Had literally everything about the film been irredeemable, fans could've chalked Fox's first FF movie off as yet another superhero misfire, but the frustrating thing is that they weren't that far off with their castings.
The film must also be praised for giving Stan Lee a truly inspired cameo as the Baxter Building's mailman, Willie Lumpkin. That was perfect casting, but Fantastic Four also managed to cast several of its key characters pretty much spot-on too.
Save for Invisible Woman, Tim Story's film nailed the casting of the Four. Chris Evans turned in a then-typical performance as Johnny Storm, but it fit the character. Ioan Gruffudd was a faithful Reed Richards, while Michael Chiklis overcame a rubbery costume to convey the internal torment of Ben Grimm.
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
