First, did anyone catch the 3 second Kirby & Lee lookalike cameo? It would have made more sense if Lee was Joe Simon. Why would Lee be in Kirby's apartment over his shoulder while working on monster comics unless they were both artists?

Secondly, my jaw dropped at the movie climax. Invisible Woman is clearly the most powerful member. The fact that she physically shoved Galactus, a space demigod, and continued doing so over several minutes, is mind boggling. And it nearly killed her! Of course, everyone who's anyone saw the revival coming. I mean, it's Franklin.

I also LOVED Johnny's part in this as the only one to bother translating the Zenn-La language and therefore responsible for saving his own life when Shalla-Bal rushed in at the end.

Latveria's place at the U.N. (excuse me, Future Foundation) was empty or had a Latverian flag in it. Does that mean that the Downey Jr. Doom glimpsed in the mid-credits scene comes from this Earth, and the FF are already aware of him?

Ben's girlfriend is not Alicia, but Roz, named after Kirby's devoted wife. Love it.

Giving up your firstborn to a mad ruler to save yourselves, or refusing to do so, is a very Jewish theme, isn't it?

Also liked the Mole Man being a huge dickhead but one who ultimately does the right thing because Sue asks him nicely.

Sue's KILL HER order was very startling coming from the FF, but she was in labor and terrified for her son's life, so it's justified. Besides, those little rail guns wouldn't have harmed the Surfer even if they had hit her.

Also got a kick out of the end-credits scene homaging the 1960s FF cartoon, but with extra added likenesses. Good stuff.

I caught the Lee Kirby cameos. I loved that and the other nods to Kirby.

I was not expecting the ending that we got. I did not think the answer was teleporting the planet, and then Galactus away. Like so many, I imagined Galactus winning.

I loved what was done with Sue. I loved that Ben and Johnny weren't endlessly playing pranks on each other. That may have worked in the early comics, but it never worked in the movies. There was just enough in this movie.

I had no problem with SS being female, whatsoever.

First, the movie wowed me with its fast-paced montage to establish the world and history of the Fantastic Four. It really reminded me of the way Pixar handles this sort of thing and for the first 30-40 minutes, I was thinking the whole thing felt like Marvel handed a property over to Pixar to see what they could do. And I don’t just mean the Incredibles / FF connection, I mean the whole way the story was told to that point. I think this is the most effective example of its kind, probably the best since the Bob Dylan opening to Watchmen.

A particular highlight were the references to the classic Kirby / Lee comics, with the Mole Man and Mad Thinker, complete with super-apes, making appearances in the opening montage. And while I’m on the subject, it was nice to see “Jack” get a Stan Lee style cameo in this film and for the credits to end on a Kirby quote. Whatever anyone’s feelings about who did what, I’d like to hope everyone would agree both Kirby and Ditko should be as well-known as Stan for the work they all did together. This was a long overdue step in the right direction.

I was basically in total awe of the film up through the scene where they ditch the Surfer in a black hole and escape back to Earth. I was just bowled over by the visuals, the scope of Galactus, the world they built around the FF, and the portrayals of Sue, Reed, Johnny, and Ben themselves (CG for the Thing was perfection IMHO). I was feeling, “Wow, this is actually kicking Superman’s ass.”

But the remainder of the movie just didn’t manage to keep that sense of awe and scale for my taste. It was still good, but not nearly as good as that first half. It began to feel more like a regular superhero movie again (which isn’t bad, mind you – I like that sort of thing). But it brought the overall vibes down for me and I walked out of the theater on less of a high than I did for Superman (which I prefer overall).

The first misstep for me was Reed telling the press that Galactus was willing to spare the Earth in exchange for Franklin Richards when they had no intent of giving him up. If you’re not going to give him up, why tell the public about it? Why not just say the negotiations didn’t go well and we were attacked?

This whole subplot just sorta stirred up mixed feelings for me. It does feel like the FF is gambling with the fate of billions for the sake of their son – who would also perish if the Earth was consumed if Sue wasn’t conveniently able to overpower Galactus in the film’s climax.

I also thought it was odd the world’s governments would just accept whatever the FF decided and not intervene. It’s as if they were the rulers of the planet, with everyone deferring to their judgment. The public did push back and protest their choice, but a two-minute speech from Sue Storm somehow made everyone feel the risk of global annihilation was worth it. This also stretched the bounds of plausibility for my taste.

Reed’s original plan to save Earth by teleporting it also seemed a bit far-fetched, even for the Marvel Universe. And irresponsible as well – again, they’re gambling with the fate of billions here if the Earth doesn’t materialize in this new solar system just right – plus all the unforeseen consequences doing something so wildly dangerous could bring. Even coming to the realization of the plan felt strange – “I have no answers, I don’t know what to do. Wait, Sue, you just reminded me – I’ll use that device I invented a month ago to save the world!” (For anyone who hasn’t seen it – the plan didn’t work, they had to change it to luring Galactus to Earth and teleporting him to the other side of the universe.)

Beyond that, the second half just underwhelmed because it fell back onto the classic superhero movie formula – we’ve got to think of a way to beat the bad guy, I’ve got a plan, something unexpected wrecks the plan but I have a new back-up plan, that plan nearly fails but a character suddenly getting a power-boost through sheer willpower saves the day (along with a Han Solo style change of heart).

That all said, I know it seems I’m being pretty negative with my qualms about the film – but my overall reaction is still that it was very good overall and should be seen in theaters by any fan of superheroes and the FF in particular. It’s just hard not to feel slightly letdown when a movie seemed to be heading towards near perfection and falls into the same pitfalls / tropes / plot formula so many superhero movies do at the halfway point.

I thought the "move the planet" idea was kind of stupid.
They got superpowers because they fucked up their first flight.
Expecting the entire planet to go along with the threat, and the plan, was pretty inconceivable.
The back up plan, should have been the first.

I don't understand why Disney needed to change the Surfer to a woman,
but eliminate Marvels 2nd most famous blind character.

The Kirby/Lee cameo. Why would Lee be in Kirby's apartment looking over his shoulder while he draws monster comics? Lee probably never went to Kirby's house one single time and would have already sent him script from the office. Should be Kirby and Joe Simon here.

1) It's Stan Lee's cameo, they just finally acknowledged Jack Kirby as the co-creator (At the very least.)
2) Joe Simon had absolutely nothing to do with the Fantastic Four.
3) It's fiction.

Simon did work on a bunch of those old monster comics with Kirby, didn't he? Or were those strictly a Stan Lee thing with a variety of artists?

I don't think Simon did any work for Atlas/Timely after 1941. This is a pretty good site with credits for Joe Simon here:
https://www.atlastales.com/creator/206

Kirby's credits for the company (until FF and the Marvel superhero explosion of the 60s.)
https://www.atlastales.com/creator/206

Ahhh. Then to not break my suspension of disbelief just replace Stan Lee in that scene with one of Kirby's regular inkers, who likely would be visiting him in his studio from time to time, like Chic Stone or Joe Sinnott. Whichever one looks the most like how Stan Lee looked in the early 60s.