Marvel Studios officially kicked off Phase Six of its cinematic universe with the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and the film is already garnering solid reviews and a strong start at the box office. The cast is terrific across the board, and the production design is, well, pretty darn fantastic, evoking Disney's Tomorrowland (the park, not the film) with its 1960s retro-alt-future aesthetic. Just let your brain relax and don't try to make too much of the nonsensical plot.
(Some spoilers below, but no major reveals.)
Director Matt Shakman (WandaVision) took a page from James Gunn's Superman playbook and skipped the usual origin story for our heroes. How the Fantastic Four acquired their unique abilities is recapped via brief flashbacks, along with some of their early exploits, thanks to the Four being featured celebrities on a popular talk show hosted by Ted Gilbert (Mark Gatiss). Reed Richard/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) are even expecting their first child, to the delight of Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
The future on Earth-828 is looking pretty rosy for the Four until the arrival of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), heralding the imminent arrival of Galactus, a 14-million-year-old gigantic cosmic being that wanders the universe devouring entire planets. Earth is next on the menu, and the Four decide to head out to space to find Galactus and ask him really nicely to not devour Earth. It does not go well, setting the stage for a mega-showdown with Galactus. But how will the Four defeat an almost godlike being, even with their impressive superpowers?
This is by far the best film adaptation of the Fantastic Four, but let's be honest: That's a fairly low bar. Sure, 2005's Fantastic Four was a box office success and had a couple of decent moments, but the 2015 reboot unequivocally bombed, and the planned sequel was quickly cancelled. (The four stars of a 1994 unreleased low-budget Roger Corman take on the quartet make brief cameos in First Steps.) When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox in 2019, Marvel Studios got the film rights to the Fantastic Four characters and came up with a fresh take on the franchise.
Shakman wanted a very 1960s aesthetic for his reboot, citing Kubrick films from that era as inspiration, right down to his choice of camera lenses. And the film definitely delivers on that score. The Four's penthouse headquarters is pure midcentury modern, with Reed's lab divided into three rooms differentiated by bright primary colors. Then there's all that retrofuture technology: Johnny Storm records mysterious signals from space onto golden record platters and plays them on an old-school turntable, for example, and the team's Fantasticar is straight out of sci-fi's Golden Age.
And you couldn't ask for a better main cast: Pascal, Kirby, Moss Bachrach, and Quinn all have great chemistry and effectively convey the affectionate family dynamic that comprises the central theme of the film. That's essential, particularly since we've mostly skipped the origin story; the characters are familiar, but this incarnation is not. They banter, they bicker, they have heart-to-hearts, and the inevitable tensions in Reed and Sue's marriage that a new baby brings—occurring just as the Earth faces annihilation—feel entirely believable.
And then there are the cons, which boil down to a weak, predictable plot that jerks from one scene to the next with tenuous coherence and, shall we say, less than stellar dialogue. The actors deserved better, particularly Kirby, whose Sue Storm gives an inane rallying "speech" to the people of New York as Galactus approaches that makes no sense whatsoever. (The St. Crispin's Day speech is it not.)
Kirby also has the unenviable task of portraying Sue giving birth in space, a scene that is just plain laughable. One doesn't expect strict verisimilitude concerning the messier parts of giving birth in space, although Reed does briefly mention the challenges posed by zero gravity/warp speed. But it's far too sanitized. And spare a thought for poor Sue having to kick off the lower part of her space suit to deliver Franklin in front of her brother and her husband's best friend.
In the end, though, the film's shortcomings don't matter because it's still a fun, entertaining superhero saga. I give it a solid B—a decent start to the MCU's Phase Six. Just try not to think too hard about the plot, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.
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