Review – “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and ranking every Fantastic Four movie
The ’90s and ’00s were a relative mixed bag for Marvel superhero films. For every X2 or Spider-Man, there was a Daredevil, Elektra, or Hulk weighing things down. There were lot of growing pains when it came to figuring out the right combination of tone and aesthetic to make the movies work. But as the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuted and moved forward, Marvel figured out to solve these problems and do most of the characters right.
Yet one that remained elusive was The Fantastic Four. Known as Marvel’s First Family, they were the first entries into Marvel’s shared comic book continuity back in the 1960s. Of the three prior iterations of the team on film (if you count the unreleased Roger Corman take), each one was a failure. Filmmakers struggled to get the tone and writing right, despite both a darker, body-horror approach and a more straightforward one. When Marvel got the film rights back after purchasing Fox, many wondered if an MCU attempt would be made. And finally, that attempt has occurred.
The question is, did Marvel finally redeem the First Family? Success on that front is highly important for a franchise and continuity that has largely tanked, as the MCU itself seems in need of a savior.
The answer is mostly yes. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is far from a masterpiece, but it feels like one of Marvel’s freshest films in years, and it finally provides a cinematic take on the quartet that hits the correct balance of seriousness, earnestness, and character.
Part of the successful approach was grounding the film in a universe apart from mainline MCU continuity, and giving it a retro-futuristic ’60s setting. Removed from the heaps of homework that seemed necessary for Thunderbolts*, this movie stands firmly on its own and thus can focus on a simple story. This allowed the production team to go wild in crafting an alternate 1964 where The Fantastic Four are the sole beloved superhero team for the entire world, and to give it futuristic technology beyond what we have even now.
Every aspect of the film feels like it was given thoughtful attention and care, and the result is a world that is utterly charming. The alternate New York has lots of particular little details that make looking at many of the frames quite fun. The team’s costumes in particular are a wonderful bright blue that looks accurate to the original Jack Kirby art from the 60s and is more visually distinct than many of the recent Marvel films and shows.
The sci-fi aspects also benefit from this approach. The film’s central villain, Galactus, feels exactly like the massive space god from the comics that he is supposed to be. Ralph Ineson gives the role the appropriate gravitas. While the movie still suffers from the modern plague of scenes not being well lit in the space segments, the design of it all is still neat. A scene involving a neutron star is quite lovely to look at and really emphasizes the film as a piece of sci-fi rather than superhero action.
The flaws of the film come when the movie’s approach to characters and storytelling is examined. The movie does wisely to put a focus on family, and it develops the Four as characters above bombarding the audience with relentless plot mechanics. Yet despite the focus seeming to be where it should, the execution is a mixed bag. One of the shortest Marvel films yet, it moves forward at a breakneck pace. While this was likely done to avoid bogging the film down too much, many of the early character scenes feel shorter and more perfunctory than they should. The result is that a lot of character moments don’t have the room they need to breathe. Every time it feels like a scene is going to give us resonant character work, it cuts short and moves on.
The casualties of the editing floor leave ghosts throughout the film. An introductory montage to introduce the world works well, but because much of it is done in montage, the audience is being told about the team rather than shown it, making it less effective than it could be. There are also hints of a subplot centered on The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) throughout the movie where he finds a romance, interacts with ordinary people, and struggles with his state as a rocky monster. But few of these scenes were left in the final edit, leaving the plotline feeling neutered.
This is especially flagrant in the third act. The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is the other antagonist of the film, but as revealed early on, she doesn’t seem quite happy about her task of directing Galactus to planets to consume. There is an intriguing piece of character work to be done here, but it too is done in such a disjointed manner that it feels too shallow. Especially when the third act comes and The Silver Surfer makes a pivotal decision, it doesn’t feel earned.
Other aspects given short shrift include the Mole Man. He was the Fantastic Four’s debut villain in the comics, and here he is placed in an awkward peace with the Four and the surface world. Aside from his look not feeling quite as cornball as it should, the character’s random appearance in the third act feels unearned because the character is hardly in the film. The movie tries to show that this is the result of Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby)’s skills as a diplomat, but it is another aspect of the film that is underdeveloped. Aside from the opening montage, we never see Sue use these skills. We’re told she helped co-found The Future Foundation to help the world (an organization from the comics), but it is never seen doing anything. This is a nice comic reference that feels like another victim of the chopping block.
As far as being an action film, First Steps may leave people wanting. There are very few action scenes. Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) in particular barely uses his powers, which makes the character feel underutilized. It’s a shame because on the other hand, The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn)’s powers look excellent and show that the effects work on this film is mostly a step above most recent MCU films. The Thing’s look, too, is the best cinematic version yet. Aside from the Silver Surfer occasionally looking off, and a CGI baby that triggers our uncanny valley instinct big time, the rest of the effects work looks, well, fantastic. The lack of scenes of the team fighting together with their powers feels like a letdown in some regards.
On the other hand, this does let the movie emphasize the sci-fi-first approach that has always defined the team. They are more scientific explorers than traditional crime-fighting superheroes, and the film shines a light on that. It is really fun to see “science” used to solve many of the team’s problems. Mr. Fantastic utilizing black hole time dilation to make an escape for the team was really fun and helped keep the film feeling distinct from other superhero fare.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is undoubtedly a successful film and does many things right. Ironically, it feels like Marvel’s more cautious approach has held this one back from the greatness it could have reached. We can’t quite say that this movie is fantastic, but it nets a solid Four stars.
Flickcharting
At Flickchart we love to rank movies against each other, so let’s rank The Fantastic Four: First Steps against some prior iterations and see what’s best!
The absolute worst iteration of the First Family was Josh Trank‘s ill-fated version. There are hints of a better movie beneath the sloppy veneer. While far from accurate to the tone of the comics, Trank’s body-horror approach looked like it could be interesting, and the acting was decent. But whatever the cause of the behind-the-scenes drama and editing process, it turned the final third of this film into an incomprehensible mess on a level that even the worst major studio films rarely reach. The preceding two thirds are still dull. First Steps is easily a better movie.
The first major attempt at the team was directed by Tim Story and did a few things right. It embraced the idea of the team as family and had them saving people. It nails the characters better than First Steps in some respects. Ben Grimm’s transformation into the Thing is given room to breathe, with Michael Chiklis nailing the tough Brooklynite with a heart of gold, and his anger at being turned into a rocky monster. Chris Evans also gets the arrogance and hot-head nature of Johnny Storm down pat, and Ioan Gruffudd‘s depiction of Reed Richard bests Pascal’s because he gets the nerdiness and socially-unaware aspects just right.
Despite doing the characters more justice than First Steps, it’s still a far worse film overall. It looks really cheap, has a lackluster and uneventful script, and butchers the iconic villain that is Doctor Doom. With all respect to Julian McMahon (Rest In Peace), he absolutely was the wrong choice for the character and turned him into a stereotypical, jealous businessman type. This causes a lackluster finale that pales in comparison to where First Steps goes.
The very first film adaptation was actually an unreleased one! Roger Corman produced an adaptation that was part of a studio effort to maintain cinematic rights to the characters. And before now, we might have called this the best direct adaptation. Despite its low-budget nature and inherent cheesiness, it nails some of the ’60s tone and does the characters justice. In particular, it represents the villainous Doctor Doom quite well in terms of look and personality, even if it does it ultra-cheaply.
But First Steps will win this match-up. While there may still be aspects of the team that the ’94 one does well, the new film’s visuals alone carry it ahead of the mark.
First Steps finally hits a wall with the final match, Pixar’s loving homage to the Fantastic Four and 60s comics as a whole. While the storytelling of First Steps is decent, The Incredibles remains the benchmark for depicting a superhero family. The characters dynamics of the film render it arguably Pixar’s best movie overall, and it finds a sweet spot of tone with the earnestness of classic superhero stories mixed with a dramatic seriousness that gives the story weight. It serves as an interesting analysis of hero worship and the ways it can go awry. Despite how well-done Galactus is in the new movie, Syndrome is a more compelling villain. The main advantage First Steps has over The Incredibles is that it does allow the space exploration and sci-fi aspects of the genre to take front and center place. That alone won’t let First Steps win, though.
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