Fantastic Four (PG-13)
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This came out in 2015, but I didn't see it until 2025. It's a reboot of the "Fantastic Four" franchise, and has no connection to the 2005 and 2007 movies. It did quite poorly with critics, which I don't understand. I liked it, probably more than the earlier movies (though I couldn't really be sure without re-watching them). I think it had as much gritty realism as you could hope to get in a movie about the Fantastic Four (but alas, most people don't hope for that). In that sense, I feel like one could compare it to something like Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. Don't get me wrong, this is nowhere near as good as those films, but it did put me in mind of them. I just think it has a similar tone, and it's a tone that I like, at least every now and then.

It starts in 2007, with a boy named Reed Richards building a teleportation machine in his garage. He gets some help from another boy, Ben Grimm, and they become friends. Seven years later, the boys present an improved version of the teleporter at a science fair, but their teacher claims it's just a "magic trick", and disqualifies them. However, their machine attracts the attention of Franklin Storm, director of the Baxter Foundation, who recruits Reed to study at the foundation and help perfect a machine that transports matter to another dimension. The project began years ago, as an idea originated by Victor Von Doom, who has since left the project. But Franklin convinces him to return. Also involved in the project is Franklin's adopted daughter, Sue Storm (Kate Mara). And Franklin's son, Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) gets involved after wrecking a car in a street race and injuring himself. (Franklin wouldn't let him get the car back unless he helped with the project.)

After a test in which they successfully sent a chimp to the other dimension and brought it home safely, the government steps in, planning to send astronauts to the other dimension, called Planet Zero. But Reed, Victor, and Johnny get drunk and decide to go through the gate themselves. Reed invites Ben to join them. While on the other side, they're all exposed to some bizarre energy, and Victor falls off a cliff to his apparent death. The other three barely make it back home, and some of the energy blasts into our world with them, affecting Sue. She gains the power of invisibility and force-field creation, while Reed's body becomes super stretchy, Johnny is engulfed in flames, and Ben is turned to living stone. Reed runs away, promising to return to help Ben and the others. He wants to find a cure for their condition. Meanwhile, over the next year, Ben is sent on lots of missions by the military, as part of an agreement in which they promised to find a cure. He blames Reed for his condition, and for leaving him behind. Sue and Johnny both now have suits that let them control their powers. (Aside from turning his flames on and off, Johnny can also fly while his flames are on.) Sue helps the government locate Reed, and a team is sent to retrieve him. He's pretty good at fighting the soldiers off with his power, but is finally captured by Ben.

Reed now helps them rebuild the gate, in the hopes that studying the energy of Planet Zero would help them find a cure. This time, a team of explorers is sent through the gate, where they find Victor alive, but his protective suit is now fused to his body. He calls himself "Doom", and has incredibly strong telekinetic powers, and intends to destroy our world by using the dimensional gate to create a black hole which would suck everything from our world onto Planet Zero. So Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben have to work together to stop him.

And I'll stop there. I found it to be a pretty good origin story, and I liked the film's characters. I really would have liked to see a sequel with the Fantastic Four as a proper superhero team. Maybe the sequel could have been goofier, more humorous, which is the norm for these characters in other media. Critics hated the downbeat tone of this movie, but I thought it was perfect for an introduction to the characters, and needn't have bogged down potential future installments. I guess I can understand fans of the franchise, particularly of the comics, wanting the film to be more "fun" from the get-go, but I still can't really understand why it's so unthinkable to have a darker film, at least once. It works for characters like Batman, and I admit he's usually a darker character than the Fantastic Four, anyway. I just don't think any franchise has to be the same vibes every time. So I'm actually rather annoyed to be very much in the minority on liking this one.