Fantastic FourMovie Reviews

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Avg. Critic Score: 40 out of 100 Mixed or average reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
11 Iffy for 11+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 70
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    A funky, fun film version of the famous Marvel superhero concoction, one of the earliest of the revisionist wave of supes and in some ways the most lovable or at least the most knowable. Read full review

  • 50
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    This "Four" ain't so "Fantastic." Read full review

  • 50
    Los Angeles Times | Kevin Crust

    Fails to be anything more than a mild summertime diversion. Based on the Marvel comic book, it's a prototypical air conditioner movie. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    There's nothing terribly fantastic about this ho-hum futuristic foray. Read full review

  • 50
    Variety | Joe Leydon

    A wildly uneven, sporadically slapdash action-adventure that amuses in fits and starts. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

    This clumsy, cheesy, chintzy adaptation, with its F/X that look dated the moment you see them, is like something left over from the '60s. Read full review

  • 40
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    A colossal snore. Read full review

  • 40
    The New York Times | Dana Stevens

    Compared with the psychological probing and spiritual brooding of "Batman Begins," Fantastic Four is proudly dumb, loud and inconsequential. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    They take on special powers that the filmmakers are incapable of making interesting, partly because the characters are ciphers, and partly because the story is listless and uninventive. Read full review

  • 25
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger Ebert

    The really good superhero movies, like "Superman," "SpiderMan 2" and "Batman Begins," leave Fantastic Four so far behind that the movie should almost be ashamed to show itself in the same theaters. Read full review

View more reviews for Fantastic Four on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 11+ Campy but often violent comic book movie.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that the film includes loud and explosive violence. The astronauts' encounter with the radioactive cloud is rendered in frightening, fiery images, and the Thing's transformation from human to rock is potentially alarming. Fights between the superheroes and archenemy Dr. Doom show bodies slammed into or through walls and thrown out windows; the Human Torch engages in extreme sports (snowboarding and motocross) and implied sexual activity (following one encounter, he appears wearing only a girl's pink parka to cover his genitals), Susan wears cleavage-revealing outfits, and someone remarks on one superhero's elongated body parts. The film also includes a couple of multi-car crashes occur, several injuries that draw blood, and a scene where the police shoot at the Thing (bullets bounce off him).
  • Families can talk about how superpowers change the characters' lives, as they must decide how to use them, for public good, for personal gain, or to settle personal grudges. How are anxieties, competitions, and quarrels exacerbated by these changes? How is Susan's situation different from the men's, as she feels the need to mediate their arguments? What is the emotional effect when the Thing's wife abandons him? How do the four friends learn to appreciate their differences as well as their similar situations, as "freaks," celebrities, and heroes?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Supervillain is typically evil; friends argue among themselves.
What to watch for
  • violence false3 Violence: Comic bookish explosions, car crashes, and body slammings.
  • sex false3 Sex: Sexual references.
  • language false0 Language: Not an issue
  • consumerism false3 Consumerism: Superheroes market their own action figures; a visit to a motocross arena features known brands (Dos Equis, ESPN, Coke), Burger King shows up.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Some wine drinking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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