The Fantastic Four: First Steps
I know from Kevin Feige’s own words that Fantastic Four has been a particular passion for him to “get right” when it comes to their introduction to the MCU. In a way, the only chance for that was to do what they do here, and have them in a separate universe than the established 626 universe. (This film is set in the 1960s on Earth 828.) I really loved Matt Shakman’s film, which was a level of fully-developed sci-fi fantasy that we haven’t really seen in the MCU outside of the “Guardians of the Galaxy” films, and outside of the MCU, it’s been a hot minute. Maybe “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow?”
One of the most freeing things about the MCU as it’s gone along is that it hasn’t necessarily felt the desire to tell true origin stories for a lot of its characters it has introduced post-“Endgame,” and even before that. We didn’t see how Tom Holland’s Peter Parker got his powers, and witness Uncle Ben’s death again, and here, we only get glimpses of what happened to Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) through the context of a retrospective television program four years after the accident that turned them into Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing. That means we are watching fully-formed characters right out of the gate, and writers Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, and getting to know who they are throughout their latest adventure, when a mysterious Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) comes heralding their doom at the hands of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a towering being who has now eaten five worlds, and Earth is marked for sating his hunger next. There is a simple way of stopping Earth’s destruction, but it may be too high a price for the Fantastic Four to pay.
The look of “First Steps” is a delight to take it- the 1960s this film creates is one where scientific genius has been allowed to flourish and the threats to the Earth are supernatural with a tint of geo-politics in them; no, the Cold War does not appear to be a thing, but Sue Storm does have to negotiate peace with Harvey Elder, aka Mole Man (played by Paul Walter Hauser). Alliances and peace seem to be important in this world, where the larger issues seem to be of the fantasy variety. This world’s sci-fi elements feel like a throwback to the ’50s and ’60s, not just the setting but the aesthetic, and it is one of my favorite elements in the film. In the Baxter building, it is period details blended with optimistic futurist designs that are right out of “The Jetsons,” including H.E.R.B.I.E., the team’s robot companion. The production design by Kasra Farahani is among the richest in the MCU, rivaling “Black Panther,” “Eternals” and MCU shows “Loki” and “Wandavision,” which is where Shakman first showed his stuff as a director in the MCU. Add to that cinematography by Jess Hall that meets the moment visually, and a score by Michael Giacchino that is one of his most endearing, and this is a film that is one of the best realized of the MCU in terms of worldbuilding.
Where “First Steps” really connected with me was emotionally. The concept of family surrounding the Fantastic Four was not one that came through at all in the Tim Story films in the 2000s; here, it is quite literally everything. This team feels completely organic developed from the get go, in how Reed and Sue interact as a couple, and Sue and Johnny as brother and sister, and Ben being the melancholy- but still fun- uncle, who comes alive when he’s doing what he can to protect his family, or interacting with teacher Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne). Even the villains here are compelling; we learn a lot about Garner’s Silver Surfer in her interactions with Johnny- who is transfixed by her- and it’s another example of a Marvel antagonist whose motivations we empathize with, even if we don’t agree with the choice they make. They serve Galactus, who is a towering villain in terms of scale, but also feels trapped in the life they are living. This is the sort of narrative and emotional nuance that the MCU, at its best, is successful at, and this is one of their best entries in a long while.
