Take Two: THE FANTASIC FOUR (1994)

 by Patrick Bromley

Currently the best Fantastic Four movie.

We are just days away from the release of 2025's Fantastic Four: First Steps, the fifth (!!) attempt to bring the comic book characters to the big screen and the first to be made under the umbrella of Marvel Studios. There's a lot of pressure on the movie to not just perform but pretty much explode, partly because Marvel needs a crossover hit that becomes part of the cultural conversation after a series of disappointments and partly because it's the chance for the studio to prove they're the first to get Fantastic Four "right." The first attempt, produced in the early '90s supposedly as a scheme to retain the rights (and the subject of this article), never officially saw the light of day. The next two attempts, produced through 20th Century Fox in the 2000s and directed by Tim Story, are part of the post-Raimi Spider-Man/pre-Iron Man wave of comic book movies that mostly feel like clunky '90s efforts done on bigger budgets. Then there's Josh Trank's dark and gritty reboot from 2015, a disaster both in front of and behind the camera about which the less said the better. 

I won't really get into the tangled production history of the film here. There are countless articles and YouTube videos and even a whole ass documentary, Doomed! The Untold Story of Roger Corman's Fantastic Four, covering everything that happened with the movie once it was completed. TLDR: everyone involved with the production tried their hardest to make the best movie possible on a budget that didn't really allow for that and subsequently got fucked over when producers and/or Marvel balked either because the finished product left something to be desired in their eyes or, more likely, that the movie was a cynical rush job just to hang onto the rights until they could mount a more expensive "official" production, most likely to be helmed by Chris Columbus. Unfortunately, no one told the cast or the filmmakers, meaning the only thing cynical about this Fantastic Four is the behind-the-scenes machinery that kept it from ever being released. What would up on screen is utterly sincere and silly and charming, just as a movie based on the Fantastic Four should be. 

You probably know the story already: a decade after the supposed death of friend and fellow scientist Victor Von Doom (Joseph Kulp), Reed Richards (Alex Hyde-White) leads a team on a research expedition into space, but a mishap causes them all to be exposed to cosmic rays and gives them superpowers. Reed can suddenly bend and stretch his body every possible way, while his best friend Ben Grimm becomes and orange rock monster and calls himself The Thing (played by Michael Bailey Smith out of costume and Carl Ciarfalio inside of it). Susan Storm (Rebecca Staab) can turn invisible at will, while her younger brother Johnny (Jay Underwood) becomes The Human Torch, gaining the ability to control and create fire. With their newly acquired powers in tow, the Four battle the likes of The Jeweler (Ian Trigger), a clear stand-in for The Mole Man, as well as the still-alive Victor Von Doom, who has donned a metallic suit and is now a supervillain calling himself Dr. Doom. I mean, he didn't have far to go on the name.

I swear I'm not trolling when I say this is my favorite FF movie. It has extreme limitations, yes, most of which I find effective at best and charming at worst. Sure, Doctor Doom's dialogue can be hard to understand because he's talking behind a mask. Sure, the rubber Thing suit may not be the most convincing, but it's my favorite onscreen version of The Thing to date. The effects used to illustrate Reed Richards' stretching powers can be a bit lame at times (though I actually think the filmmakers are pretty clever in the way they stage them), but so are Reed Richards' powers. The plot meanders in the back half as our heroes wander around a series of dark rooms (not a big lighting budget on this one) and are shot at by henchman with machine guns, something I don't totally remember from the Fantastic Four comics but it's been a while since I read one. None of these things bother me because I know how to watch a movie like this, one made for very little money but a lot of ambition and heart. What 1994's The Fantastic Four gets right that none of the others capture is the spirit of the thing. That goes a long way.

The spirit of fun, of family, of decency is all over this Fantastic Four, from the score by Eric and David Wurst (the best) to the goofiness of the reality the film establishes to several of the performances, some of which remain my favorite iterations of these characters yet brought to screen. Rebecca Staab and Jay Underwood do their best with underwritten parts (Underwood was, as the documentary about the making of the movie points out, the biggest star cast at the time thanks to his work in stuff like Uncle Buck and The Boy Who Could Fly) but fail to make much of an impression in their respective roles. This movie's versions of Doctor Doom, Reed Richards, and especially Ben Grimm/The Thing are the best brought to the screen yet; both Joseph Kulp and Alex Hyde-White share just the right amount of sincerity and theatrical corniness that serves their characters and performances perfectly. I know these parts are being played by big stars like Pedro Pascal and Robert Downey Jr. in the upcoming Marvel movies, but I'd argue they've got their work cut out for them outdoing the Corman version.

The same could be said across the board, really. I'll keep an open mind and a hopeful heart about First Steps, but I don't think I'll be disappointed if it underwhelms like the two Tim Story movies did (there's no way it's as bad as the Josh Trank take). I have my Fantastic Four movie. The fact that it got buried will forever be an injustice to everyone who worked on it and a disservice to everyone who was unable to see the one good FF movie released in the last three decades. I get the reasons, but that doesn't make it ok. In the meantime, I"ll cross my fingers for this new version while holding this first attempt closest to my heart. It may not be totally can completely Fantastic, but it's exploding with heart from the top down and, like I said, gets the spirit of the Fantastic Four right. We should be so lucky if Marvel Studios does the same.