While recently browsing some of the more comic-oriented sections of the internet after seeing Marvel’s most recent triumph Avengers: Endgame, I came across an article reviewing the Fantastic Four movie written at the time it was released in 2005. Surely you remember it: this is the version that had Jessica Alba “acting” as the Invisible Woman and Chris Evans as the Human Torch before he was Captain America. I didn’t get to see it while it was still in theaters, but I did catch it as an rerun on FX one afternoon in college. I’ve never been a huge comic person myself, so for me comic movies were the only way I would ever be introduced to comic greats like Batman, Superman, Spiderman, and the X-Men. It certainly was the only way I would ever be introduced to other, lesser-known heroes and villains, like Daredevil, Blade, Ghost Rider, and the Phantom. From what I remember, Fantastic Four was entertaining and… well, fine. Not bad, but also not great; good. I expected to be entertained for 106 minutes, and I was. And yet I would continually see Fantastic Four on lists of “Top 15 Worst Superhero Movies Ever” which would go on and on about how bad this and other movies featuring a Marvel or DC hero were. I never really understood the venom directed at these movies, but figured it was just because I wasn’t a super-fan and was coming to these movies simply to be entertained. If the movie was bad, it didn’t offend me on a personal level (I save that for the current Disney tenure of the Star Wars franchise; podracing and monologing about hating sand are better than them).

The review website I visited turned out to be actually written by and geared toward a fundamentalist Christian audience, and offered criticisms of Fantastic Four (and many, many other films) that we’ll categorize as “unique.” But amidst the cautions about Jesus’ name being used once as a swear word or how the Invisible Woman has to be naked to be invisible (so cover your eyes during those parts, I guess), I found that the reviewer seemed to share my opinion of this movie and other superhero movies condemned to be the movie with 25 unbought copies in the Walmart bargain bin:

“The film didn’t strike me as having, as they say, pretensions. It was what it was—a live action comic book. That it was not more, that it did not elevate the genre in the process of transferring it to a different medium, may be true, but if that is the worst thing you can say about it, then I’m not sure where all the hostility is coming from.”

While I personally agree with this sentiment, I understand that it seems to fly in the face of the current trend of superhero movies that are both successful and high-quality. I like good movies like everyone else, so why should I even bother with movies other people have already judged to be (to them) objectively bad? What can be appealing about a movie that doesn’t strive to elevate the genre?

The superhero movie genre experienced a watershed moment in 2008. That year, we were gifted with both The Dark Knight featuring Heath Ledger’s Joker fighting arguably the best version of Batman, as well as Iron Man and the beginning of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before this, however, the superhero genre was still rather hit-or-miss in terms of quality. For every Tim Burton Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) that delighted fans with their departure from the campy Adam West TV show, there were Batman Forever (1995) and Batman and Robin (1997) which so upset fans they stopped Batman films from being made until Christopher Nolan brought him back. For every Spiderman or Blade, there was Green Lantern or Elektra. Even in the same franchise, X-Men and X2 cannot completely cancel out X3: The Last Stand or X-Men Origins: Wolverine. It’s somewhat difficult to even remember a time before Christopher Nolan’s Batman put the “dark” back into “Dark Knight” or Robert Downey, Jr. flew and quipped his way into our hearts, a time when Marvel was reduced to selling the rights to its characters just to avoid bankruptcy.

Yet while I certainly enjoy going to see the next showing from the cultural juggernaut that is Marvel, I just can’t bring myself to hate even the dumbest comic book movie during this period from the 1990s to the early 2000s. There’s just something about going into a movie expecting it to be simply entertaining and being pleasantly surprised when it surpasses that expectation, instead of expecting a transcendent film experience and being disappointed when all you get is a fun, mindless adventure into comic book action. In this current “instant reaction” climate where any given movie is immediately either the best movie ever made or the absolute worst piece of trash ever spawned, I think we may have gotten away from a more benign method of consuming movies. It may, of course, just mean that I have no taste when it comes to movies, but I’d like to explore other avenues before giving up on myself just yet.

Take the 2015 Fantastic Four reboot, Fan4stic. That movie failed for a number of reasons (not least of which was having a stupid name). But I think its main flaw is that it seems to have forgotten that, at its heart, it’s a comic book movie. It tries to present itself as a dark, gritty, Nolan-esque experience whose mere angst gives it the right to be taken seriously. But the premise that four scientists get doused by radiation in space that gives them superpowers like stretching and invisibility which they use to fight crime is objectively silly. That doesn’t mean you can’t do something serious with that silly premise, but it does mean that not at least acknowledging the silliness is a mistake. Maybe it’s better to have Mr. Fantastic doing the wave with 20-foot arms and Johnny Storm running around clutching his groin because his clothes burned off, or at least better than an adaptation that tries to be so grounded in reality that it never refers to its protagonists as “the Fantastic Four.” Perhaps the movies that so many condemn as “awful” or “Worst Movie Ever!” material aren’t actually so bad because they chose to embrace their comic roots instead of trying to be something they’re not. That doesn’t mean they were all good, by any means (I’m sure Catwoman is as bad as everyone says it is). But maybe it means they can still be enjoyed for their genuineness and nostalgia. They are what they are.

In this spirit, I thought it would be fun to revisit this era of superhero films by watching as many of them as I can get my hands on at the local used bookstore. Of the movies I’ve seen, some will probably be worse than my teenage self remembers (isn’t everything?), and the ones I haven’t seen before may not be any better. If nothing else, it’ll at least break me out of my habit of searching my Netflix list for 45 minutes before rewatching Frasier reruns for what must be the 50th time. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.