Fantastic Four: First Steps Review – A Tale About Family

My history with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is likely the same as many of yours. I didn’t expect it to become as big as it did when the first Iron Man movie came out. I had to be there for every Avengers movie on opening weekend, and I tried to watch every movie and Disney+ TV show that came out, because it “all felt important.” Then… slowly… it didn’t, and the quality started to slip, and arguably continues to slip as my more recent reviews have shown. However, as my “Fantastic Four: First Steps” review will show, there is still hope in this universe… er, multiverse.

Arguably, the best part about this film is its simplicity. We skip the “true origin story” of the Fantastic Four (outside of a ’60s TV special-style recap) and jump to a point where Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben aren’t just superheroes, but have become world-renowned icons that literally changed the world for the better. Via the Future Foundation (nicely done, Marvel), the world has never been more united, more at peace, and even though there are still villains in the world, they can always count on the Fantastic Four to save them. So… what happens when something comes along that they can’t easily stop?

For just when it seems that “peace was at hand” for a very hilarious reason (more on that in a sec!), the Silver Surfer shows up and alerts this version of Earth to the arrival of Galactus, and their impending doom. While the Fantastic Four are, at first, eager to rise up to the challenge, once they see the scope of what they’re dealing with, they know that they can’t win, and it suddenly becomes a battle for survival.

At first, that might sound like your typical MCU film, or even your standard superhero film. The twist here is that this movie does the best possible thing by rooting all of this in the family that is the Fantastic Four.

Case in point, the movie starts with Sue Storm finding out that she’s pregnant, and Reed’s brain goes into overdrive soon after he tries to make the Baxter Building “babyproof,” with hilarious results. Meanwhile, while Johnny is happy to be an uncle, he still has a love for adventure that Reed’s “new fatherly mood” won’t satiate, and Ben is dealing with the “man he is” versus “The Thing that everyone sees him as.”

On their own, it seems basic, but the chemistry between the four actors, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, is frankly off the charts. On their own, they’d do fine in this MCU film, but together, they act like a true family, and it’s a beautiful thing to behold. Heck, even when you throw in H.E.R.B.I.E., you get even more family epicness! Every one of them gets time to stand out in special ways, with Kirby’s Sue Storm being the true backbone of the film, which I really appreciate, as she crushed it.

Easily one of the biggest critiques I can give to MCU films as a whole, and I’m sure many of you will feel this way too, is that they can come off as a “comedy overload,” especially in films like Guardians of the Galaxy, certain Iron Man movies, and definitely the Ant-Man films. They have “serious moments,” but the comedy is the focus there, and it can be overwhelming and annoying in the worst ways.

Here, though, the comedy is a natural byproduct of who these four are as characters, and as a family, and it feels totally natural. Ben doesn’t like saying “It’s Clobbering Time,” so Johnny pokes fun at him for that, and Ben pokes fun at Johnny for other things, just like brothers do. At one point, Reed is concerned over the “potential issues” with his son, and Ben cheers him up by noting that “he’s not that smart,” listing all the faults that Reed has to deal with despite being a supergenius!

Arguably, my personal favorite, and the most relatable of all, is the final scene of the movie, which features Reed, Johnny, and Ben struggling to put a baby seat into the Fantasticar. It’s exactly what you’re picturing, and it’s beautiful to behold, especially with Sue just holding young Franklin and watching them “fail upward” until it’s done. That’s real, ladies and gentlemen.

Just as important, though, is that the more serious and meaningful moments hit too. Reed wants to do “every test he can” to see if his son will be “different” because of their own irradiated cells? Yeah, that’s believable. Sue being angry with Reed at times because he “has to think of the worst things” to plan against them, including using their own son as bait at one point? Yeah, totally believable.

Or at a key scene, where Sue has to plead with all of humanity to highlight how they can’t sacrifice one to save them all, but that they’ll go through it “as a family.” That was beautifully handled and totally believable, because I know my parents have given me the “move heaven and earth for you” speech in the past. They’re still comic book characters and acted like them, but they made sure they still acted human and not just “heroic,” and that’s a big difference from how many, many Marvel films have gone in recent years.

For those waiting for my Fantastic Four First Steps Review to get into the “comic book stuff,” I’ll do it here, because they did build up this world to be filled with FF lore, and that includes its big bad. We know by now that a lot of scenes were cut from the film, but they did highlight and tease other films that the Fantastic Four dealt with over the years, including the Mole Man, the Puppeteer, The Wizard, Red Ghost (who was supposed to be played by John Malkovich), and more. There were references to the Future Foundation, Yancy Street, and more from the original comic arcs and the more modern stories.

Plus, we got plenty of “Fantastic Four-style action,” because another benefit of the movie was not fully focusing on the group’s powers, but how they get out of jams together. Reed using a neutron star to trap the Silver Surfer in a time dilation field so she couldn’t escape for a while, and then used that same star to slingshot them back home? Yep, that’s full-on Fantastic Four. We get many scenes like that, and it makes this feel even more like an FF movie.

Arguably just as important, though, is that we finally get to see Galactus in his true form (more or less…) on the big screen. Many of us were “scarred” by the “cloud version” that we got with the Fox films, but the MCU made it clear very early that this wouldn’t be the case. We even got teases of his actual comic book backstory about how he “eternally hungers” and that he’s “older than the universe” and so on. Even this version of the Silver Surfer was well-handled, and yes, she is a real character from Marvel. Galactus has had plenty of heralds over the years outside of Norrin Radd.

Speaking of which, Shalla-Bal did a great job in playing this version of the Silver Surfer, mixing a familiar tale of sacrifice and regret with being willing to do her master’s bidding… up to a point. Johnny’s mini-arc with her might have started out as “Johnny has a new crush,” but it went much deeper, and by the time we got the “I can speak your language” scene, it was almost heartbreaking to see both her and Johnny grapple with the pain that was about to happen.

All that being said, my Fantastic Four First Steps Review does have to have a few “negative points,” because there were things that stuck out to me that I can’t truly ignore.

For example, while Galactus on a visual scale was what we wanted… his character and powerset left a little to be desired. At times, it was spot-on Galactus, but then, he did things or said things that made no sense compared to his comic counterpart. Arguably, the biggest example of this is that despite having “the power cosmic,” he needed a ship to get around, and the entire plan to defeat him was just to send him to the other side of the universe, where “he couldn’t get back from for a long time.” Except, he could, because that’s how the power cosmic works. Seriously, it’s OP and broken, but that’s Galactus for you.

While I absolutely loved Sue going “beyond her limits” to push Galactus back, it was almost comical that he didn’t fight back in that moment, given the vast array of powers he has, including growing much larger so that even Sue couldn’t push him. Just saying.

The other big negative for me was Ben Grimm. It might have something to do with the cut scenes, or just not having time to do all they wanted, but of the Fantastic Four, Ben got the least story. They only lightly touch on his “look” and how it makes him feel, and they do a really barebones love story with him… and it’s not even with Alicia Masters, which did bug me as a FF fan. Don’t get me wrong, he had plenty to do as a support character and had great moments on his own, but compared to Reed, Sue, and Johnny, he had a much smaller “journey” to complete in comparison.

Oh, and it wouldn’t be a “superhero movie review” without noting that there were some CGI scenes that looked pretty bad. Some of you might also have wanted “a bit more action” with the Fantastic Four proper, but there’s nothing wrong with just telling a character story. The comics do that all the time, especially with the Fantastic Four.

As I end my Fantastic Four First Steps Review, it really does make me feel good that I enjoyed this film so much. I’m not going to say that the MCU “is saved” because of this film, especially since we don’t know how they factor into Avengers: Doomsday in full (yes, the mid-credits scene does tease it, but there’s plenty of variables), and if I’m being honest, I hope that after Secret Wars, they don’t become a part of the mainline MCU, because I’m fine watching the “First Family of Marvel” do things on their own and save everyone… as a family.