Michael Chiklis played Ben Grimm, a.k.a. The Thing, in 2005's Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. They were moderate successes, but are widely regarded as a disappointing take on Marvel's First Family.
Both movies have reentered the conversation thanks to the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps from Marvel Studios, with plenty of younger fans discovering them for the first time. The discourse surrounding them has softened, with some enjoying that cheesier take on the team.
Talking to Collider, Chiklis reflected on his time as part of the Fantastic Four franchise and defended the movies. "There were a lot of people, I think, critically who got it wrong," the actor said. "They really maligned our films, and they were very underrated considering they were very loved by the audience."
"It was one of those cases where critics weren’t great to those films, but the audience was, and that still remains," Chiklis continued. "I’ve always sort of quietly gone like, 'Okay, say what you want to say, but the people see it.' And now all these years later, people are sort of acknowledging like, hey, these films are family-friendly, fun movies, they got a lot right. They may be imperfect, but they’re really good movies."
Chiklis is right that neither movie received positive reviews, as Fantastic Four has 28% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the sequel sitting at a slightly better, but still "Rotten," 37%. He'd later point out that, regardless of the reviews, both movies found success at the box office.
"We made three quarters of $1 billion, those two movies," Chiklis noted. "So, you know, all those people can’t be completely out of their minds, you know what I mean?"
Fantastic Four and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver made a combined $635.4 million, but 20th Century Fox decided against moving forward with a threequel. The characters were then benched until 2015's Fantastic Four reboot, which bombed with $167.9 million worldwide.
Recently, Mister Fantastic actor Ioan Gruffudd opened up on the fact that a third instalment never happened. "The mindset was that we were going to do three, and I think the second movie was equally successful as the first and equally enjoyable for the fans," he explained. "I particularly loved working with Doug Jones [as the Silver Surfer] on that movie, who’s just a terrific artist and an expert in the field of movement."
"If you want to witness somebody bringing a character to life physically, he’s just untouchable. So there was definitely that sort of momentum, and the plan was to do three movies, but these decisions are beyond my control," Gruffudd added.
Do you agree that these Fantastic Four movies from the mid-2000s are underrated? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.