Marvel seems to have been in a bit of a rut recently, but with the acquisition and merger of Twentieth Century Fox, we now have a whole host of new characters joining the MCU. So it’s fair to say that there is a lot riding on Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four!
Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in universe Earth 828, in a sort of retro futuristic city. Where televisions are still CRTs, but cars also fly?… It’s as if someone in the 60’s was asked to imagine what 2030 would look like, but it totally works. Here the Fantastic Four led by Reed Richards (Pedro Pascall) his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) her brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm, aka ‘The Thing’ (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
This is no-origin story as we join them four years into their superhero life. This is a refreshing change to not have another origin story as the previous two reboots of this franchise have covered this extensively to varying degrees of success. The reality is flashbacks do enough justice to their back story that we don’t need 45 minutes of waiting around before anything new happens. This immediately makes the film so much more enjoyable to watch in my opinion.
They are the world’s only superheroes, so when world ending threat Galactus appears they must rally together to face a seemingly unbeatable enemy. Each actor brings their own fresh new take to the character with some unique and I imagine highly useful invisibility manipulation for a pregnant Sue Storm. It is the pregnancy and family values that really drive the film and the characters to do what they do. The weak link here if there is one would be Pascal’s character, he isn’t used to his full flexibility… by no means is it a poor performance from him, but there is a great deal of repetition with his character and he doesn’t develop as much.
The film is gorgeous, partly shot on older cameras for the flashback scenes and also shot with IMAX cameras. This film needs to be seen on the biggest screen you can with so much more detail coming from the enhanced aspect ratio IMAX provides. Especially when the big bad Galactus enters the fray, with the ratio expanding to show off the scale of his presence. There are some scenes reminiscent of Interstellar, which is no bad thing and just helps make you look at the film in awe and wonder why it’s taken so long for a Marvel films to look this good, not since The Eternals have we had quality like it. The use of practical sets and effects, even Galactus (played by Ralph Ineson) had a practical suit for Galactus. This just makes the world that more inviting. It’s why films like Alien and Interstellar have done so well with. Couple this with an amazing sound design and you get a real sense of cinema. Which is after all why we go out and see these films!
Overall the film has a huge amount going for it, there is heart, humour and a deep sense of family values that really make you route for the cast. The stand out has to be Vanessa Kirby. Her portrayal of Sue Storm is first rate, she really is the glue that holds them together. The rest of the cast do an incredible job too and I think maybe this is the best Fantastic Four ensemble we’ve had. The fact that the film is in itself isolated with no prior MCU knowledge needed. Really makes it a much more enjoyable watch. You can sit back and watch without worry should I have seen episode 5 of Loki Season 2 for this to make sense. Yes, we will be getting the first family in the MCU as teased at the end of the Thunderbolts. With Avengers: Doomsday due next year and RDJ back as the iconic Fantastic Four villain Dr Doom. It won’t be long before the family gets thirst back into action with undoubtedly more at stake than before! Let’s hope that by bringing them into the fold it does not dilute their impact which is so far immensely positive!
Author: Tom, Bath Store
