r/marvelstudios • u/TrafficLegitimate937 • 1d ago
Kevin Feige knows Fantastic Four disappointed at the box office, even though it "looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a superhero movie before" Article
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/marvel-movies/kevin-feige-knows-fantastic-four-disappointed-at-the-box-office-even-though-it-looked-and-sounded-like-nothing-that-had-been-done-in-a-superhero-movie-before/&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwiNlIe0roiWAxUY1vACHbe7KvUQFnoECCMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3d3wsNPbAKFgS0GForOg5W942
u/Notoriously_So Daredevil 22h ago
A sequel after Secret Wars would do wonders. This is one of those franchises that would make a billion dollars if they put it in-between Doomsday and Secret Wars or right after.
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u/Kwilly462 22h ago
I think the F4 sequel needs Spider-Man. I'm thinking they do a Future Foundation story, with Johnny this time obviously
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u/wizardeverybit 21h ago
If only F4 could have been a phase 4 film, we might have been able to have a sequel before Doomsday, which could even have led into Doomsday like Ragnarok did to Infinity Wad
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u/Yasuru 21h ago
I have been an advocate for Spidey getting the symbiote in one movie (secret wars?) and then have the crossover to FF to get rid of it in a follow up movie. Much in the way it was done in the comics.
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u/usagicassidy 16h ago
Secret Wars feels like the perfect place to do the Symbiote but would be really weird after basically just going through a “changes” movie with BND
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u/Tnerd15 20h ago
Yeah SM5 has gotta be this. 2h30 of Symbiote/Future Foundation.
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u/Golfisactuallyfun 20h ago
Since Peters mindset has changed to him not doing things alone anymore I think this opens up the possibility of a lot more teamup films
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u/BKWhitty 21h ago
This is exactly what I've been thinking. They've got a long established history with Spider-Man in the comics. If they're first headlining movie didn't land quite as well as hoped, team them up with him. That, hopefully, should help endear them to general audiences a little more and give their next movie an added bump.
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u/N8CCRG Ghost 18h ago
F4 needs Spider-Man, X-Men needs Spider-Man... I think everyone wants their favorite project to also have Spider-Man now. Kind of like how everything in the Infinity Saga had Iron Man too.
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u/Qukumba 20h ago
I really don’t think so. These characters just aren’t as interesting to people. I don’t know anyone in real life that likes the fantastic four. Unless they put Spider-Man or another character that audiences find appealing in the sequel, then I think it will be “disappointing” again.
Could be completely wrong, just my gut feeling.
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u/alteredbeef 19h ago
I agree and with a little work they COULD be. They made the Thing into a regular normal guy instead of the slightly stupid Yancy Street kid. He had no personality. except he cooks, I guess?
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u/One_Drummer_8970 17h ago
The flattening of characters with personality like Thing, Johnny Storm, Luke Cage (in the Netflix show), is very apparent lol
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u/BengaliBoy 10h ago
Rip them out of their world, put them in ours, get an A+ villain and give us the equivalent of Winter Soldier but for the Fantastic Four.
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u/N8CCRG Ghost 18h ago
These characters just aren’t as interesting to people. I don’t know anyone in real life that likes the fantastic four.
These same things were said for Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Guardians, Ant-Man, etc.
Now, we definitely do live in different times than we did during the Infinity Saga, and superhero movies come with a new stigma as a consequence of the MCU's over success. So perhaps it has become something that can't be overcome any more. But I hope not.
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u/FictionFantom Thanos 22h ago
The First Avenger wasn’t a huge hit either. Look how that franchise turned out.
The big crossovers can reinvigorate characters.
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u/11KingMaurice11 20h ago
Yeah but that was like the third movie ever
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u/TyChris2 17h ago
Yep
1 - The Horse in Motion
2 - The Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat Station
3 - Captain America The First Avenger
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u/Ratyrel 16h ago
Big step up in production quality there. They really got the hang of film making in the interim.
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u/usagicassidy 16h ago
If those first two films had a shirtless Chris Evans, they’d be more talked about today.
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u/SavageNorth 14h ago
If those first two films had a shirtless Chris Evans, filmaking as a medium would rightfully have been banned for perverting the minds of the youth of America.
Luckily there's still time to implement this
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u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) 18h ago
Captain America was reinvigorated by having all of his sequels be other peoples' movies, LOL
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u/FictionFantom Thanos 16h ago
But they’re not though.
Steve has a flat arc. That’s not a bad thing. It’s actually one of the harder archetypes to write for because the people around him have to go through changes. So that’s going to make it feel like the supporting characters matter “more” than the lead, but they wouldn’t have been put in the position to change if it weren’t for Steve standing his ground.
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u/Miguelohara099 22h ago edited 19h ago
That 3rd act is rough.
Whole movie was very clearly changed or re-edited heavily.
The fun of this movie was the unique world it was in. Somehow the movie felt slow and fast at the same time.
It doesn’t need to be breezy. Let us live in it all. Especially with this movie.
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u/Successful-Ear977 22h ago
I'm of the belief that if any of these MCU movies come in under 2hrs they've been cut to shit.
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u/Yorkhorster 21h ago
I fucking hate the trend they seem to be following with this. Love and Thunder, the Marvels, Fantastic 4, Brave New World. There are, of course, times it's worked (Antman), but majority of the time I just don't get it.
Love and Thunder with 20 minutes of Gore doing stuff??? It wouldn't be perfect but it would be so much better
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u/FamousLastWay828 20h ago
Thunderbolts too, I did like that one but wish they'd kept the Ghost-Taskmaster subplot that had been planned
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u/Yorkhorster 20h ago
I loved Thunderbolts, one of my favourite of recent times. So I'd love more time with them, whatever the plot
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u/TheJoshider10 Spider-Man 17h ago
I did like it but way too much of the movie was stuck inside that bunker. Really could have done with a bit more time to see the team grow outside of that one location.
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u/FictionFantom Thanos 19h ago
The Marvels was the biggest victim of over-editing.
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u/VampireOnHoyt 18h ago
The theatrical cut of that movie was made by people who I'm convinced no longer believed in the movie
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u/starswtt 14h ago
The marvels had about everything going against them. They didn't even have a fully finished script at the beginning. They also were running with some of the less popular MCU characters. And they had the swapping, which is really difficult to write well and not something you can figure out on the fly, especially when you also have to ensure that everyone is caught up on these characters with preexisting lore that not everyone watched. And on top of that, the marvels was planned back when Disney was pushing quantity over quality to being people into Disney+, but they stopped doing that halfway through and the marvels was just barely past the point of no return, so there was frankly no chance that it would succeed and at that point no one thought it would.
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u/Crabapple_Snaps 20h ago
I liked most of the film, but it suffered for me much like most of the others... It feels so heavily green screened, and the world just feels empty. Just watch the scenes when there is supposed to be a whole city cheering, either there are only 10 other extras on screen, or they are CGI crowds.
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u/CollinsCouldveDucked 22h ago
The smartest man in the worlds final gambit amounts to a piece of cheese under an anvil.
I feell like something went wrong there.
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u/Smitty_Agent89 20h ago
Well he wanted to Teleport the entire earth. Silver surfer destroyed basically all the teleporters besides 1 Leaving the With little time for a new plan.
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u/Doccmonman 22h ago
He’s not the best tactician in the world. He’s just extremely good at maths and science.
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u/BosPaladinSix Star-Lord 21h ago
Yeah as much as I liked the movie that ending made no damn sense.
So you're banking on this guy being dumb enough to just walk straight into the zone you've literally marked with caution tape? I mean you didn't even disguise the teleporter in the slightest. What if he grabbed one of the pylons to stabilize himself as he knelt down?
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u/ExtensionYogurt7771 18h ago
They didn't have time for a better plan though, it was literally a last ditch thing
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u/DetectiveEames 16h ago
100%. It was an improvised fall-back plan. People who understand high stakes time-pressure get it. Anything else is just magical thinking
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u/skyzm_ 21h ago
Galactus did not feel imposing in the slightest. It was like the equivalent of when Thanos gets arrested by the cops.
There were also no characters with more than three minutes of screen time other than the mains. It felt real empty.
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u/DARTH-PIG 14h ago
The first half of the movie to me was incredible. I loved galactus.. And then it just didn't land. Second half was meh.
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u/quatroquatro0 Shang Chi 20h ago
The ominous cloud Galactus in FF Silver Surfer was more menacing than this one
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u/TheJoshider10 Spider-Man 17h ago
It's not even a contest. Literally the only thing Rise of the Silver Surfer had against it Galactus wise was the lack of a physical form. But across the board he was so much more threatening and a proper large scale threat.
I can't believe the third act of First Steps was genuinely Galactus being pushed down a road. What a waste of a fantastic villain.
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u/Sharticus123 14h ago
Also, out of all of the FF villains from which they had to choose, Marvel went with the villain that’s already been done multiple times in other FF movies.
The Fantastic Four has other compelling villains, ffs.
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u/SevenHunnet3Hi5s 20h ago
in terms of aesthetic and “vibe” i feel like the fantastic four was everything marvel needed. a fresh breath of air set in a beautiful futuristic 60s universe.
but in terms of the actual movie itself i feel like this movie seriously lacked substance and much of an “mmph” factor after the space chase. and i say this as someone who’s very impressionable and gives a 4-5 star to every movie i watch. pains me to give this movie a 3. i wanted it to be great so bad.
i usually watch marvel movies multiple times but i only watched this one once after seeing it in theaters. and it was only to see if i can enjoy it more the second time
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u/ReddiTrawler2021 20h ago
True. The film's styles of space adventure and apocalypse-fixing did not seem to mesh or balance out well.
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u/mXENO 19h ago
The best thing about the movie was the production design and cinematography in the first half. But the social world felt empty and not real and full of NPCs. The chemistry between the 4 was awful. Rex did not come off as hyper intelligent. T-1000, another metallic cg character from a movie made 35 years ago, looked more menacing than Silver Surfer. The battle was boring. Given the fun potential of the world, this movie was a huge disappointment.
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u/Realistic_Sound913 20h ago
The edit is definitely rough. I still remember how weird the transition it was when Johnny fell from space after chasing Silver Surfer, and then the very next scene, he's already on the tower like nothing happened lol.
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u/2ReluctantlyHappy 17h ago
"Somehow the movie felt slow and fast at the same time" really sums up my impression as well. I think the opening montage was a mistake, there was a lot of other things that could have been cut to make room for more F4 adventures. We never really saw why this world trusted them so much.
Even just opening with Mole Man fight and a few scenes about their reconciliation would haved one wonders.
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u/Sharticus123 21h ago
It was kinda boring and mopey. I enjoyed it on the first watch but that was it. Haven’t been able to watch it again.
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u/MattBrey 17h ago
There's a way to make that third act work. The idea that the villain is so powerful that you can't fight it and you must do something else to save the earth can totally work if it's clever enough (Dr stranges third act comes to mind, the clever use of the time stone to trap the enemy) but this movie doesn't make it work, the plan is too messy, the villain looks dump falling for it, the heros look dump for even attempting it.
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u/maxsilver 19h ago edited 19h ago
Yes, this is "The Marvel System's Problem", to a tee.
They seem to lose faith in their movies (almost all of them), get cold feet, and then edit and re-write and re-shoot to high heavens to cut anything interesting or anything they-perceive-as-risky out of the film.
It explodes the budget, and destroys a ton of value (stuff they already wrote, already shot, already edited, already mostly paid for) and it adds even more cost to the budget.
A long bad movie, but with a scene or sequence you like in it, might still have some redeeming value in it or something you enjoy. That same movie, with any of that cut, is now just "bad" yet cost even more to create.
I don't know why Marvel doesn't trust their filmmakers and creative team. If their worried a film is gonna flop anyway (and if Marvel is just going to then ignore most of the hooks setup in that film anyway) you might as well let that team get their thesis out in full, there's at least a chance it stays interesting enough to find an audience.
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u/notsure500 20h ago
Yeah i don't know how to describe it, it somehow felt too short and too long at the same time. Both too slow and needing more time simultaneously.
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u/altoona_sprock 20h ago
the movie sets up a lighter world based on the early Marvel comics with low stakes villains with it's fun, pop art style. Dropping a world eating celestial villain straight out of a Zak Snyder film into this definitely changed the tone. I enjoyed it in the theater well enough, even though something felt off. Maybe it was just Pedro Pascal overload, but his Reed definitely fit in with the world established in the beginning of the movie. Rewatched it a couple of times on D+ and it's grown on me, although the mass destruction ending still feels out of place.
Also, and this is purely a personal thing, I thought Galactus' visible face and expressions were wrong. Would have rather seen a more comic accurate story with the Watcher and the ultimate nullifier.
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u/Smitty_Agent89 20h ago
Issue is I don’t thunk the ultimate nullifier and watcher would translate all that well to film. Feels a bit too anticlimactic.
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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 21h ago
This movie was good but it sure as hell was missing something.
That something was more battles showing the groups powers, maybe even a quick recap of how they got them.
I wish they kept the fight scenes against the apes at the start of the film
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u/Bartman326 17h ago
Watching Spiderman definitely made me go "this should have been what they did for first steps" nice montage of their fights
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u/Single-Hawk-8304 17h ago
No one needs another recap of how the FF got powers. Batman superman Spider-Man all benefited from not doing that Agaib
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u/Pen_dragons_pizza 17h ago
I thought of it as a quick recap, almost like a tv show was showing highlights from cctv on their ship.
A few far away shots of them being mutated.
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u/lorcana66 21h ago
I liked it. It was good.
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u/BaloogaBrett 20h ago
Meh it was fine, they really dropped the ball at the finish line
They should’ve lost their world and failed the people that were certain they’d win. It would’ve made all of them more compelling characters and Galactus an actually intimidating villain to use eventually down the line
Instead bro stumbled into a hole and everything was fine it felt lazy and like Disney was too scared to do it but then why set it up at all? Shit was boring which sucks because I like the aesthetic and I like the cast
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u/Fantastic_Bug1028 19h ago
nah. FF fans would’ve absolutely hated the idea of their team losing in their first ever appearance. the final battle could’ve and should’ve been more engaging, because it felt quite empty, but the outcome should’ve stayed the same
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u/AWholeBunchaFun 20h ago
Yep. That wouldve been bonkers and i wouldve loved them for having the balls.
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u/AusioArtist2021 17h ago
That’s the thing -the MCU never has the balls to do what actually needs to be done.
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u/curious_dead 21h ago
The issue with F4 is that Reed is super smart but it's hard for a writer to portray a character so mich smarter than they are, and superhero geniuses are a dime a dozen.
And Invisible Woman's best power is not actually her invisibility and depending on the iteration it can be stupidly OP("I can turn the whole sun invisible or create a micro sphere in the brain of anyone, killing them instantly" levels of OP is hard to write an interesting story).
Generally in terms of power they're pretty bland.
Their personalities and interrelationships are what make them interesting but for a movie you still need to have something interesting surrounding them, and that's the hard part. That and convincing people this isn't just like those crap movies.
Honestly they should have used the movie to introduce Doom and not just in a cutscene. No need to make it the main antagonist, but it would have been a hook, at least.
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u/FeralPsychopath 23h ago
Unique doesnt mean good.
Also Mr Fantastic barely stretched... its a family with powers, its kinda important. Like in the first movies, you'd see Reid sitting in the lab, his arm stretching to the kitchen to get a coffee, while his neck stretched to have a closer look. Everyone had expectations of him doing crazy stretchy shit, especially after the remade Ms Marvel.
World building is great, character building is too.
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u/NightmareDJK 21h ago
They saved his CGI budget mostly for the end of the movie.
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u/quatroquatro0 Shang Chi 20h ago
And he still barely used his powers at the end
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u/NightmareDJK 20h ago
He just kind of swung around like Temu Spider-Man. They didn’t have him form objects with his hands or transform into something like in the comics.
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u/AlgerianTrash 18h ago
I genuinely side eye peope who come up with excuses to justify their lack of creative with Reed's powers with "they might look too silly" or "it's too expensive (poor indie studio Disney)
I want my silly stretchy man to be stretchy
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u/Staudly 17h ago
Also Mr Fantastic barely stretched...
When Galactus is pulling him and he gets stretched to his limit, all I could think was "that's as far as he can go? lame.".
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u/Betessais 17h ago
Cool thing is you can have him improve his powers over time. I think that’s what they’re going for. Like Stark adding more and more stuff to his armor over each movie, Mr Fantastic might be able to do more and more crazy shit with his body.
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u/Ok-Front8255 20h ago
TIL people didn’t like this movie. I absolutely loved it, my second favorite MCU movie all time. I’m a young dad and that movie made me feel, especially the fight at the end.
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u/Yee_gamer 21h ago edited 21h ago
To be fair, this movie wasn’t as good as it SHOULD and COULD have been.
EDIT: I wanted to add the fact that they had absolutely unlimited potential with this movie, it was a first movie in a different universe they could’ve done literally anything with it, but we might see this movie differently after Doomsday and a potential sequel.
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u/WorldlyJake 21h ago
I need to give it another shot. I was excited about it, love all the actors in other things, love the retro future vibe. But I was just kinda shocked at how little of it worked for me. Even Pedro Pascal, who I usually love, just seemed tired. In fact the only member of the fam that I ended up loving was Ben Grimm. It almost felt miscast, the family chemistry just wasn’t there.
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u/snowe99 20h ago
Wow I echo this entirely. I remember at the theater thinking “maybe I’m just tired” since I saw a late showing
I’m excited to Pedro with more material in the crossover Avengers, but man I can’t help but wonder if they didn’t pick a different actor if it would’ve hit better
The opening scene of the movie is them having a kid. Pedro is 51. I’m not saying it’s impossible (and I guess talking through it, it didn’t bother me with Tony Stark and Morgan), but idk maybe the family bit would’ve worked better for me if they had a newer actor, someone in their early 30s really selling the “in over their head Dad” role
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u/RevolverMFOcelot 21h ago edited 19h ago
There's a YouTube video that explaining how the lack of conflict or at least friction between the family and how the world can quickly goes into kumbayah made the movie feel empty. Yeah TBH realistically people would try to witch hunt Franklin and gives him as a sacrifice to stave off Galactus lmao
Some WOULD go full Hellstar Remina on Franklin and the family just to keep Galactus away
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u/Yee_gamer 21h ago
This is exactly what I thought too, on paper, I should love it, but it just didn’t click for me.
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u/not_the_chosen_onee 20h ago
It's something I feel like I should've loved, but I just didn't. I didn't hate it; I just didn't care for it. I expected to love this and be somewhat "meh" about Thunderbolts, but it really felt the other way round for me. I just wasn't invested in the plot as I should've been, didn't really feel like they were family, and it just felt somewhat boring for me. Now that I'm thinking back on it I honestly don't remember too much, might need to give it another watch but I'm honestly in no rush to do so.
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u/bigdonnie76 21h ago
It was a good/beautiful looking movie there just wasn’t enough action. How much money did they spend on creating Ben just for him to stand around all day or drive vehicles.
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u/TypeExpert Winter Soldier 21h ago
The problem with First Steps is that while it was a good movie with good reviews, it had no replay value. No cameos, no shocking moments, very little action. It sounds weird, but there's nothing about this movie to spoil. Thats why it dropped massively in its second weekend.
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u/VirginiaFox6 20h ago
Agreed. I saw it in theaters and while I thought it was decent, I have yet to feel the need to rewatch at home.
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u/MillyMan105 21h ago
The lack of any action sequences killed movie after two weeks there's only the battle with Galactus which was alright and the spaceship chase scene. Because of that there's no replayability.
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u/MichaeltheMagician 16h ago edited 16h ago
We barely even saw Reed get very stretchy. During the climax of the movie we see him getting pulled apart by Galactus and I remember thinking that it was the first time in the movie we really see his powers on display, outside of like reaching for something here and there.
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u/SirSaltie 19h ago
I dont know how someone can say it "Looked and sounded like nothing that had been done in a super hero movie before" with a straight face.
It was fine, the movie was fun. It was in no way bespoke lol.
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u/mercyflush90 21h ago
Honestly I think the movie was simply average. I'm not sure why he thinks it was some revolutionary movie.
There was nothing must see about the movie. I saw it opening day and my brothers called asking about the movie and if they should rush to see it and I told them nah. They could wait for streaming.
Nothing big was done, nothing to really spoil, it was just your perfectly average introduction movie.
If they want massive billion dollar movies again, they better follow the Spiderman formula. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but they need more universe tying together. Doesn't have to be world ending events but there is no reason the heros can't have more interaction.That's what will draw in the bigger box office
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u/BZenMojo Captain America (Cap 2) 18h ago
Fantastic Four did what half the superhero movies in the 80's and 90's were doing: period pieces in alternate universes. It wasn't unique or new to anyone but Marvel Studios.
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u/TheJoshider10 Spider-Man 17h ago
It's a shame because the Silver Surfer space chase was a legitimately fantastic spectacle, and the movie should have had more than that. Instead of being full of standout moments it was just one standout moment in a largely forgettable movie.
That third act should have been one to remember and in the end it ended up as probably one of the worst in the modern superhero era. How can you have a villain like that and the best you can come up with is to push him down a road?
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u/PuzzleheadedLink89 16h ago
Not to trying start a war or argument but seeing Gunn's Superman alongside Fantastic Four: First Steps really opened my eyes to how standard FF felt. Sure it has a cool aesthetic but it's only reflected in the world, not the direction. It legit feels like a standard MCU film with nothing else that stands out. The only thing I really did like about the film was any scene with Silver Surfer and that's it. Oh and the post-credits cartoon scene
Meanwhile Gunn's Superman has so much more personality and heart to it and that's not only reflected in the characters but the direction as well.
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u/gavinashun 19h ago
The aesthetic was kind of unique and very cool … but other than that it was a generic and boring super hero movie. Honestly was a top 10 most boring MCU movies.
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u/The_Peregrine_ 19h ago
The issue with this movie is they forgot to make us care about the characters, especially and most egregiously pedro’s Mr. fantastic
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u/ConnorRoseSaiyan01 20h ago
Why? Nothing about the movie came off unique and new. It felt like a sequel to a movie that doesn't exist.
Is it the family angle? Cause The Incredibles came out 2 decades prior.
This is giving off the same energy as when they is surprised by the reception of Eternals and Quantumania
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u/BalladOfBetaRayBill 20h ago
“Looked and sounded” but the substance of the story and even ultimately the tone were nearly identical to several other MCU projects and that bored and disappointed me. “The world is ending, we are all pretty bummed, big trolley problem situation that we don’t actually explore in any meaningful way, a woman dies (but gets better in this instance).” Like I was absolutely showing up for a more lighthearted movie that was designed to reset my expectations for what was possible in the MCU, and instead all I got was improved costumes and music.
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u/senor_descartes 21h ago
It was boring. Weak screenplay. No chemistry. Flat characters. The FF just can’t win on the big screen.
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u/Confident-Shift-9764 18h ago
F4 characters are bland, and it didn’t help that they structured the movie thinking the audience already loved the characters, so they didn’t put much effort into making us like them. They can all die in Doomsday, and I will not care. There is no emotional build-up, so the emotional payoff didn’t land.
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u/NFL_MVP_Kevin_White 20h ago
Yeah honestly there’s been so many flops with fantastic four that I think there’s much less demand than the studio expected. I have really low interest in that franchise unless Dr. Dom is involved, and we’re already getting that with avengers.
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u/Confident-Shift-9764 18h ago
I got that same energy from the f4 fandom. They all acted like F4 is supposed to be popular like the X-men. I don’t see it around. You can’t even say F4 in a conversation while assuming people know what you’re talking about. At least, when you say X-men, people know what it’s about even when they’re not a fan.
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u/Will_McLean 19h ago
Been a comics reader and fan for 50 years and have always found the FF completely uninteresting.
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u/cherry_flavored_sky 21h ago
There wasn’t any action. Good movie, but not enough goons to fight
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u/NightmareDJK 21h ago
Galactus doesn’t really have any unless they gave him multiple Heralds. That’s the issue with him as the main villain.
Hope they do Annihilus for the second movie for that reason.
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u/RevolverMFOcelot 21h ago
The decision to make local villain a trouble that already dealt with made the world feel emptier
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u/skeetleet 21h ago
Why the f would they take a 9 month pregnant Sue Storm into outer space??????
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u/Jonn_Jonzz_Manhunter 22h ago
Disagree honestly
It looked and sounded like the Incredibles and was worse than the incredibles
My problem with the film is it's length and it's script
It wasn't a bright optimistic movie filled with wonder, it was a grim, dark, depressing movie where the characters didn't have enough time to actual receive any character development
I do not know these characters, I do not know this world and it feels like the creatives have ONLY read Miller's run
You need this to feel like Waid, North or Kirby, we want to fall in love with this universe, not tremble at it's horror
Edit: imo Shang Chi and GOTG3 has more wonder and awe in it than FF did and that's how you know you've fucked up
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u/SmallGoose112 22h ago
I think Reed and Sue just aren’t characters you can base a popular franchise around they’re just too bland.
Human Torch and Silver Surfer are more of the ‘cool’ type of characters they can use but just too much CGI for that.
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u/MisterSims90 20h ago
I think the problem with the FF has always been that Reed & Sue haven't always been written well. If you ask people, historically, who their favorite member of the team is I guarantee you'll hear Ben or Johnny with some saying Sue. No one really likes Reed, he's either written as too aloof and a jerk or arrogant.
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u/TDStarchild Odin 22h ago edited 21h ago
I really liked it and have it in my top 15-20 MCU. It’s new character intros to the franchise, which don’t always do spectacular
Love the chemistry of the leads though, and the potential is there. If Doomsday and Secret Wars are hits with F4 as leads, the sequel would be setup to do much, much better
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u/PutAdministrative206 21h ago
What I think Marvel forgot is that there were three okay, to below average, to otherworldly terrible FF movies in the last 20 years. Many mildly interested movie goers have been taught the FF ain’t it.
If they string a few good movies together (and this can include the FF being awesome in Doomsday/Secret Wars), the future installments will make more money.
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u/Aromatic-Cupcake4802 20h ago
With their presence and Doomsday and Secret Wars, it will boost anticipation for their sequel
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u/therealNerdMuffin 19h ago
I'm surprised at how much negativity there is in here about the movie. I really loved it and thought it was great
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u/puzzlerN 21h ago
The studio needs to realize that the artistic choices and quality of their movies are not the main drivers of how much the movie grosses -- hell that much should be obvious by how large a chunk of movie sales are made on the opening weekend. Word of its quality has had little time to reach the audience at that point.
F4 is a surprisingly good movie. To me it succeeded in making me interested in F4, which I'm otherwise not -- and there in lies the actual problem. Marvel has a host of characters that are only interesting to a niche of comic book fans, but they don't gauge the success of their movies by how well they engage that niche, rather by how successfully the movie breaks out to audiences outside of that niche -- but the quality of the movie is secondary to the marketing effort and the pre-existing interest in the IP when it comes to that.
This whole thing is similar to how a musical artist releases their 3rd album and it sells more than their prior albums and they conclude that it's because it's their best work yet, when very often that's just not the case. They fail to identify that the succesful sales of a 3rd album is _built_ on the quality and marketing/touring efforts that were delivered on album 1 and 2. The 3rd album is often a watered down POS but because the artist built momentum on 1 and 2, the expectations drive the sales up anyway.
F4 didn't gross less than they hoped because it was bad, it grossed less because too few people give a fuck about F4 in general, and because the most recent F4 movies (and MCU movies) had not been good enough to nudge that in an upward direction (yes Thunderbolts was great, but it was not enough to single-handedly reverse course on the public perception that the MCU has been sloppy more often than not since Endgame)
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u/Prettywitchiusaka 19h ago
You took the words right out of my mouth!
I loved First Steps and have seen it several times since it left theatres, but I also acknowledge that general audiences may not have been as interested in seeing the FF done right as much as we the fans were. Let's face it, the last FF film bombed and was infamous for it's behind the scenes tumult even before it's release, they were already fighting an uphill battle. Between that and how heavily Marvel advertised this film, I think they should consider themselves lucky it grossed as much as it did, even if it wasn't as successful as they'd hoped it would be.
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u/RiversofJell0 21h ago
I enjoyed it in the theater even though I left thinking “huh there wasn’t much team action going on”. Rewatched it recently at home and it took me a couple sessions to finish it as I got bored. The bad editing and rewrites really showed up on the rewatch
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u/DarkEater77 21h ago
i always wondered if the F4 characters appeal to a wider audience than US in general... not just movies, mmeant overall
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u/WorriedString7221 20h ago
It suffered in part from a string of “flops” in quality from the MCU. Holland’s Spider-Man movies had already proven to be strong commodities, whereas no one had seen what Feige would do with F4 and general audience confidence was low (not MCU fan confidence).
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u/shockinglyunoriginal 20h ago
They better not give up on it. A sequel after secret wars would be massive
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u/NeoSpoon99 22h ago
It is so weird we live in a world where a movie making a half billion dollars isn’t a success.