It may be time to stop putting all of our hopes and dreams and savior complex expectations on to every new MCU entry. After nearly 40 films all considered canon and imbued with franchise implications, even the best attempts are going to start delivering diminishing returns. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” arrives at the heart of the storm of those deliveries, with nearly 5 years of duds and occasional bright spots. It simultaneously ends the lesser received current phase and ushers in a new direction phase for the once dominant studio, and does so with mixed results.
It is a tale of two films; one that attempts to take its first steps into new directions and one that backtracks into the same old tired Marvel Studios machine.
It’s a film that – for better or worse – clearly spent too much time on the internet listening to film podcasts and attempts to correct some of the most common criticisms, but also doesn’t trust its audience enough to embrace its risks and settle itself firmly in the new world it creates. Admittedly, it gets more right than it does wrong, and some lessons learned are high points that lull you into a false sense of newness that only flashes itself amid the CGI slop and uninspired climax. It’s a family drama posing as a superhero action film, one that smartly bypasses the origin story and begins in a retro futuristic alternate earth (828 to be exact) but never really explores it extensively. A strange thing to say given that “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” sports some of the best production design the MCU has seen and creates a world that feels wholly lived in and fleshed out. And it does place the family drama front and center, as we spend the most amount of the film’s runtime with our heroes navigating their own dynamics and life changes.
But those things – which are the easily the most intriguing – feel like they’re on fast forward. Every time the film starts to become interesting by exploring our heroes more thoroughly, it second guesses itself and rushes through to get us to the next big action sequence, ultimately delivering a risk averse entry rather than something truly unique. Matt Shakman (“Wandavision“) clearly understands family and nuanced characterizations, and when his stronger filmmaking sensibilities line up with a great cast, the film displays some of the best storytelling Marvel Studios has to offer.
But like most post “Endgame” MCU films, the inescapable corporatization cogs wrap their arms around Shakman and keep him largely restrained from really digging into each character. This dichotomy makes the film feel stakeless, with our investment in the characters only effective long enough for the moment in which they are presented and disappear entirely as soon as some time has passed.
Because Shakman’s direction and messy script from Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer (four writers and one of them not being the director is never a good sign and isn’t…dare I say…fantastic) are shackled by its baked in pedestrian storytelling, it never gets a chance to breath and really let its cast settle into their defined roles. We meet our heroes 4 years after they got their powers, with them being both celebrities and world leaders that serve as unchallenged protectors. And before you even ask, yes. “Superman” and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” do share very similar narrative frameworks. The retro futuristic world with a 60s All American vibe paired with science fiction technology resolves most if not all of this world’s problems, leaving our heroes to deal with something new: a baby on the way.
Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) prepare for parenthood while Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) celebrate being the cool uncles. It’s their biggest problem to solve until Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives as the herald of Galactus, a giant planet eating cosmic being who has marked their world for consumption. After the team attempts to take the fight to him in space, Galactus believes the unborn child possesses unknown cosmic powers and is the answer to his unquenchable hunger and offers the group an opportunity to save their world in exchange for their child. Of course they say no, but now the team must scramble to not only protect their own but somehow save their world from an unkillable, all powerful entity bent on complete destruction as the world that once embraced them begins to turn on them. Again, yes. JUST like “Superman.”
It also stars Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Ralph Ineson, Paul Walter Hauser, and Natasha Lyonne.
It’s clear that each character had more to do at one point but every story line was cut down to mini bites to make way for Galactus’ kiaju monster arrival. Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards real struggle isn’t solving the cosmic problem. It’s him trying to solve for the unknowable of a child, constantly insisting that nothing is going to change but knowing that everything HAS to change. He is saddled with immense guilt that manifests in his pragmatic suggestions of worst case scenarios like giving up the child and is frightened by that darkness in him and the burden of genius. Pascal is at his best when he’s trying to convey this, but “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is only slightly interested in this part of the character, and glosses over the more layered aspects of that internal and familial turmoil to place him front of a chalk board and have him spout science mumbo jumbo. It’s the wrong performance from an otherwise game performer, and you never really believe that he’s the smartest man in the universe.
Ben Grimm/The Thing has accepted his rockness but is clearly lonely, having nothing and no one outside of his found family among the team. There’s a subplot involving Rachel (Lyonne) that shows a spark of a relationship but we never see them navigate it. We’re just led to believe it’s something important to him in their first meeting and then deeply meaningful in their second meeting, and those are the only two times we ever see them interact. This is what I mean when I say the movie feels like its playing in fast forward; every single character has some kind of deeper subplot that would make want to spend more time with each of them to flesh them out and invest in them, but the film is only interested in these things on the surface. That face value level then forces our cast to work overtime to convince us that they are in fact a family (they have to tell us over and over again instead of just trusting us to believe it through their interactions and personal struggles) and that they have any chemistry to begin with.
I believe they DO have chemistry, and they’re all trying hard to convey their struggles. But the script and odd pacing reduces them to mere outlines of what should be full pictures. Kirby is probably the MVP despite being reduced to protective mama mode and Quinn – though not as arrogant or self assured as previous iterations – is trying his best to be the funny, more light hearted one even when its forcing everyone else to be on a different wavelength. Ineson’s Galactus might as well be anyone, and Garner’s Silver Surfer is all but forgotten about until the plot deems her necessary again.
In the moment, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” feels fantastic, the family dynamics – though working in a hit or miss capacity – feel easy to latch onto and makes you want to root for the team even though you’re told pretty quickly nothing is ever going to happen to anyone here. It’s easy to dismiss those nagging issues because everyone wants – nay, NEEDS – it to be the most fantastic thing the MCU has put out. It MUST shoulder the entirety of the franchise and carry it into the future.
But it doesn’t and shouldn’t, its best features being the absence of an origin story first act and a completely contained story. There’s no homework required for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and if you’ve never seen a Marvel movie before (who are you? do you even exist?) or have seen all of them, the film doesn’t need any of them to be enjoyed. And for all my criticisms, there is a lot to enjoy. In addition to the incredible design, Michael Giacchino’s score is magnificent, soaring and pulsing with choral beauty that constantly breaths life into every moment. There’s so much family here, Dominic Torretto owns it on 4K Blu Ray, and when the cast is given moments to just be together is when the film really shines. And while the film’s story isn’t necessarily new, it still moves with efficiency and intention. It may retread the same “Fantastic Four” stories of the past, but I’d argue it does more of those things better even if it doesn’t do all of them best.
I left the theater feeling fulfilled, with my initial reaction being highly positive, and a sense of “Marvel is so back, baby!” But as I drove away and spent more and more time away from and reflecting on it, the less effective it felt and the more dulled my positivity became. The review I was going to write immediately after and the review you’re reading now are completely different, and those missteps become more and more glaring the more it bounces around in my brain. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” IS among the better and probably best MCU entries we had in a very long time, but it’s not without its own share of struggles that seem to overshadow much of its goodwill. Its first steps towards something new ultimately pivot into the same, tired future that continues to feel more and more daunting.
It is good enough, but not fantastic. It could be, but it is too afraid to get dirty and different and never embraces the better parts of its potential. “The Incredibles” remains the best version of this fantastic family, but i guess coming close to the impossibly high bar isn’t the worst thing we could ask for. That worst belongs to 2015 “Fan4stic,” a film better if we just pretend doesn’t exist.
Final note: we can stop with the mid credit scenes, now. We don’t need them, they only ever waste our time, and “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has one of the worst I’ve seen in a while. I won’t spoil it (which I don’t really know if I could) but I’m gonna stand on business and say “Avengers: Doomsday” is going to be awful. I said what I said.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“Fantastic Four: First Steps” is now playing in theaters. You can watch the trailer below.
