The good news is, First Steps lives up to most of these expectations. To start with, the actual Fantastic Four are great: There\u2019s a charisma to each of them individually and chemistry between them all. It may seem like an obvious thing, but they feel like a proper family, and you can tell the actors and director really put the work in to make it so. Scenes with the whole family can deal with heavy questions one moment, and lighten the mood in the next without ever feeling out of character. I truly bought these characters as a family unit.<\/p>\n
In fact, Ben and Johnny are a lot more fun together as the world\u2019s greatest uncles than they are apart. Ben in particular feels like a lot of his story was cut from the final film. It\u2019s not a huge loss, because The Thing more than does what he needs to do for the movie. If Ebon Moss-Bachrach did lose some of his screen time, it was chiseled down to the right size. Johnny, meanwhile, gets a little extra to do with a pivotal bit of the story \u2013 and a little more fire with which to execute it, thanks to his interest in the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). Motivation, however, is not in short supply for Johnny or any member of the family. All four of them take their jobs as protectors of Earth seriously, and take pride in doing those jobs well.<\/p>\n
I also think Pedro Pascal got Reed just right. Reed Richards has always had a lot of potential outcomes in the comics \u2013 a lot of different directions in which to stretch (har har) as a character. Sometimes that means going full megalomaniacal Illuminati; other times he\u2019s just a gentle smart guy trying his best to be a hero. What\u2019s sharp about this version of Reed is that all of those options are on the table.<\/p>\n
The good and the bad about Pascal\u2019s performance is that it can at times seem a little flat. There are campy moments that land in the nervous nerd stereotype arena \u2013 but in the next moment, there\u2019s something else bubbling underneath it. You can see Reed struggling with problems he can\u2019t solve, terrified by all the unknowns he\u2019s suddenly faced with.<\/p>\n
The Fantastic Four: First Steps April Trailer Poster and Stills<\/p>\n
Reed doesn\u2019t do a lot of growing or changing; Fist Steps doesn\u2019t teach him any life-altering lessons. But, for a character who we presume will have plenty to do in the MCU moving forward, it actually might be the perfect start for him. It feels like more of a first episode for him than a wholly contained movie.<\/p>\n
But the real star of First Steps is Vanessa Kirby. Sue Storm saves all the days. Multiple times throughout the movie, Reed, Johnny, and Ben are tossed aside, incapacitated, but Sue comes through \u2013 one time while she\u2019s in labor no less. She\u2019s fierce and protective and clear-eyed about all the danger her family is in. She\u2019s also the only one that can talk to Mole Man, played by Paul Walter Hauser, who absolutely steals a scene right out from under all four of the stars. But the point is, Vanessa Kirby has been one of my favorites since she was the best part of Mission Impossible: Fallout<\/a> and nothing in First Steps changes that. In fact, Sue is set up to be a more crucial player in the next MCU movies than anybody else in her family.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s her dynamic with Reed as new parents that really gives this movie its heart. They’re a couple from an alternate retrofuturistic universe imbued with superheroic abilities by cosmic radiation, yet their most impressive power is being super relatable. In fact, there\u2019s one argument between the two of them where Sue\u2019s manic and exhausted new-mom energy is so spot on, it unearthed a fear in me that I hadn\u2019t felt since I was a new dad \u2013 one I could see Pascal\u2019s face reflecting just as accurately.<\/p>\n Being a father of two, I really felt First Steps\u2019 more or less on-the-nose parenting metaphors \u2013 especially the one involving the big bad. Galactus is coming to devour the entire world, but first he sends a messenger to let you know he\u2019s on his way. That is basically pregnancy. A positive test, the first ultrasound \u2013 these are parental equivalent of the Silver Surfer riding through the atmosphere and saying, \u201cHey, heads up, your world is about to be devoured, time to get your affairs in order.\u201d For nine months, all you can do is prepare for the worst and try to convince yourself that it\u2019s not the end of life as you know it. First Steps puts Reed and Sue through both of these experiences \u2013 though one eternally hungry entity gives them more time to prep for his arrival than the other.<\/p>\n Hots Toys’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps Figures – Photo Gallery Rooting the story in something as basically human as becoming a parent is the smartest move Shakman and First Steps\u2019 four credited screenwriters could\u2019ve made, even if they\u2019re less than subtle in doing so. And subtlety is not something this movie is terribly concerned with: The story is a little nuts, and the \u201cworld of tomorrow, today!\u201d setting is bizarre, but they go out of their way to make excuses for it. But there\u2019s some intention at play here: By using some zippy, early montages to set up a baseline outlandishness, First Steps preps us to not overthink the Fantastic Four\u2019s ultimate plan to defeat Galactus \u2013 a plan that, in hindsight, doesn\u2019t really hold up to scrutiny even by comic book standards.<\/p>\n Some of that has to do with the pace. First Steps zooms through its less-than-two-hour runtime with an energy that doesn\u2019t allow you to stop and ask too many questions. Sometimes that can be a Band-Aid for sloppy filmmaking, but it can also be a savvy use of shorthand \u2013 fortunately, it\u2019s more often the latter than the former with this movie. First Steps isn\u2019t an origin story, and we don\u2019t need it to be: If you don\u2019t know that tale from the comics or the two<\/a> previous<\/a> movies that told variations on it, a little TV-show-within-the-movie will catch you up on it. The more impressive thing is, Shakman and the writers put a little faith in us to pick up what we need to and go with the flow \u2013 and they keep the flow moving quickly enough that we\u2019re not bothered by mentions of Super-Apes, the underground kingdom of Subterranea, time dilation, or anything else we don\u2019t quite get. <\/p>\n A lot of this movie works \u2013 in fact I\u2019d say there\u2019s nothing that\u2019s actively or truly wrong with it. But there\u2019s not a lot that stands out about it. What\u2019s missing are those capital-M Moments that superhero movies need. I mean this on an emotional level: Nothing in First Steps had me on the verge of tears, happy or sad; nothing had me nervous for the survival of the folks on screen. But I also mean this on a technical level. The most heroic-looking shots are in the montages, not in the big climactic events of the film. As visually interesting as all the bubble cars and space-age architecture of Earth 828 is \u2013 not to mention the sheer scale of Galactus and his planet-grinding spacecraft \u2013 there\u2019s a hair that I\u2019ll split by saying I didn\u2019t find it visually compelling. The actors are giving engaging performances in unique wardrobes on a slick looking set, but the camera isn\u2019t doing much else to help. <\/p>\n There\u2019s not a ton of action in this movie, either, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, focusing on introducing and fleshing out characters who\u2019ll presumably be very important to the MCU moving forward is 100% the right call. But the action that\u2019s there seems to leave some money on the table so to speak. I want my comic-book movies to at least have a couple great comic-book-worthy images in them. I want to see those really active frames that convey a ton of energy and emotion and leave an impression. First Steps just doesn\u2019t have enough of that for my tastes.<\/p>\n I do want to shout out the score, though. Composer Michael Giacchino does a lot of the heavy lifting in one of the moments I actually would count as a hero shot. In the sequence where The Fantastic Four blast off to go negotiate with Galactus, there\u2019s this wonderful, sweeping, heroic bit of music, while the rockets are firing, and it\u2019s all smoke and fire and the majesty of slipping the bonds of gravity and soaring into the unknown, seeking adventure! But I got that bit of passion from the music, to be clear \u2013 not the visuals.<\/p>\n I went into The Fantastic Four: First Steps wanting it to do more for the broader MCU, and that\u2019s why I think I\u2019m a little disappointed with its specifics. It\u2019s impossible not to consider its place within the entire 37-movie, 14-Disney+-series (and counting) franchise and the heralding of what Marvel hopes will be two world-devouring capstones to Phase 6 in the form of Doomsday<\/a> and Secret Wars<\/a>. I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about Thor: Ragnarok<\/a>, and how the destruction of Asgard was such a propulsive force to the story \u2013 the momentum in the build up to Infinity War<\/a>. It gave Thor, a franchise cornerstone, more than just an eyepatch to move forward with. It was loaded with stakes. They blew up a whole realm for Odin\u2019s sake. That\u2019s what I wanted for the Fantastic Four. \u201cBlow up planets or get the f*** out!\u201d is something I actually said, less than a week ago.<\/p>\n A lot of this movie works. But there\u2019s not a lot about it that stands out.<\/p>\n What I got instead was a much quieter family drama, completely unconcerned with moving the MCU ball forward. It does exactly the thing I was preemptively mad about \u2013 and yet I can\u2019t be completely angry with it. Beyond its obligations to the constellation of movies and shows around it, this is a solid foundation on which to (re-)introduce Marvel\u2019s first family. Wherever they go from here, it\u2019ll be on to bigger and better things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters Friday, July 25. Marvel\u2019s first family finally shows up to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-16223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n