Fantastic Four: First Steps - Movie Review

The Movie: Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Director: Matt Shakman

The Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson

The Story: Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer.

The Rating: 9 / 10

The Review:

The Fantastic Four is Marvel's original super hero team and, after Fox's mostly failed attempts at bringing them to the big screen, getting this story right has been a top priority for the studio ever since they regained the rights. If you're not familiar with the business side of Marvel's deep roster of characters, just know that the movie rights for the X-Men and the Fantastic Four had been held by Fox for many years and it wasn't until Disney bought out Fox's movie division that Marvel was even able to mention their name let alone make a movie about them.

So, now here we are with Marvel Studios having full control of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, Sue Storm aka Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch, and Ben Grimm aka The Thing which brings us to director Matt Shakman's big, super important movie that will seemingly make or break the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Honestly, I don't think it's that dramatic, but there are people out there who love to stir the pot and make things seem way more dramatic than they really are. Anyway, this movie really is a big deal though and I do agree that it's very important for Marvel to get this one right.

Ok, so did they get it right? My answer to that is a big, Galactus sized yes.

The movie has a really fun vibe, it looks incredible on the big screen, and the story stands on it's own without being tied to the history of the MCU. Shakman has crafted a really fun and clever introduction while also avoiding the pitfalls of a standard origin story. He gets right to the action and never really lets up. This is one of those movies that I wasn't ready for the credits to roll and yet I was also almost completely satisfied with the end result.

Something I have to mention is that one of the unsung heroes of the entire team at Marvel/Disney is casting director Sarah Halley Finn who, after being responsible for pretty much every character we've ever seen on screen in a Marvel movie, once again finds the perfect actors to fill each role. I mention this first because getting the right people to play these iconic characters was absolutely essential, especially since we've seen a couple different versions of them already.

Landing Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards was a major first step as he really gets to stretch out his acting abilities and who could have seen Vanessa Kirby turning in such a fantastic performance as Sue Storm. Then we have Joseph Quinn burning up the screen every chance he gets as Johnny Storm while Ebon Moss-Bachrach is solid as a rock with his portrayal of The Thing. We even get the pleasure of watching the stunning Julia Garner gliding in as Shalla-Bal aka Silver Surfer with a performance that just shines as well as Ralph Ineson who easily devours what is no doubt the biggest performance of his career as Galactus. For some reason, this paragraph makes me wish the PUNisher had been in this movie.

One of the things I've always wondered was if any filmmaking team could ever create a Galactus that would do justice to the epic size and scale of the character while also making him look and act believable. Chloe Zhao gave us a couple great shots of celestials in Eternals but they didn't do a whole lot other than provide exposition while looking massive in scale. Whatever visual effects teams were involved with bringing Galactus to the big screen, they all need a massive standing ovation because holy humongous beings did they do a great job, not to mention Ralph Ineson who I believe did both motion capture and on set, in costume acting as the Devourer of Worlds.

So yeah, with a strong cast and a badass Galactus in place, all Matt Shakman had to do was come up with a story that would stand on its own as an entertaining piece of comic book cinema and boy did he ever. I suppose the first act could be nit picked as a glorified montage of the history of the Fantastic Four because that's really what it is and yet, I felt that doing it the way he did allowed the director to really put a tonal stamp on the story that is just all kinds of fun with a high energy vibe that carries through all the way to the end of the movie. There's a few spots in the middle of the story where things slow down a bit but it never hurts the overall pacing of the movie and I felt like the kind of short run time of one hour and 55 minutes actually felt much shorter.

Another aspect that helps the movie to establish its own unique vibe is the soundtrack and score composed by the one and only Michael Giacchino who has been slowly carving out a career that, dare I say it, could rival John Williams, who will always of course be considered as the certified GOAT of movie soundtracks. Seriously though, Giacchino's score elevates this movie even further with a soundscape that is more than worthy of a big time super hero/comic book movie and you'll probably find yourself humming or singing along to the Fantastic Four chants that immediately feel so iconic.

Speaking of iconic, I feel like this movie is going to stand out as one of the most visually stunning movies we have ever seen. Yes, I said ever. The science fiction aspects of this movie are all rendered perfectly and beautifully and I really felt a complete sense of immersion, especially when it came to the cosmic sized scale of Galactus and his otherwise unfathomably massive spaceship. It literally devours planets! Every detail looks amazing and the action sequences are intensified even further by the stunning visuals that are thrown on the screen. With that in mind, please go see this movie in the largest format screen you can find, it's one hundred percent worth the upgrade.

One thing I'm a little worried about with the Fantastic Four, and a good friend of mine mentioned the same thing after he watched the movie, is that this alternate, retro-futuristic 1960's universe is so well thought out and such a fun world to play in, it may be hard to transition them into the MCU 616 universe that we've been following for years. On the other hand, maybe these four distinct personalities are exactly what's needed to help push the overall franchise forward.

Finally, the Fantastic Four has properly arrived within the Marvel cinematic multiverse and hopefully these first steps are just the beginning of something truly special for Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. With Marvel's first family now firmly in place, I'm getting more and more excited to see how the next three movies are going to play out (Spider-Man, Doomsday, and Secret Wars), especially since we'll be looking at a completely rebooted and reformatted Marvel landscape once all of those stories have been told.

Thank you for reading my review. Thank you for supporting my website and thank you for supporting cinema. I hope you enjoy the movie as much as I did.