In so many superhero films’ attempts to feel grounded and emotional, they forget that their source material is comic books—colorful and inventive but rooted in the human condition. They can be dramatic and thoughtful, but in the Golden Age of Marvel, comic books never forgot to be entertaining and even inspiring above all else.
And few committed to that ideal more than writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, who created the Fantastic Four. This crew is considered Marvel’s first family because they are an actual family (mostly), and now for the first time, the FF are fully a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We don’t need to go into the history of the largely terrible other movie iterations of this group. Instead, we’ll jump into director Matt Shakman's (WandaVision) newest and most enjoyable adaptation, one that brings powerhouse acting and a genuinely worthy story into one terrific film.
Rather than give us a complete origin story, The Fantastic Four: First Steps quickly summarizes the group’s cosmic origins and powers through a short in-movie television documentary that precedes a TV appearance by the team on an Ed Sullivan-like variety show. And in the process, we learn a lot about the time and place in which this film takes place.
This is an alternate version of Earth, circa the 1960s; the group has been a team for about three years, and it would appear they are the only superheroes on the planet. There are other villains. and we get a laundry list of their foes’ names in one spectacular sequence that includes their first adversary, the Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), who runs a society under the Earth’s surface. Most importantly, the thing that becomes evident about the Fantastic Four’s place on Earth is that they are beloved, even including pilot Ben Grimm’s rock-skinned The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who still visits his old neighborhood and even leans on his Jewish faith in times of crisis.
The Fantastic Four aren’t just heroes and protectors of Earth; they are merchandisably popular. There’s a Saturday morning cartoon about them; they are featured as spokespeople for product lines, and Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) teaches and gives speeches for various causes. Her elastic husband Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) is the smartest man in the world and many of his inventions have bettered the lives of all society. Sue’s brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn), aka Human Torch, knows he isn’t as smart or talented as the rest, but that never stops him from looking for solutions to unsolvable problems the team regularly faces.
Once the FF’s place in the world is sorted, the enigmatic Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives on Earth to announce the eminent arrival of her boss, the ravenous space god known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who plans on completely devouring the planet. Rather than wait for Galactus to reach Earth, the Fantastic Four use their abilities as astronauts to go to face the enormous being in hopes of negotiating a way out of this situation, and while Galactus does offer the team a way out, the price is unexpected and too high.
The film’s hero story is only a part of what makes Fantastic Four so intriguing. The group is also dealing with the news that Sue is pregnant and has become so after she and Reed had effectively given up trying to have children. Will their child have powers? And if so, what will they be? Believe it or not, Galactus may know the answer.
As the film progresses, it slowly becomes clear that Sue is its beating heart, and one of the movie’s unexpected but much welcome moments comes when she gives birth to her son on the journey back to Earth after confronting Galactus. But the scenes between her and Reed simply being husband and wife, while also figuring out their superhero duties, are remarkably unique and fun to watch. And much like in the comic books, the playful rivalry between Ben and Johnny are the only times the film gets even silly adjacent.
I found the real star of First Steps to be the retro-futuristic production design, courtesy of Kasra Farahani, who also created the equally inventive sets in the Loki series. The movie is set primarily in a version of New York City that looks familiar but different, with a certain flare that exists because of Reed’s various inventions to help make the world run a little more efficiently. Parts of the city run like they were in our version of the 1960s, but others feel like The Jetsons. And future viewings of this film at home may include a great deal of freeze-framing to examine the background cityscapes. I also especially loved the inclusion of the team’s robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E. (voiced by Matthew Wood), a character that first appeared in the short-lived 1970s animated FF series and was later added to the comics.
I’ll admit my heart soared a bit when Natasha Lyonne shows up as Rachel Rozman, a potential love interest for Ben back in his old neighborhood; she’s not in the film much, but their scenes together are great and hopefully we’ll see her in future installments of this franchise. But the film’s real strength is depicting the balancing act the Earth’s only super-powered heroes must perform to fulfill their duties to the planet and their family. It’s refreshing to watch a new Marvel movie that isn’t beholden to what has come before and barely touches on what is to come. This isn’t a film setting up another film (even though it does a little bit), and focusing the storytelling strictly in this specific universe turns out to be the key to its greatness. Knowing what the next couple of Marvel movies are going to be (namely Avengers: Doomsday), that feeling won’t last. But there is some comfort in knowing Marvel’s first family (including the new baby) is heavily involved in what comes next.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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