by Charles Kirkland, Jr.
The world’s favorite superhero team takes on a threat to the entire world in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The Fantastic Four are beloved by the entire world. They have been role model protectors on more than one account for not just the United States but every nation in the world, above and below the surface. After a couple of unsuccessful tries, Sue Storm announces to the world that she is now pregnant, which makes everyone fall even more in love with the team. Until a threat to the existence of the world comes and forces the Four to make some of the hardest choices they have ever had to make. Save the world or save their family.
The screenplay for The Fantastic Four: First Steps is written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer from a story by Pearson, Kaplan, Springer, and Kat Wood based upon characters created in Marvel Comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The movie stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles, and Paul Walter Hauser. Matt Shakman (WandaVision). The Fantastic Four is the thirty-seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the first film in Phase Six of the Marvel master plan.
After two completely abysmal attempts at making a Fantastic Four movie, the bar for this movie has been set extremely low. Unfortunately, due to the poor performances of the films in the last two MCU phases, the demand for results from this movie is very high. Marvel Studios has two feathers in its cap that have allowed it to be optimistic about the results of this film: 1. Marvel Studios has never made a Fantastic Four movie, and 2. The fan base really wants to see the Fantastic Four.
Before the merger, Fox Studios held the rights to the Fantastic Four. Fox allowed Tim Story to direct the original movie, Fantastic Four, in 2005, and the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, released in 2007. Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis, both of those films were box office successes even though they were critically panned. Subsequently, the sequel to Rise of the Silver Surfer was cancelled by the studio. In 2015, Fox attempted a reboot of the franchise with Fant4stic. Starring Jamie Bell, Kate Mara, Michael B. Jordan, and Toby Kebbell, the film, billed as a creative re-telling of the story of the Fantastic Four, was critically panned again, bombed at the box office, and won several Golden Raspberry awards. Director Josh Trank disavowed the film, citing studio interference as the source for awful results.
Enter Matt Shakman and his team of Marvel Studios writers, overseen by producer Kevin Feige. In the first Fantastic Four movie of 2005, Tim Story and crew gave us an origin story (altered from the comic books) about the acquisition of powers and the formation of a team. Shakman, similarly taking a beat from James Gunn’s Superman, abandons the need to tell the origin story of the team and gives us an already formed and beloved team of world protectors, a team so beloved that they have their own Saturday morning cartoon of their exploits. This way, they can combine the two previous movies into one cohesive and comprehensive tale. In an incredibly smart move, this storytelling allows the team to create characters that are deeper and more complex in their motivations and their interactions than in previous movies.
In this version, we have Reed Richards as an obsessive genius who is racked with guilt over what he has done to the team and a doting, calculating father who wants to make sure that he can do what is best for his son. Sue Storm is the brilliant orator who now has to figure out how to be a mother to a child instead of the world. In previous versions, Johnny Storm has been appropriately played as a temperamental hothead. He is in this movie, but he is also an extremely intelligent pilot, driven to prove his worth despite having incredible power. The Thing is the rock as always, but he has an intuition necessary to keep the team together.
Needless to say, this movie is a great improvement over the films of the past (again, a low bar to reach). Everything, including the set design (a retro-60’s style look), costuming (not the usual hokey spandex), and score (Michael Giacchino) is smartly conceived and excellently executed. The story is based upon the comics but has an originality created to engage the entire viewing audience (Franklin Richards is an addition to this story that did not exist in the comics). Also, there are enough cool Easter Eggs to trigger those comic book geeks (like me) familiar with the source material.
Ultimately, what First Steps gets right is that The Fantastic Four is about family, what makes a family, what a family values, and what can be done to protect that family. This universal, all-encompassing theme is one to which every viewer will relate. Unlike Superman, the theme will resonate and connect far into the future.
Rated PG-13 for action/violence and some language, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, with stunning visuals and a story that is (ahem) fantastic, is a true Marvel savior, providing hope for Phase Six and beyond in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. All hail the new superhero king! This is the one we wanted to see.
As always, stay behind for two post/mid-credit scenes.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps can be seen in theaters starting July 25, 2025.
Grade: B+
