By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Matt Shakman
• Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn
• PG-13

Despite their importance being on the same level as characters like Spider-Man or Superman, The Fantastic Four have strangely had something of a rougher time getting adapted. To be fair, it’s not like people haven’t tried – they’ve tried 4 times in fact – but Marvel’s First Family has been something of an enigma to filmmakers and a tough nut to crack. Unlike most superhero comics, Fantastic Four avoids action as much as it can, instead being much more of a traditional science fiction comic with family drama elements; the name of the game with the Four is that space exploration is much more appealing then “punch the bad guy”.

Is the fifth time the charm here? The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the latest installment in the seemingly on it’s way out (at least in the eyes of the general public) MCU experiment, is designed from the ground up almost as a two hour apology tour for prior film efforts. Ditching the usual modern day setting of most superhero fare in favor of a retro-futuristic aesthetic, First Steps is easy on the eyes and ears with it’s gorgeous, popping production design and magnificent Michael Giacchino score that feels ripped out of a 60s superhero cartoon. The costume work, while not entirely period accurate, certainly conveys it’s own sense of authenticity with this setting, and the general feel and tone of the entire picture feels rooted in the same adventurous spirit of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original masterful comics.

But it’s easy to replicate aesthetics, and First Steps‘s real challenge was making a compelling reason to even adapt the Fantastic Four again in the modern age, hell even give another go around at the legendary Galactus storyline that was botched in live action once already (infamously so in Rise of the Silver Surfer). First Steps thankfully has a great pitch, which is, ironically, very similar to another superhero film that released this year around the same time; said pitch is to mostly just start in medias res and treat the story as one in a world that moves before and after the picture itself. It’s necessary disconnection from the rest of the MCU means First Steps is able to chart it’s own world and setting with ease, giving a surprising amount of texture to a world that we’ve only just experienced for the first time.

Most of the first half of First Steps also does the smart thing and ditch much of the superhero tropes that have plagued the other lesser adaptations of the material. The family interactions are on point, yes, but it’s also the large scale space adventure segments involving a neutron star and a chase across FTL travel that are a clear highlight of the picture both visually and narratively. It’s also where the movie begins to ask it’s central thematic question, which is how far would you go to protect the only family you’ve ever known? While the second half of the film ponders this question a little bit, the film’s commitment to it’s old school tone and vibes means it resolves it without much issue, feeling much more like a classic Saturday morning cartoon in how it decides to treat it’s issues.

This is by design though, and a clear strength rather then a weakness of an otherwise actually really solid, tight script (maybe one of Marvel’s better scripts in some time). Superhero films, by nature, are some of the only pictures that can survive on being a little cheesy, and First Steps embraces that cheese and so called “corniness” with open arms rather then push it away in embarrassment. It wants to be delightful fun, first and foremost, and succeeds in that so well that by the time the movie is done you’ve felt the time just fly by. The cast is uniformly game for that cheese too, with all four of the family being pitch perfectly cast and also much closer to their comic selves then prior adaptations – finally, we have a Reed Richards who is neurodivergent as hell and a Johnny Storm who is actually intelligent.

As somebody who has been a life long fan of this team and this comic, I absolutely loved First Steps, warts and all. I have my quibbles – mainly in how it does ultimately feel a little light when it comes to actual meat on it’s bones, this is definitely an aesthetic exercise first and foremost – but as somebody who has been begging for a halfway decent adaptation of this team for years this is was something really special. And even if it’s only an aesthetic exercise, it’s a hell of an aesthetic exercise and one of the best looking films of the year by a good mile. Definitely worth the looksee and another winner in what’s turning out to be one of Marvel’s strongest years in quite a while.