In Review: 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps'

The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Dir. Matt Shakman
114 min.

With the first issue of Fantastic Four in 1961, artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee carved out new comic book territory with every panel. No incarnation of the Marvel Universe is imaginable without that first fight between the Mole Man and his “entire army of underground gargoyles” and a four-member family unit of radiation-altered heroes with conspicuous shortcomings and insecurities to match their considerable gifts. And that was just the beginning. Without abandoning the core idea of a loving yet fractious family saving the world on a monthly basis, Kirby and Lee’s Fantastic Four comics pushed the boundaries of what superhero stories could do by bringing in reality-bending ideas inspired by the era’s science fiction. That’s a lot for any film adaptation of the comics to live up to, and so far no version has been up to the task. That the latest, directed by Matt Shakman, the driving force behind Marvel’s WandaVision, arrives at a moment when the Marvel Cinematic Universe has started to feel a bit creaky only puts that much more pressure on The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Shakman’s film solves the creakiness issue by ignoring it. Set in a universe apart from the mainline MCU—”Universe 828,” to be specific, a number whose meaning becomes clear during the closing credits—it doesn’t have to worry about, say, adamantium-rich islands made of dead Celestials and the accumulated clutter of other Marvel movies. And, more importantly, First Steps addresses the adaptation issue by playing like a film made by those with a deep love and understanding of both the central characters and the space age early-’60s moment in which they were created, one in which optimism about the future coexisted with fear of total annihilation.

Like James Gunn’s Superman, First Steps drops into a narrative that’s already in progress, relegating the team’s origin story to a newsmagazine segment that hits the highlights. Unlike Superman, it occasionally feels like we’ve missed some key details about who our heroes are and why we should care about them. Fortunately, the cast helps fill in the blanks with well-considered performances and a chemistry that suggests these are people who couldn’t live without one another and would do anything to stay together. Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby play, respectively, Reed Richards and Sue Storm, astronauts who, with Sue’s brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), have been embraced as international heroes after manifesting superpowers following an encounter with some cosmic rays. Now a few years into their superhero careers, they face a pair of unexpected challenges: Sue’s become pregnant after previously giving up on parenthood and a visit from the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) has announced that Earth will soon be eaten by Galactus (Ralph Ineson), an interstellar devourer of worlds.

First Steps is a wonder of production design, filling every corner with twists on mid-century design and analog technology, down to a robot helper named H.E.R.B.I.E. whose “eyes” are the hubs of a magnetic tape reel. That distinct look, which extends into a mid-film voyage into space seemingly inspired by the covers of old sci-fi paperbacks, sets First Steps apart from other Marvel movies, as does a tone that favors earnestness over self-aware quips. It’s defined less by its action scenes than by the moments of the extended Richards family hanging out in the Baxter Building. This might be the first cozy superhero movie.

That approach has its limitations. The Richards’ world feels a bit insular. H.E.R.B.I.E. aside, the only real supporting characters are played by Natasha Lyonne, who shows up for a couple of scenes as a possible love interest for Ben, and Sarah Niles as the FF’s contact with the outside world. A few moments of Paul Walter Hauser playing a semi-reformed Mole Man suggest a world of comic possibilities that First Steps doesn’t have a lot of interest in exploring. But maybe that’s unavoidable in a film largely focused on the experience of trying to keep a family together in the face of challenges both large and small, as it builds toward a potentially apocalyptic confrontation with an uncaring force of godlike power. 

The choice allows Shakman to keep the focus on the characters’ emotions, which remain achingly human no matter how great their powers or how colorful their foes. (The film may begin a few chapters into the FF story, but the look Ben gives Reed when Reed attempts to blame himself (again) for his pal’s rocky body says as much about these characters and Reed’s tortured inner life as any depiction of the events could.) First Steps takes place in an alternate universe vision of the 1960s, but that’s not the only way in which the film attempts to erase any distance between the film and the world Kirby and Lee created over 60 years ago. —Keith Phipps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in theaters everywhere today.