The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review - A Cosmic Disappointment

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A Marvel movie being better than Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania isn’t a high bar to pass. Yet, some of the recent ones have managed to reach that level of low quality or even stay below it. But then comes Marvel‘s most beloved family, which finally surpasses that bar for a bit, but sadly falls short of the heights it deserves. The Fantastic Four: First Steps boasts one of the best representations of the iconic family thanks to the excellent talent behind it, but it fails to impress due to a predictable, weak, and at times, seen-before plot, and many questionable narrative threads that make me a little worried about the whole Multiverse Saga Marvel is desperately trying to salvage.

Welcome to the Family

When it comes to Marvel characters, Spider-Man has always been my favorite. However, I’ve dabbled in most of the creations from Kirby and Lee. And the Fantastic Four are certainly some of the most important in the never-ending comic book universe. Like other notable heroes, we’ve already seen them in different films. We got a couple of enjoyable ones in 2005 and 2007, and the colossal failure of 2015. Now, The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes its rightful place on top of all of them, but still fails to deliver on many fronts.

Let’s start with the predictable and eyeroll-worthy mess of a plot. The film begins with the family already known to many. We don’t have origin stories or the cosmic flare sequence that grants power. It explains everything in a few scenes and does it perfectly. The only thing worth noting here is that these heroes are part of Earth-828. That will surely come into play in future movies, or so I hope.

In this universe, the Fantastic Four aren’t your masked crusaders who hide in plain sight and fight crime at night. They have developed many of the important elements in the city, with Mr. Fantastic doing most of the inventions and The Invisible Woman being at the political front. On top of this, however, is the one thing no one expected: a fantastic baby is on the way. And this new member of the family is what drives the inconsistencies of the film. I’ll try not to spoil, but don’t worry, you won’t miss a lot.

The Fantastic Four watching the arrival of Silver Surfer

After Reed and Sue announce their pregnancy to the world, Shalla-Bal, the movie’s Silver Surfer, and an actual comic book character, arrives on Earth. She tells the heroes and everyone around that Galactus is coming and there’s nothing they can do about it. The Fantastic Four, in all their wisdom, decide to pursue Shalla-Bal to another planet where Galactus was last seen. And off they go, Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Thing, and The Invisible Woman with a nine-month pregnancy. For being one of the smartest families out there, bringing Sue Storm on board was the most questionable aspect of the film, and one that highlights how loosely tied the plot is.

They arrive at the last location where Galactus was, and he decides to greet the four spacefarers. After they enter, Galactus says he can leave the Earth alone if The Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic hand over their child. Naturally, they say no and leave for Earth. Meanwhile, back on our home planet, Reed Richards does the “smart” job of telling the whole world that Galactus wants their baby in exchange for Earth. As you can expect, everyone gets angry at the heroes.

I could go on and tell you what happens, but you can already expect the ending. In truth, nothing really surprised me in the film, except for the emotional scene at the end with Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards and Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm. Seriously, it brought me to tears. Other than that, I kept questioning the heroes’ decisions and narrative threads that didn’t amount to anything really worth talking about. Even the somewhat promising romance thread of Ben and another mysterious woman disappears out of nowhere.

As someone who was expecting a groundbreaking narrative worthy of this heroic family, this wasn’t it. But credit where it’s due: the few action sequences were great, and while the story is forgettable, the characters aren’t, especially if you’re a comic book fan.

Great For Comic Book Fans

Out of all movies featuring these four heroes, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the most loyal to the comics. For starters, all four members are great and really do justice to the 1961 characters. Out of all, it’s difficult to pick the standouts, but I’d say Reed and Sue take the cake. The chemistry they have on screen is unmatched. You can feel the love they have for each other as a couple, but also how they challenge themselves. For instance, there’s a scene where Mr. Fantastic thinks of something quite dangerous for his kid, and the Invisible Woman, with just one look, knows what her husband is going to do. It might not be the most significant moment of the movie. Still, it shows you how well-written the characters are in a way that they can understand each other without long dialogues, and that can only be achieved thanks to the stellar cast behind each of these heroes.

On the other hand, Johnny and Ben were — dare I say — also fantastic. Joseph Quinn does an excellent job at portraying the Human Torch, and I loved how they made him a smarter version of the flaming hero who wants to challenge himself and also prove he is useful to the team. Ebon Moss-Bachrach is also great as The Thing, even if he acts behind all that rocky suit. What I loved about his portrayal is how it shows a man who has come to terms with his condition but still longs for the days when he was human. Then again, these two get little screen time and feel underused at times. There are two promising narrative threads the film could’ve explored more, but they are abandoned halfway and never bloom into anything really worth talking about.

Beyond the family, Galactus and Shalla-Bal were terrifically performed by Ralph Ineson and Julia Garner, respectively. The former finally felt like the colossal menace we were all waiting for. I’ve always thought that there are a handful of iconic enemies in the Fantastic Four series, but this big guy is one of the best. As someone who was disappointed at the big dark cloud of 2007, I was glad to see him as a proper villain, and while the fight against him wasn’t the best in comic book history, it was pretty enjoyable.

Furthermore, those who love the vintage style of these heroes will love the visual style and set design. The MCU has always surprised us with comic book-accurate locations and iconic styles throughout its many phases. However, The Fantastic Four: First Steps arguably boasts the best visual style of every other film. The combination of 1960s fashion paired with technological advances is superb.

Overall, this film does justice to the source material in some parts. Yet, it still lacks that “oomph” we see in modern superhero movies. The ones in the 2000s had some interesting action sequences, but nothing worth talking about. I won’t even bother talking about the 2015 film. And this one, unfortunately, has similar issues. It only has two action scenes, and only one of them is a true standout. Even then, it feels too short and doesn’t show the family kicking butt as they did in the comics. I would’ve loved to see The Human Torch and The Thing in more fighting scenes and Mr. Fantastic doing more than just swinging things around, but I guess Marvel is saving that for Doomsday.

Great Cast, Excellent Characters, Poor Plot

I don’t know why a trend of this decade is bringing an excellent cast of actors in a movie with a poor plot. It baffles me how common this is. The Fantastic Four: First Steps goes down that road. Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach deliver stellar performances. I can’t complain there.

The two standouts, as I previously mentioned, are Pascal and Kirby. The former is the best Reed Richards in the whole cinematic universe. I’m sorry, Krasinski, but Pascal really embodies the genius part of Mr. Fantastic and shows how dangerous it is to be the smartest man alive. Kirby does an excellent job as The Invisible Woman and has the greatest scenes in the whole film. I won’t spoil it, but she was capable of turning a cringe speech into an epic moment while also being the greatest mother in the MCU.

Quinn’s Human Torch and Moss-Bachrach’s The Thing are great, too, but the plot doesn’t give them enough time to shine. When they get a few scenes, they are part of the eyeroll-inducing jokes that are a trademark of the MCU nowadays, which is disappointing. Still, I loved how both actors represented their characters, especially Quinn, who delivers my favorite Johnny Storm of any Marvel film.

There aren’t any other characters worth mentioning, as the film focuses more on the family dynamics, and that was perfectly fine. Often, we see superhero films cluttering the screen with cameos, side characters, and extras that don’t contribute anything. For once, I’m glad this one stuck to the main cast.

The MCU On Its Last Legs

Ultimately, I was expecting The Fantastic Four: First Steps to boast the same quality as Thunderbolts, but that was sadly not the case. This film was the one supposed to hype us for Avengers: Doomsday, but it did the opposite. It made me question how Marvel will pull Phase Six out of the ditch. I doubt the new Spider-Man movie will be a game-changer, especially since it no longer has the nostalgia card to work with. And even then, following all other tie-in TV shows has become tiring.

At this point, the MCU is trying to chase the hype of the Infinity Saga to no avail. Marvel could try to bring the whole original Avengers cast, and it would still do nothing. This saga is so disconnected, not only from its own stories, but from its audience, too. I only hope that Marvel doesn’t kill off the Fantastic Four because there’s a lot of potential there, especially if they get better scriptwriters for their next adventure.