Room for improvement

Rating: 5/10 (11 February 2014)

This is one of those movies where you can tell that all they needed was just one more draft of the screenplay written to get it right. If they had done this, I definitely think this film could be deserving of a 7/10, but as it is, it's a 5/10.
The biggest problem is that the odds are so uneven, we have four heroes, but only one villain. Hardly fair. Another villain should've been included to even out the odds a little, or perhaps just give Dr. Doom an arsenal of robots that he could use to combat the Fantastic Four. Granted, Doom probably is the most powerful character in the film, but four slightly less powerful beings fighting against him still makes it seem an overly one-sided match.
The second problem is the execution of the comedy. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely love a sense of humor in superhero films, and I don't care for hyper-serious ones with no self-awareness, superhero films of which type have been getting more prominent over the past few years. But the issue in Fantastic Four is that so much of the comedy is just done poorly, all this bad humor culminating in a horrific montage.
The film definitely has positive qualities, all the characters are very well-cast, especially Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans. The visual effects are also a treat, the uses of each character's superpower is very well-done and the sequence in space where the characters gain their abilities is very cool.
Overall, mediocre. Not terrible, but not good either. The sequel was definitely better.