They weren't bad... For when and what they were.

Honestly...I agree! After seeing The Fantastic Four: First Steps in theaters and absolutelyf***ingtasticly loving it, yeah these ones aren't that great any longer. Not that they ever were, but they were heartwarming in some way. Like the cast was insanely good. In particular Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, ah man do I have a celebrity crush on her! Ioan Gruffudd is also a really good Reed Richards. Chris Evans as Johnny Storm I didn't really like that much, but him appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine was a surprise and would've had me jumping out of my seat if it wasn't spoiled to me 2 days before I could finally watch that film. Michael Chiklis as The Thing, I really don't care for. I think he did a great job, but his character wasn't that interesting for me. The late Julian McMahon is still the definitive Doctor Doom for me. Most likely that will change with Avengers: Doomsday and Robert Downey Jr., but if not for McMahon then we wouldn't have had Downey Jr. and Doomsday on the horizon! Now I like The Rise Of The Silver Surfer more than the first one if I can be honest. Showing Galactus as a big cloud was one of the dumbest things they could do, yet that concept somehow also interests me. But yeah, I mostly like these for Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd and the late Julian McMahon. They're very proudly in my Blu-Ray collection too. But yeah, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is an infinite amount of times better for me...

^ I think the first of these 2 movies is genuinely great and better than most recent MCU projects.

@Christian the Icon I'd definetely not go as far as to say that. Mind you that we had WandaVision, Loki, Shang-Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Werewolf By Night, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, Loki Season 2, Deadpool & Wolverine, Thunderbolts* and now The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Those are the universally loved projects of recent MCU films. And even the lesser ones are still better than these 2 films. At least that's what I think, and I think a lot of people would agree with me on this. These films definetely are fun and the actors are great, but it does not beat the majority of the MCU...

I still prefer these movies over all of those, good as SOME of them may be. Especially No Way Home. I thought that was by far the worst of Tom’s movies. It doesn’t hold up once you’re not in a cheering crowd watching it. I miss the 2000s era of fun, self-contained comic book movies that don’t require homework to watch, which is why I’m excited to see this new F4 movie, because I lost interest in the overarching story of the MCU after the Infinity Saga ended.

@Christian the Icon With all due respect dude, I can't take you seriously when you say that these films are better than Spider-Man: No Way Home...like these ones are fun, but they're not good. I totally understand what you're saying about missing these self-contained films. If at all, the projects that are set somewhere else than the Sacred Timeline are some of my favorites too. I care more for the world of the Time Variance Authority, Earth-96283 (the world of Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man), the Earth-10005 showin in Deadpool & Wolverine and now Earth-828, the universe of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which one I think you'll definetely love! But with projects like Spider-Man: No Way Home, Thunderbolts* and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3, the fact they do take place on the Sacred Timeline doesn't make them less than the others...

^ Movies in general were better back in the 2000s. The MCU feels so bland nowadays.

@Christian the Icon I have to agree with you on that in terms of filmmaking technology, like the usage of celluloid film like 35mm and 70mm to both record and project films definetely add up for older films! Aside from Christopher Nolan, Quentin Tarantino and some films like The Brutalist and the upcoming film One Battle After Another, films are nowadays recorded with digital cameras and that does make the cinematography look very bland and dull. The Fantastic Four: First Steps used 16mm and 35mm for parts of the film, and I can tell you that you see that! The Fantastic Four: First Steps has some of the best cinematography I've seen in the MCU, the single best since Loki Season 2! If you're interested in this, there's a 35mm print scan of Spider-Man (2002) that has the film in its native 1.33:1 aspect ratio. It truely adds another depth to the film. I can give you a list of screenshots from it, or even a playlist that got all the major scenes in it! Or just search it up on X, you'll find a lot of fun content that adds a new layer to the film! I was planning on redoing a post I did about IMAX 1.43:1 aspect ratio and the 1.33:1 version of Spider-Man, because in select IMAX theaters you'll see about 6 minutes of The Fantastic Four: First Steps in IMAX 1.43:1, the same aspect ratio as IMAX 70mm. You seem like someone who would know things about celluloid film given your nostalgia for older movies. For me, both eras have phenonimal films, mediocre films and everything that you'll find in between of that! But I totally get your point!

I like those movies.

I do to, they aren't the greatest and mediocre. The casting was really good but they weren't done justice. The 2000's Fox Fantastic 4 movies are kinda like guilty pleasure movies.

First Steps was perfect.