Let’s get this out of the way: Fantastic Four: First Steps is not going to “save” the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s not some sort of cinematic rebirth that will take fans back to those halcyon days of the Infinity Saga (which, let’s remember, ended all of six years ago). Don’t go in expecting to rekindle any flames, to reignite any hopes and dreams you may have lost.
First Steps is fine, though, a statement that likely feels like damning with faint praise. Whether that’s because we’re all expecting every superhero film to blow our minds or that Marvel has convinced us of something similar, I do not know. But if you like a good hero flick? Then go see it. The film, directed by Matt Shakman, takes place in an alternate universe, where the Fantastic Four — Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Sue’s brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — are already established as a super team (thankfully, we are not sitting through another origin story). They’ve gone to space, had some sort of galactic whammy put on them, and come back superpowered.
This is a fun spin on the genre in that they’re one of the few hero groups without secret identities — the whole world saw them come back and knows their story intimately, and the juxtaposition of superhero as celebrity, without any masks or alter egos, is a fun way to have a story develop. They’re media darlings, giving personal interviews, announcing their achievements, letting the world see them as they really are.
This all comes to a head when the herald (Julia Garner) of the planet-devouring Galactus appears, warning the world of its inevitable demise. The group takes off into space to find her and fails wholly, Infinity War-style, leading to the world’s first taste of them failing. What follows is a quest for the team to find their faith in themselves and for them to restore the world’s faith in them as well.
And it’s mostly fun! It’s clever, it has a good heart to it, and the cast is terrific (especially and unsurprisingly Pascal as the stoic genius Reed, but all of them shine). There are some spoiler-heavy plot points that, for lack of a better word, seem ridiculous, and this detracts somewhat from the central story elements. I saw it with my son, and even he found their first solution to the Galactus problem to be hilariously dumb. Yet if one can move past that, the film generally works.
It also benefits from some fun and innovative action set pieces, and the effects, particularly the massive Galactus himself and Garner’s Silver Surfer, are pretty good. The same cannot be said for Ben Grimm/The Thing, who often looks like someone pasted a cartoon onto the screen. One would think that after Marvel mastered the Hulk that Grimm wouldn’t be too difficult, but often the character is rendered to look like he belongs in an old episode of The Incredible Hulk.
There are absolutely faults, and the script is … OK. That’s the hardest thing to come to grips with when it comes to The Fantastic Four: First Steps: it’s just OK. It’s a solid B, a good-but-not-great grilled cheese sandwich. That may be its downfall, though, especially after the colossal success of Superman. The expectations are too high, and people are expecting … or maybe just hoping … for it to be their next great meal. Nope. Just a solid grilled cheese. Sometimes, that’s all you need.
