The Fantastic Four First Steps review: Marvel's family-sized adventure is its best attempt yet at reviving the franchise
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Ralph Ineson
Director: Matt Shakman
Rating: ★★★.5
There is a moment in Matt Shakman's The Fantastic Four: First Steps when the titular superhero team realises they are in over their heads while battling a new threat - a cosmic entity named Galactus. So the Invisible Woman, Sue Storm, says the only way to deal with it is like a family. On the face of it, it does remind you of the many times Vin Diesel has said it in the Fast franchise, but it fits as a metaphor for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, too. Over the last four years, the MCU has found itself in troubled waters, trying to claw its way back in. And now, it has depended on 'family' to help it. The Fantastic Four do everything to help Marvel revive - delivering an entertaining adventure, (finally) giving a great villain, allowing viewers to enjoy a self-contained story, and ending on a great cliffhanger. It's the franchise's best attempt to return to the surface and save itself from drowning. And yet, that final punch that would have made F4 invincible, infallible, is missing.
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The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in Earth-828, a different one from the one we have seen in the MCU so far. The Fantastic Four are the only superheroes here and have been Earth's protectors for four years. Sue (Vanessa Kirby) is expecting the birth of her and Reed Richards' (Pedro Pascal, he's everywhere these days) child. And as they try to babyproof their house in the Baxter Tower, they are faced with a bigger threat. A silver surfer (CGI'd Julia Garner) arrives to tell them their planet will soon be consumed by Galactus (Ralph Ineson). It's time to babyproof the world, now. Joined by Johnny and Ben (Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach), they set out to fight this cosmic being, only to realise he wants their unborn child for reasons unknown.
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The stakes are real in Fantastic Four, even if it appears like a family drama. Yes, it is focused largely on the titular team and their travails, but the threat is planetary level. What makes the film so likeable is how inherently early MCU it is in its approach. It is fun, without being too goofy like Quantumania, serious without getting gloomy like The Dark World, and colourful without losing the plot like Love and Thunder. Not since Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has Marvel delivered this much fun in a single film. {{/usCountry}}
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The stakes are real in Fantastic Four, even if it appears like a family drama. Yes, it is focused largely on the titular team and their travails, but the threat is planetary level. What makes the film so likeable is how inherently early MCU it is in its approach. It is fun, without being too goofy like Quantumania, serious without getting gloomy like The Dark World, and colourful without losing the plot like Love and Thunder. Not since Spider-Man: No Way Home and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness has Marvel delivered this much fun in a single film. {{/usCountry}}
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But The Fantastic Four does one thing better than even those two - it is self-contained. Since the pandemic, MCU's biggest USP has been its undoing. After connecting stories and characters and intertwining everyone's fates for over a decade, Marvel became a behemoth. If you wanted to watch Thunderbolts, you needed to know the backstory of five of those characters from four previous films and two shows. Otherwise, you miss out on some of the finer nuances of storytelling. This turned many audiences away, who simply wanted a good time at the movies. By keeping The Fantastic Four away from the MCU in a different universe, Shakman solves that problem. This is not the reset button that MCU was going for, but a good start in that direction.
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First Steps' heart is in the crackling chemistry its titular team shares. You can see the love, camaraderie, and annoyance they all share for each other, woven much more smoothly than Thunderbolts or even late Guardians could. Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby share a great rapport on screen, lifting each other. Yes, purists would scoff at Pedro's facial hair (Reed Richards was famously clean-shaven), but the man fits the part of the patriarch. Yet again, he is out to save a child from the big bad. This time, finally, the child is his own. Vanessa Kirby shows that there is room for good performance in a fun superhero film, while Joseph Quinn brilliantly brings Johnny's irreverence to the screen. As Ben Grimm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach does well with his voice, but his performance is hindered by the CGI required to turn his character into stone.
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Galactus is the antagonist in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
But First Steps does well in its treatment of its villain. Ralph Ineson's Galactus is towering, immense, threatening, and laidback all together, reminding you of how threatening Thanos was without ever raising his voice. After backfiring with Kang and completely wasting Gorr the God Butcher, Marvel finally gets a big bad right. Maybe there is hope for the franchise after all.
To sum it up
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And that hope is what sustains First Steps despite being a largely predictable outing. The visual effects look on point again. The aesthetics are there. The humour is very early Marvel, and the fight sequences are well-choreographed. Matt Shakman has tried to breathe life into the dying behemoth that the MCU is, and done it much better than Thunderbolts or Brave New World did. What is lacking is that killer punch. The fatigue for Marvel is so high that barely very good may not be enough to prop it back up. You need to be exceptional now. Does First Steps get there? Not for me. But since cinema is such a subjective medium (there were people who actually liked Quantumania), it may do so for thousands or millions of others. But in the end, First Steps does manage something superhero films are supposed to - give the viewers a good time at the movies.
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