Review: THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

 by Rob DiCristino

Marvel’s First Family returns. Again. For the fifth time.

The New York of Earth 828 is a shining city upon a hill, an Atomic Age marvel of innovation and discovery. Glittering skyscrapers mix traditional architecture with cutting-edge designs for a sleek and futuristic metropolis unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. On this Earth, New Yorkers of the 1960s drive flying cars and live in careful harmony with a city of underground-dwellers called Subterraneans. It’s an age of diplomacy and peace: World nations work toward progress in solidarity, while rocket scientists and theoretical physicists push the boundaries of what is known and uncover new frontiers beyond the stars. The most renowned of these explorers is Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), who — in-between homemade science demonstrations for children on Saturday morning television — has pioneered faster-than-light travel, object teleportation, and the theory of multiple universes existing in parallel dimensions. From his lab high atop the formidable Baxter Building, Reed and his team of wizards secure our present and imagine our future.

Those wizards also happen to be a family: Reed’s wife, Sue Storm (Venessa Kirby), heads up the Future Foundation, which maintains treaties and armistices with governments around the world. Her brother, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), is a brash and charming young astronaut who’d find himself right at home in Jack Kennedy’s Camelot. Together with Reed’s best friend and ace pilot, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), they are the Fantastic Four, survivors of a cosmic disaster that left them wielding incredible superpowers. They’ve sworn to use these powers for the good of humanity, of course, making them both industrial titans and pop culture sensations: The Fantastic Four appear on action figures and cartoon shows, on cereal boxes and billboards. Were there an internet break on 828, Sue’s recent pregnancy announcement would surely have broken it. All is well, in other words, until the silver-surfing Herald of Galactus (Julia Garner) arrives with a devastating announcement: Her planet-eating master (Ralph Ineson as Galactus) has made their world his next target.

Set literal galaxies away from the unruly thicket of madness that is the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a welcome return to the joyful, character-focused adventure storytelling that once made that universe so compelling. For the first time since 2008, we are truly starting fresh: There are no unresolved plot threads to track, no Disney+ series to catch up on, and no set-ups for unrelated movies that may not ever be released. Instead, First Steps is simply the story of the Richards family: Still feeling responsible for the accident, Reed obsesses over safeguards to keep the family clear of further harm. Horrified by a public that believes she should give up her child to protect them, Sue fights to keep her family whole. Doomed to live life as a giant rock monster, Ben finds solace with a kind girl from the old neighborhood (Natasha Lyonne). And Johnny? Well, he’s investigating a series of space messages, clues he believes will unravel the mystery of a certain — curiously attractive — silver surfer.

Without an overcrowded plot to disentangle, audiences will be able to focus on First Steps’ visual aesthetic, a lively and colorful homage to Silver Age Marvel legend Jack Kirby (the credits even close with a quote from the artist, a welcome bit of recognition after three decades of Stan Lee worship). Like Kirby’s work, Kasra Farahani’s production design is a smooth blend of past and future: Intergalactic transmissions are recorded to phonographic discs, while house robot H.E.R.B.I.E.’s protocols are stored on reel-to-reel tape. It’s a crafty reminder that, while this is the 1960s, it’s not “our” 1960s, which helps First Steps feel like something other than a prequel episode with a foregone conclusion. As in James Gunn’s Superman, this is a heightened reality, a ten percent twist on the brightness knob that also makes the stray special effects blunders — one shot of The Thing holding baby Franklin stands out — more forgivable. We’re not always shooting for photo-realism here. This is a world of Technicolor imagination, and occasional breaks from reality are part of the fun.

The lead performances are uniformly strong, with Kirby’s Sue Storm standing out as the glue that keeps the Fantastic Four — and, by extension, the whole world — together as a family. The Bear’s Moss-Bachrach has perhaps the least to do as Ben Grimm, but his loving banter with Quinn’s cocky-but-never-crass Johnny Storm is enough to affirm his key role in the team dynamic. The long-awaited Galactus is a worthy adversary for this group of geniuses — he and his Herald are constantly bobbing left whenever the Four expects them to weave right — and Garner’s Silver Surfer gets just enough development to make her late-game actions feel earned. The truth is that there’s nothing revelatory about First Steps; it’s simply a charming, competent, confident movie. At this point, that’s really enough! Like a Major League hitter trying to get out of a slump, Marvel isn’t trying to overextend itself. They know the home run power isn’t there right now, but sometimes a stand-up double to the gap can be just what the doctor — Oh, stick around for a mid-credit cameo — ordered.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits U.S. theaters on Friday, July 25th.