Saturday, July 26, 2025

'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' A Review

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a superhero movie set in an alternate technologically advanced 1960's, the latest entry in the MCU, refreshingly more of a standalone installment. In a brief opening montage(packaged as a talk show clip) the origin story of the foursome is set up, effectively and efficiently, another pleasant surprise not spending the first movie on that part of their story. The movie kicks off with the Silver Surfer(Julia Garner) announcing the approach of Galactus(Ralph Ineson) and Earth's doom. Reed Richards(Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm(Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm(Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm(Ebon Moss-Bachrach) aren't gonna take that lying down!

Pascal is maybe more understated and serious than we've ever seen him, it's actually kind of great to see this side of him, he's playing against type and it brings a new freshness to his appearance here. Kirby is a dynamo and brings much needed emotion, reality, and gravitas to, what can be, a silly franchise. Quinn doesn't get as much screen time but he continues to show he's got range and screen presence to spare. If there's a new British IT leading man it ain't Austin Butler or Jacob Elordi it should be this guy. Moss-Bachrach is given short shrift by the design of his character, I don't doubt he gave an inspired mo-cap but the clunkiness of the rendering made it extremely difficult to get any emotion or intent from The Thing, something they'll hopefully resolve in future appearances. The supporting cast is full of talent(but certainly notable another example of the encroachment of British actors playing Americans in American movies) but there's clearly been some relatively significant reshoots and edits, to what purpose I don't know but I suspect for pacing, as a result a lot of the side characters don't have much to do and seem like their stories were cut or truncated.

Visually the film is sleek, effective, and occasionally pretty inspired(aside from The Thing). The score is really incredible and very atypical of the MCU of late, it's orchestral and choral and uses the same repeated theme throughout, really potent and serves to give the movie a real identity of it's own. The pacing is break neck and the runtime hits the sweet spot with a couple intimate moments that really hit, if there's a fault it's just it would have nice to have just a bit more of those. With this and with Thunderbolts* it seems that Marvel is finally turning the ship, making compelling fun blockbuster movies, the goodwill they squandered the past several years may take a bit longer to snap back but they're on the right track.

A return to a winning formula for the MCU.

Currently in theaters.

See It.

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