The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
After two disappointing if not disastrous previous attempts, Hollywood has finally made a decent movie of The Fantastic Four team.
Much like James Gunn's excellent Superman
that came out earlier this month, director Matt Shakman's film spares audiences
the same superhero origin story beats they have seen a million times before.
The four (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bacharach) are
already national celebrities for their superhero exploits when the movie
begins. Sue Storm (Kirby) and Reed Richards (Pascal) are married and expecting
a child. Soon, a mysterious alien visitor called the Silver Surfer (Julia
Garner) announces Earth has been targeted for destruction. The enormous and
sinister Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is behind the plot.
The plot itself is fairly standard.
What works well in The Fantastic Four is the lived-in relationship
between the quartet of superheroes and the '60s period design (this may be the
best Marvel movie to look at). Unlike a lot of bloated superhero movies, Four
clocks in at under two hours. This may be in part because it makes no
effort to be part of the Marvel multiverse. With other Marvel entries, viewers
need to know the stories of a lot of other movies to have any clue as to what
is going on, and the films would try to tie in other characters from other
movies. Here, viewers can come in totally fresh and understand what's going on.
There are no plot tangents involving characters from other films. The
Fantastic Four: First Steps may not be quite as good as Superman, but
it's a briskly paced bit of escapism that should entertain the majority of
moviegoers.
