MOVIE REVIEWS: Fantastic Four a fantastic sci-fi movie

Published 4:36 pm Sunday, August 3, 2025

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps”

(Science-Fiction/Action: 1 hour, 54 minutes)

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn

Director: Matt Shakman

Rated:  PG-13 (Action/violence and language)

Movie Review:

 A much better improvement compared to “Fantastic Four” 2005, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is a beautifully visualized superhero movie. It is a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie that is frankly marvelous.  It nicely incorporates the Fantastic Four’s history into its story via various clever means, including a late-night television program bit. The movie also features something you do not see often in live action, a pregnant superhero.
Taking place on Earth-828, an alternate reality in the Marvel Universe, the setting is based on the Jack Kirby’s original comics, a retro-futuristic version of a 1960s United States. On this Earth, the Fantastic Four are the revered heroes Dr. Reed “Mr. Fantastic’ Richards (Pascal), Sue ‘Invisible Woman’ Storm (Kirby), Johnny ‘Human Torch’ Storm (Quinn) and Ben ‘The Thing’ Grimm (Moss-Bachrach). They have managed to defeat every villain.

Enter the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), the herald of the mighty planetary eating giant known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson). The Silver Surfer informs the citizens of Earth of their coming doom. She says, “I herald his beginning. I herald your end. I herald Galactus.” The Fantastic Four faces their greatest task, stopping Galactus from devouring Earth.

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn form a cast of talented actors. Director Matt Shakman (“Cut Bank, 2014”) is mainly a teleplay director, but he and writers Josh Friedman and Eric Pearson make this superheroic team really seem like a family. Action is present, but an emotive and engaging story about familial bonds exists too. This makes their struggles an inviting science-fiction flick worth viewing.

The visual aspects increase this movie’s appeal. The 1960s set designs, attire, make-up and hair, automobiles and other items give this movie a look of yesteryear combined with futuristic concepts: robots, flying cars, and deep space capable spacecraft.

A good part about this movie is that it’s not bloated like other Marvel movies. It has more of a straightforward story and such works for a more streamline, marvel, cinematic universe feature.

Grade: B (A fantastic production filled with cosmic appeal.)

 “Oh, Hi!” 

(Dark Comedy: 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Starring: Molly Gordon, Logan Lerman and Polly Draper

Director: Sophie Brooks

Rated: R (Sexual content, nudity and language)

Movie Review:

Oh Hi! is a dark comedy. It features a romance gone wrong for a couple, but it is a good time at a cinema for audiences.

Iris (Gordon) and Issac (Lerman) are two newfound lovers on a romantic getaway to quaint house in the country. Their time there is swell. They enjoy each other’s presence. While being intimate in bed, they decide to try something new. Iris chains Isaac to the bed. After their intimate moment. Isaac reveals he does not want a relationship, just casual fun. Isaac’s rejection does not sit well with Iris, who decides to leave him tied up to settle the score. Meanwhile, she confesses her love for him, trying to convince him why they are perfect for each other.

So the plot of this movie is not a romance, although it starts that way. “Oh, Hi!” is about a young woman’s anger about being misled. Rather than a romance, this is a revenge movie ultimately. While the predicament the characters find themselves in is amusing, the best laughs come from Polly Draper, who plays Iris’s mother who says the unexpectedly shocking statements.

This comedy by director-writer Sophie Brooks (“The Boy Downstairs,” 2017) could easily be a horror movie or a good romance. Instead, it goes down the trek of being a dark comedy. As such, it has humor, but not the kind that inspires sidesplitting laughs. Instead of the movie works by presenting a plausible story in a very interesting manner.

Grade: B- (Oh, you will probably like it.)

“The Home”

(Horror/Thriller: 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Starring: Pete Davidson, John Glover, Mary Beth Peil and Bruce Altman

Director: James DeMonaco

Rated: R (Strong bloody violence and gore, strong language and sexual content.)

Movie Review:

Pete Davidson is not known as a leading man. He is usually the goofy, but profoundly interesting, sidekick in movies such as “Riff Raff” (2024) or a crazed young man as in “Bodies Bodies Bodies” (2022). Davidson is interesting in comedies, but he proves he is good and engaging in dramas like “The King of Staten Island” (2020). In “Home,” Pete Davidson is leading man, and he carries this movie that reels you in only to have an already imperfect narrative end in a farfetched manner.
Davidson plays Max, a troubled young man since the death of his older foster brother Luke.  After Max is involved in an illegal incident, a judge agrees to lessen the sentence against him, if the young man agrees to a probationary requirement that he work at Green Meadows, a retirement home. Max begins working there as a handy and soon finds a horrific secret about Green Meadows.
Max’s sympathy for the aging demographic in which he serves causes him to be a bit of the detective. His inquisitive nature is what gets his character in trouble, and it is also what makes this movie a thriller. This screenplay hangs on Pete Davidson’s portrayal of Max as a troubled but caring person. The actor plays the troubled person very well despite the limitations of this screenplay.
The problematic element is this screenplay by director James DeMonaco and cowriter Adam Cantor attempts to fool audiences by having characters pretend as if they are as unaware as viewers. Even more, the plot’s apex takes a real-world mystery and smoothers in weak mythology, pseudo-science and an implausible conclusion. “The Home” takes a detour from reality where Davidson‘s fine performance is rendered useless.

Grade: C (A seemingly tranquil place, but it is not.)

“Sorry, Baby”

(Drama: 1 hour, 43 minutes)

Starring: Eva Victor, Naomi Ackie and Lucas Hedges

Director: Eva Victor

Rated: R (Sexual content, language and thematic elements)

Movie Review:

“Sorry, Baby” is an appealing drama with light comedy about some circumstances of one young woman’s life, including a very serious incident. That woman is Agnes Ward, played by this film’s director and writer, Eva Victor. This small gem is her directorial debut. “Sorry Baby” shows Victor’s skills as an actress, director and director.

Agnes Ward’s life is great. She is pursuing her goals in academia. She has a great friend, Lydie (Ackie), and she has a romance brewing with Gavin (Hedges), an admiring guy who lives next-door. Agnes is a graduate student at a university.  Her life is typical until an event happens that changes her perspective about those around her. Even good lives can have a hiccup or more.

This is an exciting drama. It handles an act of aggression with subtlety and a bit of humor. The humor appears out of place occasionally, as if an afterthought from another unfinished script. Yet, this thrives because of its lead Eva Victor. She becomes Agnes in interesting manner that carries “Sorry Baby.” Additionally, the small cast that accompanies her is a keen group that makes this narrative work.

Grade: B- (No apologies needed.)