As the tide turns, it seems like we are now in a pattern of a Fantastic Four reboot every ten years. This time, under the MCU banner, without any restrictions on character rights, as it enters a wider universe. This does not exactly matter now, as the movie takes place in an alternate universe from the main 616 continuity. I admit I was not enthusiastic about the idea at first, since the Fantastic Four have always played an important role in the Marvel Universe, they brought Namor into the Silver Age, which led to Captain America being unfrozen, had the debut of Black Panther, the skulls, kree and the Inhumans and who could hate the friendship between Spiderman and Human Torch.
Instead, the movie turned into a direction I kind of dreaded, a ’60s contemporary look, because the team is a product of its time, making and yet another man out of time story we have already gotten with both Captain America and Captain Marvel. However, that doesn’t really matter yet because none of it has happened. On its own, I appreciate the setting of this movie and use of space-age sets and costume design; in fact, I am hoping this movie can at least get an Oscar nom for best art direction. I have seen it suggested that the team taking place in the 60’s helps character building since Reed and Ben were WW2 veterans with Reed learning his leadership skills during the war; however, that is never brought up. It was also amazing how we see numerous references to the team’s early adventures in the 60s with appearances of the Mole Man and Red Ghosts’ primates, and many of the other villains are referenced by name. I would like to point out that there is oddly no reference to the team’s alien enemies,s such as the Kree and Skrull or the negative zone enemies like the Hate Monger, Annihilus, or Blaastar. Despite The Wizard getting mentioned, they don’t even name-drop his team, the Frightful Four, which sometimes consisted of non FF characters. It is clear they want this to be a world of futurism that is full of life, but the lack of layover with other Marvel projects does feel jarring, especially considering we all know they will be in Avengers Doomsday next year.
I think the best way to look at this movie would be through its characters individually, since that’s always been the strength of the original comic. First, you have Reed Richards who in the last 55 years has character development as elastic as his powers. You have the early Jack Kirby, Conservative, Stern, and serious leader of the team. This eventually evolved into a pretty emotionless mad scientist who would perform science experiments on his own son. Then in the 80’s they tried to redeem into more of a compassionate passivist scientist who cares about life and speaks against the mutant registration act. Then, only to eventually be the Illuminati member who put people into a Negative Zone torture prison during the Civil War. This would lead to another attempt at redemption during the Jonathon Hickman as the entire run was based around Reed being a good dad. No matter how good the writing is, it is really hard not to depict Reed as an uncaring scientist as we saw in the Venture Brothers parody. However, the movie tries very hard to show Reed’s compassion for his family. There are some really amazing moments in this movie that just involve Pedro Pascal working off of a baby, and he just does a spectacular job. As hard as it is, I do feel he nailed it perfectly as Reed, trying to balance saving both his family and the world.
Working off of Reed, most is his wife, Sue. Sue has remained pretty unchanged over the years and usually gets the best depictions in adaptations. She is the heart and most powerful member of the team. It is easy for her to be depicted as just another scientist partner for Reed, but this movie did a good job by instead using her role as the heart of the team to be a speaker for the United Nations. She even gives this brilliant speech to the public towards the end of the second act. Sue even managed to pull off a pretty amazing feat in the final battle.
You also have Sue’s younger brother Johnny, who was written so problematically in the 2000s films; his character got killed off pretty quickly in Deadpool and Wolverine. Johnny is probably the hardest character to depict. He is rash and impulsive, and sometimes it is really hard to justify his actions. In the last 50 years, the only notable character development he has gotten was his sacrificial death. It seems like the writers may have been aware of this, as there are numerous moments within First Steps where he tries to sacrifice himself. Personally, I’m hoping this doesn’t mean Johnny will sacrifice himself down the line since it would now feel too obvious. The movie doesn’t go into his racing or sports hobbies and instead focuses on his desire to go back into space. This leads to Johnny performing his own research and creating a pretty shocking moment with the Silver Surfer. The movie does bring up his womanizing ways, but they try to keep to a minimum to avoid being problematic. I do hope that in the future, Johnny can have more interpersonal relationships outside of the team because his self-sacrificing actions should still be acknowledged as a bad thing.
Someone who did get a fair share of interpersonal relationships was Ben Grimm, The Thing, who seemed to have the smallest role in the movie. We see Ben Grimm in Yancey Street socializing with locals and even befriending a local teacher as a potential love interest. I did find it a bit of a head-scratcher why the movie chose to introduce an original character to date Ben over the blind Alicia Masters, especially since her stepfather is mentioned by name. It might be a nitpick, but I do find that his relationship with the teacher character to not have the most satisfying resolution, but I give it credit for showing a Ben Grimm who is trying to continue living his life. Dor years Ben Grimm has always tried finding a cure for his disfigurement. There is a moment between him Reed where Reed confesses his guilt, but it does seem to be addressed as a non-issue. I personally think I prefer this since I think many people can relate with this disfigurement, and I hope he can serve as inspiration to people who may become deformed in accidents to continue living normal lives.
How is the movie overall? Personally, I think this is a top 10 MCU movie for me. I loved the amount of empathy this movie had about the importance of family and the sacrifices we make. Galactus was a great, imposing threat, and Julia Garner gave a great performance as the Silver Surfer. As a fan of the Fantastic Four, I couldn’t recommend this movie more. The Easter eggs and love letter to the original Kirby run was amazing. And as for non comic fans, I will still recommend this strongly. The overall themes, acting, set direction, and effects were all top-notch notch even for a Marvel movie and I’m very much looking forward to a sequel if it happens.
