The Fantastic Four: First Steps - Official Teaser Trailer (2025)

[Marc Radle]

Kristian Harloff - FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS REVIEW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksr_2ljeHto

 

[Clint_L]

But...is the movie about those real-world parallels? I mean, I never get the sense in that movie that it's trying to talk about that. Maybe Thunderbolts is just more obvious about it?

Ragnarok is definitely addressing real world issues. Specifically, colonialism. Which is not surprising, given that its director is partially of Māori ancestry.

 

[Clint_L]

FF4 reviews are looking very strong, though not rapturous. Currently 86% on RT, with some raves and few outright pans.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

FF4 reviews are looking very strong, though not rapturous. Currently 86% on RT, with some raves and few outright pans.

I'm going to make a prediction. So ... you can come back and see how right (or wrong) I am.

I think FF4 is going to do ... fine-ish, but underperform. Let me list the reasons-

1. The Fantastic Four might be the "First Family of Marvel" and they might be a big thing for a decent part of people that are really into Marvel comics, but for most people, including a decent number of Marvel fans ... they're kinda meh. I'm not saying that there is no way to do them justice, or to make them compelling, but they feel really dated.

2. We may have short memories, but this is the fourth FF movie in the last twenty years, and I don't think anyone has any fond memories of them other than, "Hey, wasn't Chris Evans in them originally?"

3. It's already late summer, and people are turning to other things.

4. Marvel just doesn't have the magic it once had, for multiple reasons. Thunderbolts* was, IMO, at least a return to form (not the best Marvel movie, but not Quantumania) and it didn't even hit $400 million worldwide.

5. Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I'm not seeing a lot of people I know that were into the MCU be fired up for this.

6. MCU movies can no longer count on massive international box office (see, e.g., China).

What does it mean? IMO, it's not going to do Lilo & Stitch numbers. It's not going to do Minecraft numbers. The current domestic box office projection is $100-110m (domestic) for opening weekend.

In other words, I think that if it manages to get to $600m, it would have to be considered an unqualified success. For reference, that's the Iron Man 2 line.

Bonus fun fact- since COVID, the only MCU movies to cross $500m, aka "The Ant-Man Line" are as follows:
SM: No Way Home (Sony IP, sequel to prior MCU)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Sequel to prior MCU)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Sequel to prior MCU)
BP: Wakanda Forever (Sequel to prior MCU)
GoTG VOl. 3 (Sequel to prior MCU)
Deadpool & Wolverine (prior Fox IP, sequel to prior Fox IP)

I'm sensing a trend. I might be wrong, but that's my take.

 

[Stalker0]

I'm going to make a prediction. So ... you can come back and see how right (or wrong) I am.

I think FF4 is going to do ... fine-ish, but underperform. Let me list the reasons-

1. The Fantastic Four might be the "First Family of Marvel" and they might be a big thing for a decent part of people that are really into Marvel comics, but for most people, including a decent number of Marvel fans ... they're kinda meh. I'm not saying that there is no way to do them justice, or to make them compelling, but they feel really dated.

2. We may have short memories, but this is the fourth FF movie in the last twenty years, and I don't think anyone has any fond memories of them other than, "Hey, wasn't Chris Evans in them originally?"

3. It's already late summer, and people are turning to other things.

4. Marvel just doesn't have the magic it once had, for multiple reasons. Thunderbolts* was, IMO, at least a return to form (not the best Marvel movie, but not Quantumania) and it didn't even hit $400 million worldwide.

5. Based purely on anecdotal evidence, I'm not seeing a lot of people I know that were into the MCU be fired up for this.

6. MCU movies can no longer count on massive international box office (see, e.g., China).

What does it mean? IMO, it's not going to do Lilo & Stitch numbers. It's not going to do Minecraft numbers. The current domestic box office projection is $100-110m (domestic) for opening weekend.

In other words, I think that if it manages to get to $600m, it would have to be considered an unqualified success. For reference, that's the Iron Man 2 line.

Bonus fun fact- since COVID, the only MCU movies to cross $500m, aka "The Ant-Man Line" are as follows:
SM: No Way Home (Sony IP, sequel to prior MCU)
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (Sequel to prior MCU)
Thor: Love and Thunder (Sequel to prior MCU)
BP: Wakanda Forever (Sequel to prior MCU)
GoTG VOl. 3 (Sequel to prior MCU)
Deadpool & Wolverine (prior Fox IP, sequel to prior Fox IP)

I'm sensing a trend. I might be wrong, but that's my take.

I will also throw out the obligatory "Superhero Fatigue" which I think is a factor in your number 4 above.

The movies are becoming kind of samey, and while your hard core fans are always going to tune in, the larger audiences that gave you billion dollar movies are hungry for something new. Hence why 500 million which once was considered an abject failure needs to be looked at in a new light.

I think the bottom line is, there is still a place for superhero movies, but the budgets have to reigned in with the new market reality. You can still make money, but your no longer making stupid money. You have a core audience that will see these kinds of movies, but that audience is now more niche than it once was, and so projections and expectations have to fall in line with that.

And that goes the same for the DCU. DCU missed the boat, they are not going to make the kind of stupid money Marvel once did, no matter how good their movies are. Doesn't mean they can't make solid money, but again budgets and expectations have to be in line with reality, otherwise they too might see the string of "flops" Marvel has been dealing with in recent years.

 

[Kaodi]

2. We may have short memories, but this is the fourth FF movie in the last twenty years, and I don't think anyone has any fond memories of them other than, "Hey, wasn't Chris Evans in them originally?"

And Jessica Alba. Let us not forget Jessica Alba. In fact it would be fun if they cast Jessica Alba in the new X-Men as someone like Moira MacTaggert.

But as far as international success goes right now international audiences might be a bit sensitive at the present moment to how overwhelmingly American they are. Though the latter four of the six movies that have crossed the $500 million line also manage to skirt that, with one being African, one Canadian, and two mostly off-world.

 

[Ryujin]

And Jessica Alba. Let us not forget Jessica Alba. In fact it would be fun if they cast Jessica Alba in the new X-Men as someone like Moira MacTaggert.

But as far as international success goes right now international audiences might be a bit sensitive at the present moment to how overwhelmingly American they are. Though the latter four of the six movies that have crossed the $500 million line also manage to skirt that, with one being African, one Canadian, and two mostly off-world.

I'm wondering if the "overwhelmingly American" thing might actually work for it, in this case, given that it's that mythical Gernsback '50s/'60s future America with cars with tail fins, and gas stations that look like strange interstellar transmission towers.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gunn is blaming Anti-American sentiment for the poor international performance of Superman, and the Four, with its focus on the nuclear family, is if anything even more American.

 

[John R Davis]

Well I thought it was very good indeed
Drank large coffee, didn't pee ( always a good sign for a 59 year old).

2 post credits

 

[Clint_L]

Gunn is blaming Anti-American sentiment for the poor international performance of Superman, and the Four, with its focus on the nuclear family, is if anything even more American.

Eh…Captain America aside (and even that is arguable), I don’t think any superhero is more associated with the USA than is Supes.

And I know for a fact that the last Captain America movie was basically toxic up here in Canada (though it didn’t help that it was also terrible). The USA brand has never been lower in my lifetime. More than 60% of Canadians now view the US as an actively hostile state, like Russia, according to the most recent polls. That was unthinkable just a year ago; historically, it’s our closest ally! And we aren’t the only nation that is actively boycotting all things American. So there absolutely will be an impact on American films.