop Galactus and read in Sue argue over potentially handing over their child. Sue reinstills public trust by ensuring they will move heaven and earth to protect the planet, which inspires Reed to use his teleportation device to relocate Earth and the team rallies the world to build teleportation towers across the globe. However, those towers are destroyed just upon activation by the Silver Surfer who returns to the planet. Johnny stops her from wrecking the final tower in Times Square by playing for her the cries of destroyed planets from Reed's deep space transmission recordings, having deciphered the Zen law language. Johnny reveals he knows of Shalabal's sacrifice to protect her planet and pleads for her help in stopping Galactus as she flees in anguish. 

I was really surprised how honest Reed was with the world. Like, he didn't have to tell them everything that happened, like how Galactus wanted their son. 

Yeah, I think it would be entirely reasonable for someone to withhold that information from the earth. Yeah, and I don't know why he told the truth. I guess he's just a really good guy or maybe it just slipped out. 

I don't know. But yeah, I probably would have kept that to myself. I'm no Reed Richards, though. Moving back to the story, now planning to lure Galactus into the final teleporter using Franklin as bait, the team relocates Manhattan to subterrania with help from the Mole Man. When Galactus arrives, he avoids their trap and snatches the baby from the Baxter building. Sue uses her powers in an attempt to push Galactus into the tower and succeeds with help from the thing knocking down a building. Reed rescues the baby from Galactus's grasp, though the cosmic being proves too powerful to be held in the portal. 

As Johnny prepares to sacrifice himself to push Galactus back in, the Silver Surfer arrives and knocks her master into the beam, teleporting them both to the edge of the universe. Sue collapses and dies from her efforts. However, baby Franklin revives her with his awakened cosmic powers when placed on her chest. I got to say, power scale wise, I was a little miffed that Sue was so successful in pushing Galactus, which I don't think she should ever really be able to do. She's not that strong. She definitely had like mom power going for her within this climax. But I do think that the script was able to rectify that situation by, you know, having her die from her efforts. That kind of seemed to make it a little bit more OK from a power scaling perspective. 

I did question why everyone needed to go to subterranean when they could have just left the city like they did in Metropolis in the Superman movie. 

I guess that's true. Yeah, they could have just traveled to Jersey, you know, Manhattan has a big population, but there's plenty of bridges to go elsewhere. Boats, I don't think they necessarily needed to go underground. That almost seemed more dangerous. 

Like I'm pretty sure Galactus is heavy enough to crush some tunnels. 

I don't know that New York bedrock supposedly pretty sturdy. 

I was actually shocked when Sue died because I didn't see how they were going to resurrect her and I was like, wait, what is Sue actually going to die? For some reason, I didn't make the connection to Franklin's reality warping powers being given her back. 

Yeah, my first thought was, oh, maybe they're going to have a multiversal Sue join the team later. But then once the baby entered the frame, I was like, OK, yeah, he's going to bring his mom back. It was just a beautiful moment. 

Yeah, great climax, great stakes again. This film had so many surprises. I was so happy with it by the end. 

Back to the story. The team is celebrated for their victory and rides off for another adventure in their fantastic car with Franklin along with them in a car seat. Four years later in 1968, Sue finds Dr. Doom holding Franklin in an after credit scene. We see the opening to the fantastic fours in universe cartoon. I loved the kind of three man and a baby approach they took to getting the car seat in the fantastic car with Ben, Johnny and Reed all trying to do it. 

I thought that was really funny. Those things are not easy to get in. They are not. They are complex pieces of engineering. Let me tell you that. 

So I had a good chuckle at that. But like I felt like the air leave my lungs during the mid credit scene when Sue returned back to see Franklin and there was this green hooded figure holding him. There was such a good cliffhanger and tease for what's to come. 

Yeah, it looks like Franklin got to take a peek at Dr. Doom's real face. He's like, oh, you look just like my uncle. 

No, he would never say that. He would never say that. It wouldn't even enter his mind. It is interesting to see how Franklin would play into Dr. Dooms plans. I think they're going to substitute the beyonders from the comic books with Franklin Richards. I think he's going to be the catalyst for Dr. Dooms universal reality warping that ends the incursions and forms battle world. 

That's my theory. One nitpicky sticking point I had during the mid credit scene, though, was that Herbie offered the origin of species by Darwin as potential reading for Franklin Richards. But Franklin Richards has never been particularly bright. 

You know, he's just a normal kid. It's his sister, Valeria Richards. That's the prodigy. And I immediately became concerned that they were going to combine the characters of Franklin and Valeria and make Franklin a prodigy like his father. 

Well, hey, if Johnny could decipher alien languages, Franklin can freaking read origin of species. Whatever. All right. Everyone's a genius. Did you like the end credit scene? No, I mean, it was a waste of time. 

It was not more so than like the Superman end credit scene. But the song was OK. It wasn't anything special. The score as a whole was special. 

Yeah, the music was good in this film. I'm going to disagree with you about the Superman end credits scene because you're completely wrong. Hearing Superman saying, man, I could be such a jerk sometimes. Just showed how humble he was. No, that was stupid. Way to turn the conversation towards Superman and your Fantastic Four review. Yeah. 

And how it's inferior is what I'm doing, because Fantastic Four was definitely the better movie. It had everything really that I ever wanted from a Fantastic Four film, even beyond the retro visuals and the cast chemistry. I thought the film most importantly leaned into the emotional core of the story, which is the team's familial bond, and it did it with sincerity and real stakes. I'm going to rate the film four and a half stars out of five. A fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. 

Yeah, I'll agree with that. I really enjoyed this film a lot more than I wanted to. I went to this wanting to really dislike this movie and just I just wanted to trash on it and be like, oh, Superman is so much better. I can't really say that. I enjoyed both of the movies immensely. 

It is kind of refreshing to have a series of superhero movies that really focuses more on like hope and the lighthearted nature of these stories. There's a lot of parallels between the Fantastic Four and Superman. And I think it's signaling that people are kind of over the sort of cynical cloud that has been permeating society, I feel like, for a good long while now. 

Yeah, I wonder if we're maybe past the whole dark era of superhero films. These two films, Superman and Fantastic Four First Steps. One of the things I like most about them is their messages, like you mentioned, being kind, family is paramount. Those are great messages to hear from superheroes. 

And the Thunderbolts, too, you know, they're like, don't do meth. Group hug, everyone. Let's do it. Like everyone. I don't know what Captain America Brave New World's message was, but maybe that's why it's been the weakest out of the superhero films released this year so far. It's still a decent movie, though. Go listen to that review if you haven't already. But that does it for this review. AJ and IK help close us out. 

Thanks for listening to Dynamic Jewel. Visit the show's website at dynamicjewel.com and follow us on Instagram at Dynamic Jewel podcast. You can support the show on Patreon at patreon.com slash dynamicjewel and joining a tier that works for you or by rating and reviewing Dynamic Jewel on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. Don't forget to listen to the other shows in the Dynamite podcast network, including Max Destruction, Senjo World and Console Combat. 

Our next episode is going to be another review. We are going to talk about Sandman Season 2. Now, Season 1 of Sandman was killer. Season 2, I'm almost certain, will be uncomfortable to watch due to the Neil Gaiman revelations that have come out between the seasons. 

I'm not even thinking about that as I'm watching it. I'm actually really loving Season 2. I'm only halfway through it, but damn, it is so good. I'm just taking the time to relish each and every episode because I know I'm going to be frigging heartbroken when it's over. 

Yeah, I got to binge it. I'm just going to I'm just going to speed watch it while also being on my phone. 

I'll slap that phone out of your hands and then slap you right in the face. 

But that does it for this episode, guys. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers, John Straussky, Zachary Hepburn, Destin Balcom, Miggy Mathen-Geehan, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yatyn, Austin Wazalowski, AJ Dunkerly, Nick Obanto, Scott Camacho, Gil Camacho, Adam Spees, Dean Maleski, Devin Davis, Joseph Kirsting, Josh Leiner, Mike Williams, Oscar Galvez and Paul Graves for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up, up and away. True believers. 

I'm going to run the stats on a Gary versus Herbie fight.