The Fantastic Four: First Steps - Marvel's Saviour?

A few months ago, when reviewing Thunderbolts*, I posed the question of the 'Marvel Saviour'. One movie that has the power to singlehandedly restore everybody's faith in the MCU after a rocky few years. I concluded by saying that Thunderbolts* doesn't quite reach that benchmark but - very optimistically - preemptively awarded that title to The Fantastic Four: First Steps. After getting the opportunity to be one of the first to watch this early, I can say with almost full certainty that I was correct. It may not bring everybody back, that bridge was burned many years ago, but I'm confident that Marvel's first family can guide us into a new era of the MCU which I am very excited for and I'm sure you will be too.

I'll begin by saying this review will not contain any spoilers whatsoever. I may hint towards moments but I won't outright ruin anything for you. I want you to have just as amazing a time as I had with this and I would feel terrible to find I halted somebody's enjoyment of any certain moments. With that being said, this movie is fantastic.

I'm so glad the Fantastic Four have finally been done justice, fittingly in their fourth movie. They managed to absolutely nail the retro 60s vibe while also balancing the high tech world they live in. There was a few moments that really opened my eyes to how well this style was pulled off because it seemed like at a few points, absolutely everything in a scene lined up to create this beautiful harmony.

Every single member of the team was, not only written amazingly, but also cast perfectly. There was a lot of discourse around a few of the castings, mainly Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. There were complaints about him being too 'nerdy' or 'not hot enough' and while I was never on that side of the spectrum, I did initially agree with those complaints in part. After seeing him in action as The Human Torch, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Strangely, he may even be written the best out of every member. I did however have one single complaint about his character and it's mostly just that he's not enough of a womaniser. We're told about all of this but we're never really shown it. There could've even just been a single scene of him surrounding himself with adoring fans, all of whom are women, and inviting the mania they feel to be around him. This isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of the whole movie, however it is a big part of his character and I felt it should've been represented better.

Galactus, and more importantly Ralph Ineson, was so incredibly menacing the entire time. You could really feel his scale and terror radiate off him for every second he was on screen. However, once again, he wasn't at his full potential. We only really see him cause destruction by his sheer size rather than any power that he displays which made him feel like slightly less of a threat than The Devourer of Worlds really is.

There's a few things I absolutely adored about this movie, and they all seem to revolved around the core principle of family. First off, I loved that Franklin wasn't simply Sue's responsibility. I worried we'd only see him in her hands as she's the maternal figure and would stereotypically be displayed in that way. However, they all work together to look after this new baby as a family. It even seems like he was in Ben Grimm's arms more than anybody's.

Another thing, which is quite small but definitely worth mentioning, is that there wasn't really any 'leader' of the team. There were many articles and a lot of discourse telling us that Sue was heading up this movies team, rather than Reed, which caused a lot of anger on the internet. However, I felt there was no leader, they were all quite equal throughout the entire movie and each would step up when needed. Of course, they all had their expertise but there was no definitive and constant leader. This also solves a big problem I thought I'd have which is sidelining Ben and Johnny to focus more on the relationship between Reed and Sue. Luckily that wasn't a problem because it felt like every relationship was important, even the silly comic relief between Ben and Johnny.

One thing I found very interesting is that I believe they're never actually called by their superhero names, not even when being introduced as the 'Fantastic Four'. Please feel free to fact check me on this when you watch the movie because my memory may be failing me. However, if this is true, it speaks to a humanity that persists throughout its runtime where, even though they have these extraordinary powers, they're still people. They're not symbols or any sort of higher power, they're simply another family living just like anybody else, with a few small differences. It seems like this may take some inspiration from the familial and human elements of The Incredibles which is funny as that originally takes inspiration from the Fantastic Four.

When I first came out of this movie, I only had a few small complaints which I've already mentioned, yet as I think about it more, the cracks do start to show. These aren't groundbreaking criticisms - most of them are quite small - however all put together they do end up becoming something much larger. 

The biggest problem for me was that the middle part does just feel quite stagnant. There's a lot of talking about what they're going to do and how they don't know what to do, but not a lot of actually doing anything. Weirdly it also felt like the cinematography was better in the trailer than the actual movie itself. Shots like Johnny falling off the surfboard in slow motion and Sue tending to Franklin while Reed sombrely stands in the doorway were cut or changed. This felt strange because those notable moments of cinematography are motivated by some sort of emotion which felt somewhat stripped away in the final cut. This is also weird since none of the cinematography really stood out to me in the movie, that's not to say it was bad, just none of it was very extraordinary.

To conclude, I cannot wait for everybody to watch this movie on the 25th and enjoy it as much as I did. I'll be waiting for the audience reactions to come pouring in. I'll leave you with one last piece of advice which I'd hope you'd know as a Marvel fan but needs reiterating regardless: stay for the mid credits scene, it's worth it. There is a post credit scene which is much less important so you don't have to stay for that one.