Fantastic Four Duology / YMMV

Entries in the Fantastic Four Duology with their own YMMV page:

Adorkable: Reed. His quirky and timid behaviour has this appeal.
Alternate Character Interpretation: Did Victor truly love Sue, or did he only want her so he can rub it in Reed's face for missing his chance? Though his anger at her rejection would suggest the former, his arrogance and lording his superiority over Reed suggests the latter.
Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Since they are the least bad and most successful Fantastic Four films, many people were introduced to the team in these films. It helps due to the failure of Fant4stic.
- Mr. Fantastic can be seen as a timid, quirky but smart man.
- The Invisible Woman is generally known as a Ms. Fanservice with invisibility and force fields.
- The Thing is seen as a wisecracking brute with a sympathetic side.
- The Human Torch is generally seen as the slick and womanizing member of the team.
Badass Decay: Doctor Doom and Sue Storm (the page image for Took a Level in Badass, mind you) both suffer from this because they were reduced from menacing and empowering to silly and sexy respectively. The third movie probably would have fixed this.
Base-Breaking Character:
- The Human Torch: funny or annoying? For the latter, is it because Chris Evans did a good or bad job at acting for making him come off that way? Also, was his teasing of Ben Grimm funny or too mean-spirited?
- Ditto for Doctor Doom. Some like how he has been reimagined as a subtly creepy Corrupt Corporate Executive, feeling that this is a good update of the character. Others hated this change, claiming that it was unnecessary and turned Doom into a Captain Ersatz of Norman Osborn rather than, well, Doctor Doom.
Best Known for the Fanservice: Jessica Alba as Susan Storm's moments are known by general fans as pure fanservice. There are also a few shirtless scenes featuring Chris Evans.
Broken Base: The duology's earnest cheesiness remains a massive point of contention to this day. Does it make the films outdated, or does it elevate them above the mostly self-aware humor of later superhero films?
Can't Un-Hear It: For those who prefer these films over Fantastic Four (2015) hear Michael Chiklis as The Thing, Jessica Alba as Susan Storm, Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic, Chris Evans as the Human Torch and Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom. Michael Chiklis gets special mention because he later voiced the Thing in an episode of Robot Chicken and is looking forward to playing the Thing again in the Marvel Cinematic Universe if he is given the opportunity.
Complete Monster:
- Dr. Victor Von Doom, devoid of his normal redeeming qualities, is the CEO of Von Doom Industries and is obsessed with gaining power at any cost. After an accident in space exposed him and the Fantastic Four to a cosmic storm, Doom blames the resulting bad press on Reed Richards. After he gains powers himself, Doom believes he's become a god and tricks Ben Grimm into helping him to gain more power for himself, before trying to murder the entire Fantastic Four. Later Doom returns and allies with the Four in order to catch the Silver Surfer, only for Doom to betray them and steal the Surfer's board to gain unlimited power, refusing to give it up even after he's told that the Silver Surfer needs the board to stop Galactus from devouring the world.
- Novelizations, by Peter David & Daniel Josephs respectively, Victor Von Doom is portrayed as nothing like his regular incarnations, but rather a complete psychopath with delusions of godhood. Having a petty hatred of Reed Richards for not being as smart as him, Doom first attempts to leave his own fiancée, Sue Storm, to die alongside Reed and others to save his own skin. After gaining metallic skin and electromagnetic abilities, Doom murders his doctor for trying to tell others of his "condition", and later murders a business partner for insulting him. By the end of the first novel, Doom's true personality has come into full display, as he attempts to sadistically freeze Reed to death. In the second novel, Doom allies with Reed and rest of the Fantastic Four to stop the titular Silver Surfer; it is quickly revealed that it was a ploy on Doom's part to steal the Surfer's power, which he immediately uses to gruesomely kill an army general and numerous soldiers. In the end, as Gah Lak Tus arrives and begins destroying the Earth, Doom, rather than stop Gah Lak Tus with his power, only laughs as the world slowly starts to die around him, proclaiming he longer needs the Earth or anyone else, just himself.
Critical Backlash: Thanks to the release of Fantastic Four (2015), people no longer think of these two as quite so bad.
Cult Classic: Thanks to the failure of Fantastic Four (2015), the Tim Story films have become retroactively memorable thanks to how faithful they are to the comics and Michael Chiklis' performance being a standout.
Designated Hero: The Fantastic Four themselves edge on this. The four show no interest in actually being superheroes and spend most of the film trying to get rid of their powers instead of using them to do good, save for Johnny who instead uses his powers in selfish and irresponsible ways. The only two feats of heroism the group performs — helping contain the car crash on the bridge and stopping Doom — are problems they directly cause. But thanks to Ben causing the bridge accident flying under the radar, the media loves them and dubs them heroes.
Draco in Leather Pants: Doom is a truly self-serving, controlling villain who enjoys causing mayhem and killing innocent people after he develops his powers, but reviewers of the movie or fans discussing it will often treat him as the true good guy of the film who got a bum rap. In a bit of a twist, this seems to be as much about his charisma and charm as a character as it is an overall dislike for the actual heroes in the story, and their perceived incompetence.
Evil Is Cool: Victor von Doom has some impressive electric powers and likes being soft spoken to others.
Fandom Rivalry: With Fantastic Four (2015) for being too dark and joyless compared to these films. It doesn't help that the reboot had a Troubled Production and became a Box Office Bomb.
First Installment Wins: Compared to the reboot, many people consider them as the only good Fantastic Four films.
Fountain of Memes: The Thing is starting to become meme worthy thanks to how well Michael Chiklis performed as the character. Johnny Storm as well due to his snarkiness. Doctor Doom is also meme-worthy due to his memorable dialogue.
Friendly Fandoms:
- It has a friendly relationship with the Spider-Man Trilogy due to how joyful and campy these film adaptations are in a period of grounded superhero movies. It helps that Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four worked together in the comics.
- It has a kind friendship with the Hellboy duology and Superman Returns because they are all faithful adaptations that got cut short, unfortunately and replaced with not as faithful reboots. Even helps that Doug Jones is in the former franchise and one of the lead characters wears makeup.
- A number of MCU fans wanted Michael Chiklis to return as the Thing for a Kevin Feige produced Fantastic Four film. Helps that Chiklis enjoyed playing the character in both films.
Harsher in Hindsight:
- Ioan Gruffudd played a man who married a blonde woman. In February 2022, Ioan filed a restraining order to his blonde ex-wife Alice Evans.
- Reed wanting to cure his powers is harder to watch after the release of X-Men: The Last Stand.
Heartwarming in Hindsight: Regardless of what Jessica Alba thought of the second film, time has been kind to her.
- Sue's relationship with Reed blossoming throughout the course of the films was this because the first film was made when Jessica Alba met Cash Warren on the set and one year after the second film, she got married and had three children.
- Many of the cast members said that Jessica Alba would be a great mother given that Sue has maternal instinct. By 2008, it turns out they're right.
- Jessica Alba said that she wanted to play a superhero back in her childhood and she eventually played one in these films.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Watching Chris Evans's performance as Johnny is particularly funny with the knowledge that he went on to slip into the costume of another Marvel hero… Captain America. That's about as far removed from Johnny as you'll get. Also, some time after Johnny got his powers, he went skiing and fell into ice!
Johnny: Captain on the bridge!
He Really Can Act:
- Out of the Fantastic Four actors, Michael Chiklis put a lot of effort playing Ben Grimm in both films and the first video game by embracing his role through makeup. He was given a seal of approval by Stan Lee compared to the rest of the cast.
- Jessica Alba got some retrospective praise for acting motherly like Sue in the comics.
Just Here for Godzilla:
- Many people just want to see Michael Chiklis' effort being shown as the Thing which made Stan Lee happy.
- A retroactive example. People who grew up with the Marvel Cinematic Universe want to see Chris Evans' first Marvel role in action.
- Many fans of Jessica Alba want to see her use her superpowers.
Memetic Badass: The Thing simply because his portrayal by Michael Chiklis is seen by many as a big highlight.
Memetic Loser: A downplayed example. Since Chris Evans is now known for playing Captain America, his Human Torch portrayal isn't as well received despite how quotable he is.
My Real Daddy: Fans now think of these films as Fantastic Four movies done right, thanks to Tim Story.
Never Live It Down: Diehard fans know Sue as an Invisible Streaker.
One-Scene Wonder: Stan Lee had memorable cameos in both films.
Popularity Polynomial: When the films were released, people considered them forgettable. But when Fantastic Four (2015) came out and thanks to retrospective write-ups, people looked back at these films kindly.
Questionable Casting: Jessica Alba is generally considered to be miscast, either because of the ethnic trench between her and her onscreen brother Chris Evans (which, to be fair, is pretty easy to miss if you don't already know), or otherwise for being too young for the role and not really resembling most depictions of the character at all; the general assumption is that she was cast mostly for star power and to be a general movie draw (which is especially problematic, as Sue isn't intended to be a Fanservice prop - she's the most powerful member of the team!). Though to be fair, Jessica and Sue are motherly individuals.
Retroactive Recognition: Hey, is that Steve Rogers as Johnny Storm?
Ron the Death Eater: The four protagonists tend to get the Designated Hero label thrown at them due to the fact that they end up causing a lot of damage in the city (namely the incident on the bridge). However, all four of the heroes (even Johnny) appear to be honest people making honest mistakes. They just happen to be honest people with occasional Power Incontinence; it's just that no one ever calls them out on their actions, good intentioned or not. What's more, Victor initiates the final fight and all the heroes are trying to do is stop him from hurting innocent people.
Sacred Cow: Michael Chiklis' performance as the Thing is seen in a universally positive light for fans and non-fans.
Signature Song: "Error Operator" for the first film and video game.
So Bad, It Was Better: Both on the receiving and giving end - first, the slick visuals and way too comedic approach led some to prefer the Roger Corman movie for being serious yet laughable in its cheapness; and then the 2015 reboot got the films a reappraisal for actually being fun and lighthearted instead of overtly dark and joyless.
So Okay, It's Average: The general consensus of the films, especially compared to other Marvel films at the time including Spider-Man Trilogy and X-Men Film Series.
Special Effect Failure: Mr. Fantastic's stretching effects look ridiculously cartoony.
Squick:
- Reed's texting fingers that is seen as disgusting, even for Johnny.
  Johnny: You know, I've always been both impressed, and disgusted by that.
- The extended close-up shot of Reed's hand squeezing beneath Ben's door:
  Johnny: ...That's gross.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: As a fan of the comics, Michael Chiklis seemed to have put the most effort into his portrayal of Ben Grimm. Rather than simply voicing a CGI creation for the same pay, he insisted on wearing physical prosthetics and make-up to give an authentic and humanistic portrayal. Needless to say, many fans lamented how the movies were a disservice to a dedicated fan like Chiklis. The one bright spot, as the "Woobie" entry below shows, is that both critics and fans seem to have held up Chiklis' performance as the best thing about the movies.
Tough Act to Follow:
- These films are considered better than the reboot.
- The actors' performances as the 4 and Doctor Doom have yet to be topped off.
Vindicated by History: While these films were never held in high regard, some have gained more of an appreciation for them after Josh Trank's reboot of the series was not only trashed by critics and audiences, but a Box Office Bomb on top of it. Basically, the 2015 film's weaknesses made those of the previous duology look less bad, and made their strengths stand out more. It's also helped by the fact that for all these films' faults, they at least wanted to be Fantastic Four films, while the 2015 film is considered to be an In Name Only adaptation.
Visual Effects of Awesome:
- Dr. Doom's electricity in the two films is surprisingly effective from computer generated imagery.
- The visual effects for the Human Torch have aged well with a realistic burning effect.
- The make-up for the Thing is more effective than the motion capture they would have used.
Watch It for the Meme: Those who know the memes, particularly the Thing and Human Torch's quotes watch the movies for the hell of it.
The Woobie: The Thing. Even the most savage of critics loved Michael Chiklis's performance as Marvel's most lovable Tragic Monster. Jessica Alba said that Michael Chiklis was so damn good at pulling this off that she just wanted to hug him between takes because he looked so sad.

YMMV / Fantastic Four Duology

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