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Summary: 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.

Pros:

Cast and Characters. I’m not gonna lie, I was not impressed with this casting when it was announced. Obviously I had my own fancast that I thought was fun. But outside of that, I just found the casting to be boring. But I thought everyone would do well in their roles, but I wasn’t excited for the casting, even with Joseph Quinn who I liked prior to this casting. Shout out to Ralph Ineson as Galactus, he was great.

• Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic. Reed is a highly intelligent scientist and the “leader” of the Fantastic Four who is able to stretch any part of his body to great lengths. Reed is considered one of the smartest people in the Marvel universe which a lot of times causes him to be more logical than emotional and I think this movie shows that well. Reed is a bit at social cues or bad at talking to people in a regular sense, especially when it doesn’t deal with science. He says that he invites all the bad things into his head to think about so other people don’t have to and that they don’t have to make those difficult decisions. I think that sums up Reed’s character so well. He tries to think of every possible variable and then pick the one that seems the most viable, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t also have it in his mind extra plans just in case. He spends so much of the movie in a perpetual state of stress which totally makes sense for what’s going on and I think you root for him to find the solution to their problem. Especially since it seems like the Fantastic Four are the only heroes on this world. So, I’m not gonna lie, I’m still not particularly rocking with Pedro Pascal being cast as Reed, but he was good. I thought he had nice chemistry with Vanessa Kirby and the others. I believed his motivations and I believed his stress. He was good. I just thank God that it wasn’t John Krasinski, I hated that particular casting lol.
• Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman. Sue’s abilities allow her to generate force fields and turn invisible. She founded the Future Foundation, which allows them to foster global peace. Of the four, she’s the most emotionally intelligent person and seems to be pretty attuned to everyone else’s emotions though I think she has less interactions with Ben vs Reed and Johnny in this area. Which makes sense a little since she’s married to read, about to have his baby and is Johnny’s older sister. Sue is very powerful with her abilities, and I think the movie does a good job in showing that, particularly during the climax, not to mention the mother adrenaline boost lol. She’s intelligent enough to keep up with Reed (and be an astronaut lol) but not so much so that she’s solving equations with him. She’s the one who appeals to the people when needed and is able to express herself very well, even if it results in her powers activating. I’ve always liked Sue, and she’s fundamentally the most powerful member on the team and I think the movie showcases that, even though there were consequences. Vanessa Kirby was great. I love her deep voice and though there were some moments where I think she tried very hard to keep her accent from slipping through, I liked how she played her. She was gentle but firm. She didn’t mince her words ever. If she did become the defacto leader of the Four, I can totally see that from this portrayal. I really liked her style but was she wearing a wig? I’m not sure but I do think the styling of her wig was too modern, same with her makeup.
• Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / The Thing. Ben is Reed’s best friend, who went along on the expedition because of his piloting skills as an astronaut. His power turned him into a rock man, in which his skin transformed into a layer of orange rock. But he has superhuman strength and durability. He loves to cook, which maybe he does in the comics, but I can’t help but chuckle at the irony of Ebon being in The Bear and Ben loving to cook. He’s the muscle. Ben is deeply loyal, especially to Reed, but to this little family they have, which is very clear. He’s the heart of the group and he’s the one with the most connection to the civilians in the movie. We actually see him among the people and interacting with them on a street level. My friend commented how he’s the one who looks the least human but acts the most human or interacts with the people the most. While he has a sense of morality, he still likes to fight and punch things. I think he interacts with Sue alone the least, but he has a great relationship with Johnny, which I think is such a joy to watch. Ebon and Joseph have a great chemistry on screen. I would have liked to have seen him interact with Reed more on their own, but they have a really nice scene later in the movie that showcases their friendship. Ebon was the only one of the castings that I was like OH! When I saw it. I thought he was the most exciting casting of the group because I think Ben is very hard to cast (along with Reed). He was so good though. His voice coming out of that design for The Thing was great. He was tender, kind and even though the Thing is motion captured CGI, I felt so connected to him as a person.
• Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / Human Torch. Johnny Storm is the youngest member of the four, Sue’s younger brother who can control fire and fly. He’s also always my favorite member of the four. Chalk that up to me always having a little crush on his character lol. But he’s very clearly the little brother of the group as sometimes everyone doesn’t take him seriously but it’s never maliciously. I liked Johnny a lot in this movie. I appreciated the fact that he was smart, not the same level as the others as both Sue and Ben seem to understand Reed’s science talk but Johnny may need a translator. He loves space, he’s excitable and always ready to go. Literally anytime something popped off, Johnny was the first one to move. When the Silver Surfer popped up, he immediately went to her. When we first meet Galactus, he immediately took action. I like that about him. It’s impulsive but it’s not stupidly impulsive. He also manages to do something so smart in this movie that I was like “Bro, I would have fallen in love with him”. I also like his connection with another character in the movie. Good chemistry there. He’s not a “womanizer” as we might have seen in past versions but instead still a ladies’ man but a lot more self-aware. Like he’s not arrogant but still a jokester. I liked how we still had Johnny’s elements but not goofy? I like Joseph Quinn but I was skeptical with his casting and not because I didn’t think he’d do a good job because he’s a great actor, I just wasn’t sure if I’d resonate with his version of Johnny and not because Chris Evans’ version is the better one (it’s not). I actually remember being like “are they gonna give him blue contacts?” obviously he’s gonna be blond, even though neither Chris Evans (or Michael B. Jordan) was blond. Joseph Quinn looks lowkey crazy with blue eyes and blond hair since he has brown eyes and dark hair. It’s not egregious enough but I noticed the brown of his eyes were fighting back at times lol. But there’s a scene with him in a maroon shirt that was so good that I was like “okay, it’s working for me now” lol. Still prefer him darker but it wasn’t as much a jump scare as the movie went on.
• Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer. What a standout! She was so great. Silver Surfer is an alien who works for Galactus in heralding his arrival to planets he’s going to consume. We learn a bit more about her past in a flashback scene which was nice. She’s mysterious but also has a melancholy about her and her relationship with Galactus. I can’t say much, or it’ll spoil but she’s so cool. I loved her interactions with another character. Julia Garner was fantastic and mesmerizing to watch. Sure, her herald lines have gone viral, as they should, but she’s great throughout the movie and you can clearly see her expressions and emotions through her motion capture. She moves so elegantly. There’s a scene where Johnny catches up to her the first time, and she leans over on her board as he’s hanging off and I was like “GIRL!” because the way she moved her body. It was so technical but graceful. She’s fantastic.

Not an Origin Story. So I know I talked about this with the Superman film but I think it works better because I think this movie does a great job in establishing the effects the four have had on their world. We see a montage of them doing hero work. We see a bit of their origin through a documentary (which was a smart way to do it). It also helps with their dynamic especially with Reed and Sue because they’re deep in their relationship to the point of becoming new parents. I didn’t feel like I missed any important milestones in their relationship prior to their marriage. They’re even married when they go into space that first time. I do think it would have been interesting to see them discover their powers and figure out how to use them, but I didn’t need to see Ben, for the third time, being distraught about his appearance. I like that they’re a mature group that has already bypassed that and are content where they are. It doesn’t make it stale as they still have things they want. Johnny loves space and wants to go again and reminds Reed about that. Reed and Sue are welcoming a baby, but Sue has her foundation things going on, while Reed has all his science stuff going on. It works really well here.

Fantastic Four Family. The strongest aspect of this movie lies within the Four and how well they function together. They’re not trying to figure out how to work together, they already are working together. Reed is the mind, so he doesn’t use his powers as much as the others, but he still does when necessary. Johnny is always ready to go, the first to the action and being the one who can fly, very versatile abilities. Sue with her force fields is protective but also telekinetic. Ben with his strength and durability, he’s able to do the heavy lifting. They work as a group. Plus, the chemistry is amazing. They feel like they like each other, even if there are some differences here and there. Sue and Johnny feel like a sibling relationship and it’s not Johnny being annoying constantly and Sue nagging him, nor are they estranged. Ben and Reed feel like friends who trust each other. Ben and Johnny feel like brothers who tease each other constantly. Reed and Johnny’s relationship is also really nice.

The Special Effects. HERBIE was portrayed through a combo of puppetry, remote controlled animatronic and CGI. I think he looks great and is very expressive with his tone of voice, the way he moves and interacts with the characters. His relationship with Johnny is adorable. Ben looks amazing. Johnny’s fire abilities are amazing animated, he really looks like the fire is coming from within him and every time he’s not fully engulfed because his clothes are there, or he’s just lighting a hand, it looks great. Silver Surfer looks amazing, especially the scene with some lava. My goodness, it was amazing to see in Dolby and then I saw it again in IMAX. Whew. Galactus looks great. Honestly, there’s so much that looks so good. This is what happens when you give the VFX crew enough time to perfect their work and not rush them.

Action Sequences. If you’re coming into this movie expecting major fight scenes, sure, but at the same time no. The Fantastic Four were always explorers before they were superheroes so a lot of it is them trying to figure out a solution before fighting and punching the enemy. But the actions sequences we get are very good. There are two in particular with the Silver Surfer that’s just so good and so cool, my goodness. And then the climactic fight at the end, I thought was handled well because we get to see each of the four utilize their abilities in the fight and everything looks good.

Storyline. I think the storyline overall is good and straight forward. Galactus is coming to consume their world, there’s a proposition to be made, and the four have to figure out how to defeat the villain. It’s by the books but there’s a lot of emotional moments in there. It’s a human story, something I think Marvel does really well.

The Music. That FANTASTIC FOUR song has been in my head for ages lol. When I heard it in the trailer, I was like oh! It’s so good and I think the soundtrack is very good in this film. It has a whimsy, very retro, triumphant vibe to it. It works for the film and in the moments that are dire or intense, it works in that way too. But that theme for the movie, is really the standout lol.

Cons:

CGI Sometimes. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re at a point where CGI babies work as much lol. They’re saying the baby was real and I believe there was a baby because in some scenes with the human actors, he looks real but whenever Ben is holding him or interacting with him, it’s so egregiously bad. But it’s only with the baby think it’s bad but it’s so noticeable.

More Civilians. They’re in New York so there are a lot of civilians in the movie but there aren’t any moments that really stand out in their interactions with civilians. I think it was a missed opportunity to not show Johnny interacting with any women. He doesn’t need to be hitting on every woman he sees, but I think it would have been nice to see that “Johnny loves women” as he says at one point in the film. It’s the 60s, there isn’t a fan club or anything for him. In the montage we see these girls saying, “We love you, Johnny!” and I think it would have been useful to see him in particular having those moments. There’s a sequence in the movie where I think some civilians would have reacted differently because let’s be real, our world is gonna die and that’s what you tell me?? Come on now. I get the difficult decision for sure, but NO ONE was like “EFF Y’ALL?” after that one speech?

Overall, I really enjoyed The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I didn’t have a ton of expectations going into it other than I hope it’s good and if it’s not, I hope I at least enjoyed it. I thought it was good and I enjoyed it. The acting was good across the board, even if I was unimpressed with the casting. Joseph Quinn and Julia Garner were the standouts, I think. The action sequences were good, fun and well-choreographed and animated. The music was good, with their theme being the best. Character chemistry is top tier, something I think Marvel does really well. The CGI, besides the baby in places, is very good. The storyline is simple but effective. My only gripes are with the CGI baby and how I wish the four got to interact with the civilians on a more street level. But otherwise, I think the movie is worth watching, especially if you can get to it in IMAX or Dolby.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars.

I’ve enjoyed most of what the MCU has done post Endgame, and I think people have been very hard on them as they try to explore new things or new ways to go after their Infinity Saga. I do think they’ve been doing too much too quickly and probably needed to plot better but I don’t think they’ve failed in what they wanted to do. So, with this movie, I keep hearing about “rebooting” the universe and sure, but it doesn’t need to be reboot, just pivot a little and take your time again.

I recommend The Fantastic Four: First Steps!

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