Posted in: Kaitlyn Booth, Marvel Studios, Movies, Review | Tagged: the fantastic four: first steps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review: A Solid But Frantic First Step

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in such a hurry to set everything up that it forgets that the reason these stories have endured is the characters.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a decent first step for Marvel's First Family, but the good and bad that come from skipping the origin story hurt the film where it really counts in the end: the dynamic and relationship this family has with each other.

Director: Matt Shakman
Summary: Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer.

When it became apparent that Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps would be opening within weeks of each other, people did exactly what you would expect and started to pit the two movies against each other. However, while there is more than enough room for both movies, the amount of similarities, both good and bad, that they share cannot be denied. That ultimately comes down to the fact that both of these movies start in medias res, or as close to it as you possibly can for a superhero movie. We skip the origin story, or most of it, in both films and get right into the action. You would think that would make for a fast-paced movie from start to finish, but both films have a first act that struggles to come together.

While Superman was frantically trying to lay the entire foundation of the DC Universe in one film, brick by brick, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is frantically trying to establish a new world in the multiverse where we are four years into the Fantastic Four acting as the protectors of Earth. There is a lot of ground to cover, and it means that the first act is nothing but setup as the movie tries to establish itself, these characters, and this world. We have a few moments between all of the characters that show some of their dynamics and how they live and act around each other, but more time is dedicated to showing how the Fantastic Four have changed this world than the internal lives of the characters.

This is one of the things that happens when you skip the origin story. While we can all complain about how so many of them are the same, the origin stories are where we see relationships form. The moments that make very good movies into great ones are the little moments that hold all of the major plot points together. However, once Galactus becomes a threat, it's pretty much nonstop until the finish line. That makes sense considering how long this movie is, but it means that the little moments are lost. When we see them, they are very well executed, like Ben briefly interacting with some school children or Johnny trying to learn the language of the Silver Surfer, they are here but there aren't enough of them to make all of these people feel just a little more three dimension, doubly so considering the stakes and what Galactus ends up wanting in the end.

The cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here, and these are versions of the characters we haven't seen on the big screen before. While Pedro Pascal might be a delightful person, the film doesn't shy away from the fact that Reed Richards can be a huge asshole (note: being an asshole does not equal "bad character"). You can't show Reed's intelligence without showing how it gets in the way when emotional decisions and practical decisions bump up against each other. It's lovely to see a version of Ben that has mostly come to terms with what he is, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach gives him such warmth. Joseph Quinn and his version of Johnny Storm finally acknowledge that he's not a stupid kid, and Quinn mostly manages to walk the line of being a little annoying while also being charming.

However, it's Vanessa Kirby and the villains that walk away with the whole movie. The entire way The Fantastic Four: First Steps handles Sue is probably the best part of the entire film. Once we know she is pregnant, and it's literally one of the first scenes, so we know this information right out of the gate, no one infantilizes her. Pregnant women are so often shown as weak or fragile, things that need to be protected and incapable of doing anything aside from baking the baby in her uterus. Sue, however, is pregnant, and no one questions it. They have to go into space, and Sue is about to pop? No one even suggests or hints for a second that she should stay behind. Sue Storm has always been a massive badass of a character, but the movies have underestimated her from the second Jessica Alba's nose started to bleed. Kirby shows that Sue's strength doesn't just come from her powers, but from the people that she brings into her heart.

Then there are the villains. We get some brief scenes of Paul Walter Hauser as Mole Man, and whatever you think they are going to do with that character, you're probably wrong. We don't get a lot of him, but he's magnetic in the moments we do. Julia Garner is a force to be reckoned with as Shalla-Bal. We knew her character was going to be something special from the moment Marvel released her speech, when she heralds Galactus. Ralph Ineson is going to be the Galactus of fanboy dreams. The movie does an excellent job of showing exactly how Galactus eats his planets. We learn his motives right away, and he looks fantastic stomping around with that big dumb helmet. Sometimes, it can be a bit wonky trying to figure out the scale of him, but he's supposed to be massive, so there are worse things.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is very much going to be a massive stepping stone for the next era of the Marvel universe. Much like Superman, both of these movies are trying to be a foundation for the cinematic universes that they are either helping to establish or helping realign. And much like Superman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in such a hurry to set up this whole other reality and set up a world-ending event that it forgets that the reason these stories have endured is the characters. From the villains to the heroes to the civilian friends and significant others, these characters have survived because people are invested in them, not the worlds they are trying to build.

It's not a broken foundation; it has some cracks, and those cracks might become more apparent when Avengers: Doomsday rolls around and we get almost no time with Marvel's First Family. Avengers movies are the fireworks shows, while the solo films are supposed to be the character-focused stories. The Fantastic Four: First Steps can't quite get there. The big character investing moments, the little ones, and all of the "show don't tell," those are somewhere in the future in some nameless, undated, and inevitable sequel. The question becomes: how much are we going to care when it finally rolls around?

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

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Review by Kaitlyn Booth

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8/10

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a decent first step for Marvel's First Family, but the good and bad that come from skipping the origin story hurt the film where it really counts in the end: the dynamic and relationship this family has with each other.

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