Hey folks, I did in fact see the new Fantastic Four movie (First Steps) last night for my birthday. Overall I thought it was good stuff, maybe a bit better than the Superman movie from a few weeks back, but not by a ton. The retro-futuristic vibe of the film gives it an edge over the standard superhero movie, and the setup for the next round of Marvel films is exciting. Unfortunately, the movie also wastes some talent as well as not fully earning all of the themes. SPOILERS AHEAD!
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Last chance!
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So you probably know the general story, and this is a fairly good streamlined retelling of the Galactus story. However, we’ve been teased with a lot of other stuff that got stripped away from the movie for no good reason. The film is just under 2 hours, and easily could have had another 15 minutes of content without dragging, and there are scenes from the trailers that don’t appear in the film, which is disappointing.
The retro-futuristic look and feel of the whole film is great, as it shows how the Four have changed society for the better. Everything has a sleek look and is beautifully designed, like the drawers in the Four’s bathroom, and the spaceship’s look. Although it’s weird that the same movie seems to be at the theater since the Four first went up into space all the way through the movie’s present day (Inter-something Zero, or something like that?).
We also get hints of what’s going to happen with Doom, which I think we knew was going to happen, but it’s fun to see.
Galactus is massive and looks formidable and not ridiculous, and the Surfer is sleek and alien. The CGI for Mr Fantastic and the Torch look neat, and Sue’s force fields are interesting to see. I’m not sure if Ben was all CGI, but he looks great and even the beard is fun.
The actors are all pretty well cast. I don’t think I’ve seen the Torch actor in something before, but he does well at being somewhat bratty but also taking his role as a protector seriously. The Thing is well-played by The Beef dude, and felt right in the role. Mr Fantastic and Sue were important and the actors were good, but there was too much telling instead of showing. We were told that yes, Reed would ponder the possibility of trading Franklin for stopping Galactus, but I didn’t really feel that that was the case. This FF origin isn’t one where they snuck out to go into space, they seem to have NASA backing, so this Reed doesn’t seem to play fast and loose with the rules like that one. (Although I did feel like there was a hint that the origin had more to it of a darker nature, where Reed had done something that led to the cosmic storm hitting them. Maybe it was just me.) We have to be speechified about how it’s about family, by Sue, and it’s too on the nose. Also, though, the Surfer really gave us a sense that there was more to her story than we were seeing at first.
However, other actors get the shaft. Malkovich was cut entirely, and Natasha Lyonne is wasted as the lady that Ben moons over. The Mole Man is entertaining as hell and gives us a new underworld leader that seems to have a thing for Sue, in lieu of Namor. And the lady who was, I guess in charge of the Four’s publicity and stuff?, was really given nothing (and that was made worse because she was a black actress and this just reeked of tokenism).
Overall the movie was a lot of fun, with a ton of cool visuals and a deep theme of needs of the one vs many, but the potential was wasted, especially since we probably won’t get to see this world for any amount of time again. It is great that we see superheroes in this movie and in Superman who are admired and aspirational to the public in general instead of just scary threats. I certainly enjoyed this film and think it’s well worth watching!
The world of First Family is interesting in that it seems pretty Utopic. Too bad that the upcoming Avengers movies seem to indicate that we won’t get much time with it.
FF has a lot of crowd scenes and I was always trying to see if there was some cameo in the crowd. Apparently the actors in the Roger Corman FF had cameos which is nice. There were also times when Vanessa Kirby’s accent slipped.
As I saw it I couldn’t help compare it to Superman even though the story is different. Fantastic Four is a much more simple story: bad guy want to eat the world. The FF stops them. Superman at least paid lip service to whether Superman has the right to intervene in a conflict between two countries and nature vs nurture.
I just saw the movie, and liked it overall. The performances were good, the special effects were mostly great (only 2-3 bad shots that took me out of the movie, which is better than most Marvel movies have managed), and the design/world-building was a highlight. There were also some clever pseudo-science solutions to stopping or delaying Galactus and the Silver Surfer. FF stories work best when they have a decent amount of sci-fi nonsense.
My main issues, and the elements which prevent the film from being as good as it could be: 1) agreed, Sue’s big speech and the crowd’s reaction were cheesy; 2) the dialogue wasn’t awful, but was a bit pedestrian; 3) the climactic fight featured too much of one character having too much of an effect on the opponent. I’d have preferred better balance; 4) not enough Thing. He’s in the movie a lot, but spends too much time piloting and not enough time clobbering. Plus, he’s maybe the only character in a Marvel movie who could use a few more quips.
FF:First Steps was fun, and I’m glad there’s an enjoyable Fantastic Four movie out. If it’s not quite fantastic, it’s still enjoyable.