The Worst Marvel Movie Of All Time Continues To Get Hate Today

Despite the title, critics overwhelmingly agree that viewing Fantastic Four was an experience that was far from fantastic.

Serving as an origin story for the quantum-powered quartet, the film was widely criticized for not embodying the spirit that the source material established in the comic book series of the same name.

Fantastic Four follows the beats of your typical superhero origin story, and centers on how Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm received their powers after using opening a Quantum Gate to take an unsanctioned voyage to Planet Zero.

After being placed in government custody, Reed escapes so he can hopefully find a cure that will strip him of his volatile powers. A year later, Reed is captured with the help of Sue and Ben, and we learn what’s at stake.

Our titular heroes get recruited by the US military and are suited up with uniforms that help them control and harness their abilities. Reed is brought to Area 57 and is tasked with rebuilding the Quantum Gate in exchange for resources that will help him reverse his condition.

At this point in Fantastic Four, we learn about the transformation that the gate’s original designer, Victor Von Doom underwent, which gave him telekinetic abilities.

Victor wants to destroy Earth, and kills the scientists involved because he doesn’t want his new home planet to be invaded in the future.

As compelling as the Fantastic Four plot may sound, its execution was what most moviegoers would consider to be abysmal.

The film was largely criticized for deviating too far from the source material and lacking the humor and vibrancy that made the original comic book property so special in the first place.

Not only was this attempt at a Fantastic Four movie off-kilter thematically speaking, it was criticized for having a tedious and nonsensical plot.

Though Fantastic Four director Josh Trank didn’t intend for the film to be so poorly received, he cites studio interference as one of the reasons his project didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to.

In other words, we could have seen a very different version of Fantastic Four that was presented to us if Tank had the pull to fully realize the vision he had when he took on the project.

At the global box office, Fantastic Four earned just shy of $168 million against its reported budget of $155 million.

When you consider the marketing and promotional costs in addition to the production cost, Fantastic Four bombed on the commercial front, losing a reported $80 million after all was said and done.

Critically speaking, Fantastic Four didn’t fare any better. In fact, the film garnered a 9 percent critical score against an audience score of 18 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, making it the lowest-scored movie based on a Marvel property to date.

The good news, however, is that the MCU will kick off Phase Six with a new Fantastic Four movie.

Though we’re still waiting on official casting announcements, it’s been rumored that Pedro Pascal will be taking on the role of Reed Richards, and that Mads Mikkelsen is on the short-list to portray the film’s primary antagonist, Doctor Doom.

Though we can’t say for certain that we’ll see a successful live-action adaptation until there are further developments, it’s reasonable to assume that the MCU machine will pull no stops in their attempt to produce a Fantastic Four movie that will make us forget about the disaster that was released in 2015.

Fantastic Four is slated for a May 2 2025 release, and we’ll report back as more developments make their way into the news cycle.