Fantastic Four: First Steps Is … Fine

Before I get into the meat of this spoiler-free review, some context: I started reading Fantastic Four comics in the late 1960s, when Stan Lee was still scripting them and Jack Kirby was drawing them. That series was one of my staple comic buys for years into my early teens. So, I had high hopes for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And, while the movie is pretty good, it wasn’t great, and I’ll spell out below what I think was missing or a misstep.

Also, to be clear, I am not a source material purist, and I actually really like when writers modify a comic book story into something more appropriate for film or TV, as long as it is creative. Not that I would have to worry about that with this movie — it may be the most comic book accurate adaptation made so far. In a theater full of jaded movie reviewers there were audible gasps and chuckles at some of the wilder things from the early comics that were included in the movie Fantastic Four.

Despite that, this movie may be the least MCU-like movie to come out of the MCU in years — probably since Eternals. It has humor, but almost none of the quippy banter that permeates MCU movies. Even The Thunderbolts*, despite its focus on depression and the kind of tragic actions it can lead to people considering, is loaded with MCU quips for its humor. There are a couple of (allegedly) funny set pieces in Fantastic Four that don’t just fall flat on their faces but actually made me cringe.

There is funny banter, mostly from Johnny as played wonderfully by Joseph Quinn, but it is much more like the kind of jokes and jabs you would get from a close family. And that gets to what works best about the movie — its focus on the human elements and family. (Cue the Dom Toretto meme.) The chemistry between the core cast of Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben, Pedro Pascal as Reed and Vanessa Kirby as Sue is palpable, particularly between Pascal and Kirby as Reed and Sue. They feel more like a real loving couple than almost anything in the MCU since Wanda and Vision in the series WandaVision — not coincidentally the last thing Fantastic Four director Matt Shakman directed for Marvel.

The rest of the surprisingly small cast ranges from fine to excellent. Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer is fine, although she doesn’t do anything to elevate her character beyond the written word. Ralph Ineson as Galactus, on the other hand, does what he does best — make a truly mysterious and terrifying elder god-like being believable. And that’s it for primary speaking roles. IMDb lists six more speaking roles with more than one line under “Other Cast.” Natasha Lyonne is excellent as always, but Paul Walter Hauser steals every one of the few scenes he is in.

The production design is incredible, from the attention to detail in creating the super-science alternate 1960s world the FF live in, to the scale and power of Galactus. And the score by Michael Giacchino fits that scale perfectly. It is majestic without evoking either John Williams or Hans Zimmer.

So, why wasn’t it a great movie?

I think that fact mentioned above about the relatively small size of the cast is a clue, as is the pedigree of Shakman, cinematographer Jess Hall, and one of two primary writers, Josh Friedman. While all men have interesting movies in their credits, they are most known for TV work. And that is what I think Fantastic Four feels like — the big season finale of a popular TV or streaming series. Shakman gets outstanding performances out of the outstanding cast, but his scene construction and choices of shots have little visual creativity. In a movie in which they nail the massive scale and power of Galactus, it’s a shame that almost everything else that should seem equally epic seems just “oh, wow, cool.” Again, Shakman and cast absolutely kill it in the many small-scale, human moments in the movie, but I read the comics for both that element (seriously, I started reading just after Franklin was born and loved that aspect of those late ’60s issues) AND for the mind-blowing epic story elements. Alas, Galactus aside, most of that epic quality is missing from the rest of the movie.

Is that enough to knock Fantastic Four down from great to just pretty good? Yes, I think so. That was also one of the problems with Eternals — a movie literally about the servants of space gods felt like it didn’t understand that scale. Alas, the same is often true for Fantastic Four, although less so.

Do see the movie in a theater, ideally with Dolby or some other immersive sound system. The sound effects for Galactus are a strong part of what defines his incredible scale and power. And stay for the two end credits bits (although you can skip the actual post-credits scene).

I give The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Marvel Studios; PG-13; 1 hr 55 mins) a 7 out of 10.