As Reed, Pascal is convincing as the world’s smartest man who is nevertheless overwhelmed by the irrational flood of thoughts and emotions that accompany fatherhood. As written, Sue is a somewhat thankless character, but Kirby manages to add depth to the Invisible Woman with subtle performance choices.

The Fantastic Four hasn’t been able to catch a break. They were the first Marvel superhero team created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and with a comic legacy this “fantastic,” you’d think it would be easy to create a good movie about them,

More than six decades after Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created a superhero team to rival the Justice League, the Fantastic Four finally get a worthy big-screen adaption in a spiffy ’60s-era romp, bathed in retro futurism and bygone American optimism,