The Fantastic Four: First Steps. A Review

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

The first family of Marvel goes for yet another round of cinematic adaptation in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. There is the added bonus that, unlike the first three efforts, First Steps is tied to the world's longest and most expensive soap opera of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. First Steps is not the reboot that the MCU desperately needs. It is fine, neither a return to form from past glories nor a horror to suffer through.

In our alternate Earth, the 1960's are a fantastic world of bright colors and immense optimism. That is due to the superheroes known as The Fantastic Four. There is Reed Richards or Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), a brilliant scientist who can stretch his body to immense lengths. There is his beautiful wife Sue Storm, also known as The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby). Her powers involve not just invisibility but creating force fields. Her literally hot brother Johnny Storm or The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) can fly and light himself on fire. Their friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is a man who is virtually indestructible due to his almost brick-like skin, earning him the sobriquet of The Thing.

They are celebrities, but they use their powers for good. Sue has brought about world peace. Reed creates great inventions and even squeezes in a kids' science show, Fantastic Science with Mr. Fantastic. Things can only get better once Reed and Sue find that she is pregnant. The public at first is mesmerized by the newest arrival, speculating on whether or not the child will have superpowers like his parents.

The public's interests soon turn away from that to more pressing matters. An alien has come to warn Earth that it is doomed to die at the hands of a giant space being known as Galactus. Despite Johnny's best efforts to catch someone whom he described as "a sexy alien", this Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is the herald of Earth's doom. 

It is now up to the Fantastic Four to stop Galactus from destroying the Earth. Efforts at negotiations fail and nearly cost them their lives. It also causes Sue to go into labor and give birth to her and Reed's son, whom they name Franklin. The child has become important to Galactus. He has had to devour planets for centuries and now feels that Franklin could take his place and relieve him of this burden. They collectively flat-out refuse to sacrifice Franklin to spare Earth. This decision, however, is not met with enthusiasm by neither surface-living humans nor those living in Subterranea, ruled by Harvey Elder, better known as Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser). The Fantastic Four do find a way to spare both Earth and Franklin. Will their efforts succeed? Will everyone survive this battle? Will the Silver Surfer end up as friend or foe?

I have been open on how I have never been a comic book reader. As such, I am sure that a lot of things flew over me while watching First Steps. For example, I simply had no idea who Mole Man was.  I also was not aware of how similar the Fantastic Four were to the Incredibles. This came to me every time I fought the temptation to refer to Reed and Sue's child as "Jack-Jack". I do not know if the resemblance was purely coincidental, but there it is. 

Fantastic Four: First Steps has as a major positive its overall look. The film is brimming with bright colors and a retro-futuristic feel that makes it both of a particular era and familiar. Credit should be given to the production and costume design, which brought this alternate universe into reality.

In other aspects, I found First Steps to be, well, fine. The performances on the whole were acceptable. Pedro Pascal's ubiquity is now a meme. Here, he was not terrible as Reed Richards. As a side note, it is interesting that for all his powers, Mr. Fantastic did not showcase them often. Pascal gave Reed a sense of perpetual worry, be it for his fathering abilities or his world-saving abilities. Vanessa Kirby was better as Sue Storm. I think it is because she was called to do more, particularly over her protectiveness towards Franklin.

It is interesting that the screenplay made motherhood an important aspect. It is more interesting when you see that all four credited screenwriters are men (Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer). The desire to protect Franklin, to be fair, was shared by all four of them. I think that the focus on Sue, however, was stronger than that of say Johnny or Ben. They all loved Franklin, but I think his mother would be the one who would be the last to even consider sacrificing her child even if it meant saving the world. 

It is also to the film's credit that we never got, at least to my memory, any "but on the other hand" argument from anyone. Again, this is based on my memory of a movie I saw months ago. However, no one ever said that it would be beneficial to essentially bump off a baby to save the world. Yet, I digress.

What is weak about First Steps is that we really got very little from others. Of particular note is Moss-Bachrach and Quinn as The Thing and the Human Torch respectively. We got bits and pieces of who they were. We saw Ben Grimm go to synagogue to talk to a pretty teacher that he was enchanted by. We got a bit of Johnny Storm's stabs at being cocky. I think though that somehow, they ended up having little to do. Worse, they had very little in terms of personality. Whether it is due to Moss-Bachrach and Quinn's acting skills, the script itself or a combination of the two I cannot say for certain. For myself, I at times forgot that they were there.

I cannot say anything overtly negative about The Fantastic Four: First Steps. You can skip the second post-credit scene. I cannot say anything overtly positive about it either. Michael Giacchino's score was pleasant. Neither a restoration nor abomination, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is, in the end, acceptable.  

DECISION: C+