REVIEW: The Fantastic 4

REVIEW: The Fantastic 4 - First Steps

I'm going on the record to say that, even with the devastation wrought upon Wanda's character in "Multiverse of Madness," WandaVision is one of the best things we've gotten from any stage of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And that has to be the main reason why Marvel enlisted Matt Shakman to pilot their premiere Fantastic 4 film (stealing him away from Star Trek 4 ...), the film that was going to rescue the studio from their post-"Endgame" stupor. There are probably all sorts of soundbites about this being the first real version of the story to get the machine to work, and I wouldn't disagree.

But in the context of Marvel's larger rehabilitation, The Fantastic 4: First Steps reads less like the great MCU reset and more like an elaborate gymnastics routine, an attempt to splice Marvel's Thanos era with its Not-Iron-Man era. Graciously, this works better than it sounds on paper, but it does kind of purchase this at the expense of real personality.

The movie, for example, falls back on humor that probably tested well with the focus groups. Johnny has to remark to himself that of course the first girl he's interested in is heralding the destruction of his planet. Reed wants the school kids to get excited about space travel but has to acquiesce that they're only here to see stuff blow up.

Even the movie's bids for gravity and emotional impact end up feeling like a sum average. Sue delivers the movie's treatise at the precipice of Act III, that being a part of a family means fighting for something bigger than yourself, a thesis that could have been outsourced from any one of a dozen MCU projects.

The film's most unique ingredients are the optic factors stemming from the design of its retro-future universe. (This was no doubt detailed in Shakman's contract.) I wouldn't mind getting to see Earth 828 again at some point. But I couldn't overlook that after dazzling you with its alternate-timeline New York, the movie actually spends most of its time trying to convince you that it's not that different from the other Marvel flicks.

The camaraderie is strong between Marvel's first family. Of the squad, Pedro Pascal feels the most equipped for his character. He brings the optimal measure of insecurity for a science nerd who stumbled into superhero-dom as well as an anxious first-time father.

Edon Moss-Bachrach winds up feeling the most underused here. I don't fault the actor, or even the CGI rock dressing over his face. But his character winds up with the least to do. Where the other players get articulated character arcs, his big culminating moment I think had something to do with the tagline of his in-universe cartoon show.

Julia Garner's Silver Surfer probably has to walk the finest line. The film very clearly announces her early on as the emissary for the big bad guy, and so we're not surprised that her line delivery emerges very sterile, very impartial. It's hard to bring your heart with you as you're announcing the annihilation of a planet. The big test comes during critical character junctions when the team forces her to reckon with her complicity in Galactus' planet genocides. (This is what Johnny's major arc feeds into.) And Garner is able to stick the landing.

Had this been released leading up to "Infinity War," it would likely join the ranks of perfectly fine offerings like Doctor Strange or Ant-Man in the Marvel pantheon. I've enjoyed the players of those movies in when they've shown up in the ensemble pieces more than I ever did in their native films. Perhaps that will be the fate of this team of superheroes. Thunderbolts* earlier this summer gave me more active hope for the future of the MCU, though this placeholder certainly didn't do anything to dash those hopes.

--The Professor

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