The Fantastic Four: First Steps – Review

“THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS”

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the latest Marvel Cinematic film, this time coming from director Mark Shakman, a largely TV director having directed episodes of Game of Thrones and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia as well as several episodes of WandaVision.

He’s now come across a very hard task- because let’s face it, all of the liveaction Fantastic Four films that were released up until this point are terrible. I know a whole bunch of people who kid themselves into thinking the first two films from the 2000’s are good- they’re not. And the 2015 one was one of the worst films I have reviewed in my career, it was an utter travesty that it pretty much ended the Fantastic Four for a long period, including the comics! They were a big part of that year’s Marvel Event comic, Secret Wars, but the film’s reception was so bad that they were pretty much wiped out of the universe by the end of that storyline which had to receive an extension to pull that off!

So how does this film do with portraying Marvel’s first family after Marvel has acquired the rights again after the Fox merger? Well, we know that this takes place in a different universe- Earth 828- allowing the film to take place in a sort of 60’s sci-fi period piece. The Fantastic Four have been active for quite some time, with Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Human Torch, played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn respectively. They’re now trying to prevent the destruction of this Earth from the World Eater Galactus played by Ralph Ineson, whilst also dealing with the fact that the Invisible Woman is pregnant at this point. There’s a lot more to the film than that but I’ll be keeping the cards close to my chest in terms of the plot synopsis and just stick to things that were in the trailer.

Just of the sheer competency of the plot and writing of this film, this is the best Fantastic Four film to date. The casting is very good and the writing understands that this is Marvel’s first family- the relationship dynamics are there which is something that felt missing in different adaptations. Pedro Pascal does a great job, he adds a sense of vulnerability to Reed Richards that hasn’t been tapped into before.

What I found fascinating is what the 60’s period piece allows the film to do. Because this isn’t the main universe in the other Marvel films, they are allowed to get away with some of the goofier concepts and as a result the film becomes a rather loving tribute to the Silver Age of comics. It means we can have a character like Herbie, the robot assistant, flying cars, and some more memorable villains like The Moleman, who I wasn’t expecting to see and because this is a separate universe it means the team doesn’t have to worry about how this film gets on with the rest of the cinematic universe, it’s just it’s own thing.

As for the other casting, I think Vanessa Kirby is great in her role and Joseph Quinn is fantastic, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach does a brilliant job playing Ben Grimm which is a hell of a task considering that he is motion captured throughout the entire film. I also really appreciate Ralph Ineson as Galactus, he’s been in other great films like The VVitch, and so it’s great to see him play a good part in a Marvel film. Fans of Sherlock will also recognise Mark Gatiss in the film for a cameo.

A lot of attention has been gathered for this film’s adaptation of the Silver Surfer, which has been genderswapped, this time being played by Julia Garner, and I personally think she’s great in the role. I feel a slight sense of cynicism towards this casting role because I think that it was done as a slight litmus test, because I think they will be doing this as a one off for this specific universe and they’ll probably reintroduce the male SIlver Surfer for any film sin the 616 universe.

The fight scenes are excellent, I especially thought that the other films struggled with the action, but this film shows off all of the powers in innovative ways and showcases all of the characters powers.

It’s not perfect, the film does feel like it has a couple of pacing issues, and I wouldn’t go as far to say this is the best superhero movie of this year so far, but it’s also probably down to the fact that the film does go on a little too long and has a bit of an issue just meandering about. The writer does kind of fail Galactus on a few occasions- there are some motivations on a few occasions, but sometimes I feel like there isn’t really one. I think that there were some things that were left on the cutting room floor.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps isn’t the best superhero movie of this year, but it’s definitely a really good one and I would really recommend people to go and see it. The writing is good for the most part, the action is good, and I think that the team really understood the Fantastic Four, which is something that I can’t say about the other adaptations. Anyone who has seen the post-credit scenes of any recent Marvel movies knows that the Fantastic Four will play a part in the upcoming movies, and I’m glad that it’s going to be this version of the team.