"The Fantastic Four: First Steps": Review

Is this The Fantastic Four or a Storm Family melodrama?

This is a question that I was genuinely left having after I exited the theater. What was the point of this film? To break down some of my complaints and positives here, we’ll be delving into spoilers. But more to come on those later.

              I’d like to start off by saying I’m someone that believes our opinions on media tend to be influenced by what we’ve recently consumed. One big question I asked myself going into this movie was how it would compare to James Gunn’s and DC Studios’ recent take on Superman. Which I, alongside many others, absolutely adored and loved. While yes, that’s not typically fair, with both being big budget blockbusters that are in theaters at the same time. I feel it’s warranted. With that being said, let’s get into the nitty gritty to see if Marvel’s first family is as fantastic as they claim.

              Before getting into spoilers, let’s begin with some of the positives on display. Michael Giacchino absolutely blows it out of the park with his work on the score. Seeing what other films he’s worked on, such as 2022’s The Batman and 2018’s Bad Times at the El Royale. One of the other positives that really worked well for me was the retro-futuristic New York. It felt genuine and lived in. And I had a blast whenever they’d give us small character moments in various locations that we know and love. I just wish we would’ve gotten more of it. That’s something that could be said for the character moments in the movie as well. Apart from Sue and Johnny, we don’t really get any solo moments with Ben or Reed.

              Benjamin Grimm, The Thing, has always been my personal favorite member of The Fantastic 4. And as much as I love him, even I can admit that he hasn’t had a great portrayal in adaptation form yet. Until now. The CGI used to make Grimm come to life in this rendition was truly remarkable. I loved every second that I got to see him on screen. It’s a crime that the one time they do him right, it feels like he’s barely there. Especially after they give us bits and pieces of his internal struggle as he visits Yancy Street. Moving into full spoiler territory now. Near the ending of the film before the major climax, Ben goes to visit an unnamed girl that he’s shown to have feelings for. As he approaches her and the dialogue starts, it cuts away to show Ben and Reed having a conversation. This felt to me as if they were just making cuts in post-production to thin the run-time down to just below the two-hour mark.

              At the end of the day, I think the casting choices for the titular family were fine. I’m a huge fan of Pedro Pascal’s work as an actor, but I just don’t think he was a good fit for this role. I would’ve much preferred if they stuck with John Krasinski as Reed who had previously helmed the character in 2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. As someone who still hasn’t seen Netflix’s Stranger Things, this was my first foray into Joseph Quinn’s acting style. I thought he did decent here. He’s lacking the charm that Chris Evan’s brought back in the day, but I think that’s honestly fine. Albeit what felt like the absence of hearing “Flame on!” was a bit weird. That’s not to say I thought the acting was bad. One of this film’s highlights was Vanessa Kirby.

              I feel Vanessa Kirby was the standout here. Now I could go on about how well she performed here, but every other review you read is going to do that. Let’s flip that over and talk about how it just as much hurt the film. This comes off more as a Sue Storm movie with the rest of the Fantastic 4 falling to the side lines. One thing this film felt very lacking in was its big dollar “hero” moments. We only get one true to form hero moment and it’s at the end with Sue. The rest of the team seems to kind of just be there to do little to nothing. As the climactic final battle starts to swell to its conclusion, I thought they were going to do something powerful with Johnny’s character. They instead shift gears to grant Silver Surfer an undeserved scene in the limelight. I was completely fine with the design decisions they took with the Silver Surfer this go around. What I wasn’t fine with was the CGI they used to bring the character to life. It honestly looked worse to me than 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. With an estimated budget of $200,000,000. Some of the effects in this film look downright bad. Thankfully Ralph Ineson’s Galactus looked beautiful in all his superb splendor.

              As I mentioned in the beginning of this review, I left the theater wondering what the point of this was. In the post credits scene of Thunderbolts*, we’re shown that The Fantastic Four has entered Earth 1999999. Apart from a very brief end credits scene, there’s not really any set up here leading into the future of the MCU. In a way that makes this an almost purely standalone film. Which, in a way, is a nice touch for the latest trends in the MCU.

              All negatives aside, I think this film was fine. It’s nowhere near as bad as some of the recent Marvel slop we’ve been given as of late. And it has me curious to see what events inevitably pull Marvel’s first family into the MCU to get the ball rolling for Avengers: Doomsday. At the end of the day, Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps lands a few steps too short earning it a 6/10 on the Mid-Tier Critique rating scale. If you’re one of the few out there who still haven’t made it to a theater to watch Gunn’s Superman and are deciding which superhero movie to spend your hard-earned money on this summer. I’d say wait for the inevitable Disney+ streaming release of this one and go see Superman instead.