Fantastic Four: First Steps Review
The Fantastic Four have taken their First Steps into the MCU with ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’. It’s a film that has a crowd pleasing caper that finally gets this family right on the big screen. Director Matt Shakman brings Reed Richards, Susan Storm, the Human Torch, and The Thing back to their retro 1960s roots, delivering a version of New York dripping with identity. But the four put to the test when the Silver Surfer heralds the arrival of the cosmic threat Galactus, a world devourer that takes pride in looking like his comic book counterpart. It’s a high point in an MCU that’s slowly completing its recovery, a road that will take fans to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’.
There’s no better place to start in the film than with the cast. Reed Richards is played by the enviable Pedro Pascal, an actor who is just as stretchy as Richards when it comes to the range he has. Pascal brings an older, wiser Richards to the screen, but one who is fraught with anxiety over what his knowledge brings, and so becomes a control freak to get it. Susan Storm is played by Vanessa Kirby, who is able to take on the role of a woman who’s the glue holding the team together, with the weight of the team resting on her shoulders. The Human Torch is played by Joseph Quinn and The Thing by Ebon Moss-Bachrach fill more comedic roles, and to the film’s credit they’re fleeting and so land with a punch. Quinn surprises as Human Torch, packing not just brawn and humour but brain as well, overcoming earlier fears that he wouldn’t live up to the role.
Villains Galactus, played by Ralph Ineson and the Silver Surfer, played by Julia Garner. Garner is a haunted version of the character, one who has been subsumed into working for Galactus, despite her own humanity. Galactus himself is an astonishing feat of VFX, with a faithful design that harkens back to the comics. He’s threatening and menacing, a stand out of recent MCU. He’s perfectly out of this world, but not so cosmic and unrelatable that he’s simply a massive figure for the heroes to beat.
The film breezes by surprisingly quickly, even though most of the scenes don’t involve action. It’s a film that leans into its comic book source material, not just with the retro-futurist aesthetic but also its out there comic booky elements, like with following the gang into space. It’s something that the film stays on the right side of to avoid being too pulpy. ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ drops audiences right into the middle of the family’s adventures, though a quick montage helps to catch them up. This is a great move by Marvel, and one that perfectly places the audience where the new Fantastic Four are in their lives. Being inserted into this family dynamic after its formation doesn’t alienate viewers, thanks to the warmth of the characters and the earnestness of the film. It’s one people are invited to join in.
The retro-futuristic vibe of the 1960s was in part constructed by production designer Kasra Farahani. People may remember him from the ‘Loki’ season two episode ‘1893’, where he expertly brought the 1983 Chicago World’s Fair to life. He lends his skills to ‘First Steps’, and it shows. Marvel Studios have created a stunningly cohesive world here, benefiting the film.
In one place where the film does stumble, it’s stakes and committing to an ending. Thanks to the ever continuing nature of the MCU, all the Fantastic Four will return for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’, so it’s hard to believe the perilous situations the main four are in are dangerous. Another issue is similar to one ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ had, that a darker ending would have been much more fitting than the upbeat ending. This is especially the case as audiences know that Doctor Doom will be heading up as the main antagonist in ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ and ‘Avengers: Secret Wars’. This film really needed a gut punch like the end of ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ to set up what’s to come, but there wasn’t that chills down the back of the spine moment to hype audiences going forward.
Overall, ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is a fantastic first outing for the MCU’s first family, one that easily surpasses what’s come before. The film brings viewers into an all new version of Earth with expert design, and introduces them to a different yet familiar version of these characters with a stellar cast. While the film could have swung for the fences with its ending, the film is a great time in cinemas, and proof the MCU are really starting to get their act back together.
