Fantastic Four: First Steps

Official Australian release date: 24/7/25. Viewed: 25/7/25.
Director: Matt Shakman
Actors: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: PG

 

‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is a really well-made action adventure film. It happens to be the fourth ‘Fantastic Four’ film, and 2^nd reboot, but it’s the first MCU version and the most faithful to the comics – you don’t need to have seen any of the previous films, or any Marvel films for that matter. There’s a really nice charm and style, almost Jetsons-esque, as this is set in the 1960s. It’s definitely helped by it’s really strong lead cast – Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic (Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Moss-Bachrach), with HERBIE the robot as a nice support.

The plot is quite straightforward and mostly-uncomplicated – very refreshing. The first 20min are a good introduction to the team/family without going into too much detail, done quite well as a talk show montage, and then we get straight into it. The Silver Surfer (Garner) shows up, heralding the impending arrival of Galactus (Ineson) the world-eater, setting in motion events as Reed tries to solve this impossible problem. The actual solution is pretty far-fetched, but also within the realms of comic-book-plausibility. Some good cameos – Lyonne as Rachel, Walter Hauser as Mole Man, Gatiss as Ted Gilbert.

Everything fits together so well – the score, cinematography, CGI, especially in space, the costumes and set design, complemented by the charismatic cast and their realistic banter, with a nice light tone throughout, until the final act battle with Galactus. The ending is handled well and has strong emotion. Great to see each of them use their powers, with Johnny’s fire seeming almost realistic and Sue’s forcefields being more than just shields. I quite like Ben’s beard! And the nice nod to Stan Lee with the spaceship being named Excelsior. Reed has some heart and isn’t just the typical supernerd. Mid-credits scene links to the upcoming MCU films – can’t wait to see these Fantastic Four join up with the rest of the MCU.

Overall: Expertly made comic-book fun

Gav’s Rating: 4.5 stars 

 

Friendship

Official Australian release date: 17/7/25. Viewed: 15/7/25.
Director: Andrew DeYoung
Actors: Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, Jack Dylan Grazer
Genre: Comedy
Rating: M

  

‘Friendship’ is a nice, somewhat unconventional comedy, starring Tim Robinson as Craig, but it’s not as unhinged as most of his show, ‘I Think You Should Leave’. Craig lives with wife Tami (Mara) and son Steven (Grazer), in some unnamed American town in some purposeful obscure era (houses look like they’re in the 70s and there’s a wall phone, but there’s computers and mobile phones…). Craig and Tami are coming out of a difficult time when they meet new neighbour, Austin (Rudd).

Austin is charming and goes out of his way to take Craig under his wing and go on some adventures together. There’s lots of funny moments and they almost act like a young couple. It’s all a bit goofy, with Robinson’s face being so expressive and Rudd playing a slightly-skewed version of his usual characters. Something happens, and things take a turn and everything spirals out of control for Craig. He tries to get it all back, but the ending is fitting and not as clean as a regular rom-com would be!

There’s definitely lots of awkward moments, some cringes, lots of silences, with one exceptional and hilarious scene where Robinson goes through about 8 facial expressions in silence. All actors are good, the situations are odd, but the laughs are real – great to see with a crowd. Nothing too sinister and while it’s occasionally outrageous, it’s grounded in the real need for friendship.

Overall: Enjoyable and off-centre comedy

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars 

Superman

Official Australian release date: 10/7/25. Viewed: 10/7/25.
Director: James Gunn
Actors: David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult, Edi Gathegi
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Superman’ is a proper reboot, not the 9^th film in the franchise, and almost serves as a sequel to the original 1978 film. This film is up there with the original and ‘Man of Steel’, and possibly even better. That’s mostly down to Clark/Superman being played by Corenswet, who plays him excellently – not too cocky, not too serious, not too goofy. We meet him fully-formed, in his early 30s – this is not an origin film – and facing his first defeat, retreating to the fortress of solitude (which is done well), were we meet Krypto the dog, who has more screentime than I expected!

Behind the attack on Metropolis/Superman is obviously Lex Luthor (Hoult), who leans hard into the obsessive jealously and egotism, as well as a side of deranged, sometimes a bit over the-top. The Clark colleagues/friends are all well cast – Lois (Brosnahan), Jimmy (Gisondo), Perry (Pierce), Guy/Green Lantern (Fillion), Hawkgirl (Merced) and Mr Terrific (Gathegi). Because there’s so much happening and quite a few action scenes, not everyone gets a lot of screentime, with Clark’s parents Martha (Howell) and Jon (Vince) almost redundant. After the set-up, we get to see Lex’s full plan to discredit Superman, with Clark having to overcome something he can’t physically fight.

There’s a bit of “pocket universe” don’t-think-too-much-about-it stuff that’s standard in comic book films and doesn’t necessarily help anything, but the score is great, including the homage to Williams’ original, and as expected from Gunn, the soundtrack is great, with just a few great uses of songs that are not too well-known, but will become future classics now. Not too long at 2 hours, there’s some touching moments, especially with the fake countries that aren’t too dissimilar to the real world. Maybe not as much of a revelation as the first ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’, this is still a really well-put-together action adventure film. I’m here for the sequels.

Overall: Optimistic, enjoyable take, with a great cast

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars 

Jurassic World: Rebirth

Official Australian release date: 3/7/25. Viewed: 3/7/25.
Director: Gareth Edwards
Actors: Scarlett Johansson, Jonathon Bailey, Marshala Ali, Rupert Friend
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

‘Jurassic World: Rebirth’ (why didn’t they call it ‘Jurassic Park: Rebirth’, if it’s actually supposed to be a revival/return-to-form like the original?) is the seventh Jurassic film, and thankfully slightly better than the last two films (‘Fallen Kningdom’ and ‘Dominion’). We have a whole new cast, with Krebs (Friend) the shady money man funding a trip to South America (apparently Suriname, but filmed in Thailand) to extract dinosaur blood for apparently good reasons, hiring “security” Zora (Johansson), boat captain Duncan (Ali) and palaeontologist Dr Loomis (Bailey).

Director Edwards (‘Rogue One’) knows how to make it look good, but the pacing is still off a fair bit of the time. After the Snickers intro, there’s about 25min where not much happens at all – and the whole explanation for dinosaurs only being around the equator because of more oxygen and the public losing interest is ridiculous. Dinosaurs not existing in the cooler climates makes sense, but it feels like they missed a trick not exploring the spread of dinosaurs after ‘Fallen Kingdom’. There’s a whole subplot here with a civilian family of 4, and while fine, they don’t add too much to the story and often split the narrative. There’s 3 others who we don’t really even learn the names of – wonder what happens to them?

The best scene still involves a T Rex – and is taken straight from ‘The Lost World’ novel. Shows when the right amount of tension, fear and relief are executed well, it can still be great. Weird to say, but the 3 big stars – Johansson, Bailey & Ali – don’t actually feel like they have that much to do, and any character development is too forced. They’re all passable, but they’re kind of just there. It’s just over 2 hours long, and there’s some good set pieces, but it definitely doesn’t feel like that much happens or that there’s enough dinosaurs. Always tough, as the original set such a high bar. There’s just enough good moments and just enough dinosaurs to give a 3.

Overall: Maybe if this was the first film of the ‘Jurassic’ series you were seeing as a kid, you’d like it much more.

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars 

 

28 Years Later

Official Australian release date: 19/6/25. Viewed: 22/6/25.
Director: Danny Boyle
Actors: Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Rating: MA

’28 Years Later’ continues the fast-zombie series, coming 23 years after ’28 Days Later’ and 18 years after ’28 Weeks Later’. We have a whole new cast, living on a small island just off the coast of north-east England, as the UK remains quarantined from the rest of the world. We meet Spike (Williams) and his parents, Isla (Comer) and Jamie (Taylor-Johnson), as Spike is now old enough to go hunting-and-gathering back on the mainland. Everything obviously goes well…

The start is a flashback to the outbreak of the rage virus and helps re-establish the infected/zombies. Then things settle into a survivor thriller, with a bit of a different pacing. The score is good, but the soundtrack is very odd and seems mismatched – I guess on purpose. The same can be said for some of the red “dream” footage and old war footage – while trying to foreshadow or illuminate history repeating, it’s a little distracting at times. Same for some of the grainer (apparently from iPhones) footage, meant to be similar to the ow-budget original film – contrasts a fair bit with the real footage.

Even though the pacing and tone is different from the other 2 films, it’s quite quick (just under 2 hours) and does a good job of setting up the imminent sequels. All the actors are good – always nice to see Fiennes, as Dr Kelson here – with the main family of 3 having plenty to work with. Some gruesome moments, but nothing as iconic as the helicopter from last time. Some questions posed, some answered and an intriguing ending.

Overall: Non-standard zombie sequel, will be back for more

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars 

Ballerina

Official Australian release date: 5/6/25. Viewed: 16/6/25.
Director: Len Wiseman
Actors: Ana de Armas, Anjelica Huston, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McShane
Genre: Action
Rating: MA

‘Ballerina’, or effectively ‘John Wick 3.5’, is another stylish assassins killing assassins entry in the series. We see what shapes Eve (de Armas) as a child, ending up in the care of the Director (Huston) & the Ruska Roma. From there it’s a pretty simple training montage and learning curve for Eve. We have cameos from de-aged/hair-dyed Winston (McShane) and the Chancellor (Byrne), as well as Charon (Reddick).

De Armas is good and walks a fine line between being a kick-ass fighter/dancer with no fear, and showing some vulnerability and emotion. She certainly takes some beatings here, but dishes out even more. She doesn’t seem as invulnerable as John Wick, but since it’s the same universe, it does seem like she can take more damage/injuries than any regular human. Plenty of inventive deaths in this one, particularly a few with grenades, flamethrowers and more ice skate deaths than there’s been since ‘Sudden Death’!

Has a bit more humour and wittiness than some other ‘John Wick’s, and is relatively short at 2 hours. The final act set all in a lakeside town in Czechia is all a bit farfetched, and this is where Reeves has his cameo, but it certainly ups the ante and body count. While there’s a small, not-that-surprising twist, it all wraps up well. Wouldn’t mind seeing more of Eve & John together in additional films.

Overall: Another stylish over-the-top kill-em-all

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars 

 

Dangeous Animals

Official Australian release date: 12/6/25. Viewed: 10/6/25.
Director: Sean Byrne
Actors: Hassie Harrison, Jai Courtney, Josh Heuston, Rob Carlton
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Rating: MA

‘Dangerous Animals’ is an Australian made horror, with a refreshing take on the “killer shark” trope – that being that there’s not a specific shark that is the antagonist (like ‘Jaws’, ‘Deep Blue Sea’, ‘The Shallows’, ‘The Reef’, or ‘The Meg’), but rather sharks are just themselves, being used as the weapon of choice by a serial killer. In that respect, this has more in common with Australia’s preeminent horror series, ‘Wolf Creek’.

The start sets the scene well, and leaves no doubt that Tucker (Courtney) is messed up and unequivocally the bad guy. There’s comedic relief from Dave (Carlton) as Tucker’s boat neighbour, and we’re then introduced to American backpacker Zephyr (Harrison) and Moses (Heuston), both on the Gold Coast living up the surfing lifestyle. As Tucker’s living out his fantasies, we’re left to wonder how Zephyr will escape. There’s a good amount of tension, without being insufferable.

There’s some humour, some grisliness and blood, but noting too gratuitous, and minimal focus on sharks, who are filmed with some reverence. Lots of nice scenic shots of the Gold Coast and it’s good to see an Australian director and famous Australian actor make a local film. Courtney particularly relishes his bogan-gone-off-the-rails role, and gives a good excuse to have some Aussie classics in the soundtrack. The final act is great, and while the body count could’ve been higher, it’s a quick fun ride.

Overall: Taught & semi-plausible - more than can be said for most horror films!

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars