Movie Monday - The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The 2nd Movie Monday is another new flick with some nostalgic roots, but one that has to be seen in a theater rather than on Netflix. The newest entry from the Marvel Cinematic Universe released a couple weeks ago -- The Fantastic Four: First Steps -- starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach -- and is still rolling in theaters!

The MCU in the wake of Endgame in 2019 has taken it's lumps, with fans and critics alike panning their inconsistent writing and tone, forgettable villains, declining visual quality, and overall lack of coherent story-telling. But it's also the first time they've been able to use the Fantastic Four in their true form -- a franchise that has had some despicable movie adaptations in the past. Can the MCU and Kevin Feige finally deliver a successful F4 movie, or will it falter like it's predecessors?

Overview

Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing face their most daunting challenge yet as they defend Earth from Galactus and Silver Surfer.

Cast

• Pedro Pascal -- Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic

• Vanessa Kirby -- Sue Storm/Invisible Woman

• Joseph Quinn -- Johnny Storm/Human Torch

• Ebon Moss-Bachrach -- Ben Grimm/The Thing

• Julia Garner -- Shalla-Bal/Silver Surfer

• Ralph Ineson -- Galactus

• Paul Walter Houser -- Mole Man

• Natasha Lyonne -- Rachel Rozman

The standout for me among the actual 4 members of the Fantastic Four was Vanessa Kirby -- Jessica Alba will always hold a special place in my heart, but Kirby was much more powerful and confident performer as Sue Storm. I also liked Joseph Quinn a lot as Johnny Storm -- was pretty funny, had the manic younger brother energy I expect from the character, and looks the part.

Moss-Bachrach is good in his role as well, albeit playing The Thing isn't the most face-forward character. Pretty funny and as heartfelt as a giant orange rock man can be. Julia Garner had similar challenges playing Silver Surfer -- the first female version -- but thought she did well in the role. Really loved Paul Walter Houser -- he was the funniest by a mile and was tons of fun.

The real downer for me was Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards -- not because I think Pascal's doing a bad job, but because the character is written to make him a wet blanket. He's the smartest man in the universe, but it never feels like he's the smartest guy in the room. He doesn't get to show his charisma, and he doesn't have the "being an asshole genius" card in his bag, which is a necessary tool to being a successful Reed Richards. But the script hurt him a lot.

General Thoughts

Off the bat, I do think this is the strongest of the four Fantastic Four movie adaptations we've seen in the 21st century. I really liked the aesthetic of the film -- very retro and nostalgic vibe from the set designs to the costumes to the score (music/theme music).

I also think the strongest and most successful aspect of the movie was how the theme of family tied into the overall story. The Fantastic Four themselves are a family -- and I think this is a factor in why the OG 2005 Fantastic Four movie still has cult fans because they nail the family so well. But you can feel the love these characters have for each other, and their commitment to this family and protecting the world are their top priorities.

Another positive takeaway I had -- and this is pretty plot-specific, so only makes sense if you watched it -- but holy shit was that space chase incredible. I was kind of fearful when they went off to space to "negotiate with Galactus" that, visually, things were going to fall off a cliff. While his ship wasn't the greatest visual, the ensuing inter-galactic chase scene with the F4 and Shalla-Bal was excellent. Beautiful and exhilarating.

I enjoyed how the final act concluded overall. The battle was intriguing, the ending was pretty cheesy, but damnit I like cheesy movies MCU movies. Sue me! It made sense thematically and was a heart-warming conclusion. And I think the battle itself was as interesting as they could've made it given the villain.

And as I said in the Cast section, I really did like 3/4 main characters quite a bit. I think they are my favorite movie iterations of Sue/Johnny/Ben Grimm. I still prefer Ioan Gruffud's Reed Richards though. And I really liked the characterization of The Silver Surfer we got from Garner. Think it was much stronger and more successful than the previous movie.

Getting into some more negative/mixed thoughts on the movie, because I do think there were some issues. For one, I wish there was more action. I enjoyed the final battle sequence, but think it was really light on showing us the F4 in action. Invisible Woman had a lot of standout moments, Human Torch got to flame on plenty, The Thing does a few The Thing-things. The portrayal of Mr. Fantastic's powers was pretty weak to me -- not very creative and didn't give him a ton to do. I don't need the origin story, but I do need more action from our heroes.

It's obvious in the marketing of the movie that Galactus is the Big Bad, with Silver Surfer as his sidekick essentially. With a villain that is quite literally a massive planet-eating cosmic entity, there are lots of issues. Scaling for one (think it was inconsistent how big he really was throughout), but with how 4 human-sized heroes can battle him. But on the positive side, I thought they were creative in incorporating him and creating the conflict. There's just no way to give a villain like this any personality, relatability, or nuance like the successful MCU villains.

(side note: future blog about MCU villains? Curious how many of my readers watch MCU movies, but hoping if this gets lots view it means there's fans out there. My GOAT would be Killmonger in Black Panther -- not counting Loki who turns good).

This one might be nitpicky and a me-problem, but I think there was lack of a fun side in this movie. My nostalgia in the Fantastic Four lies in them being funny and kind of goofy, but when it's time to fight, they lock the fuck in. I just wanted to see more quippy conversations, funny jokes, the characters actually having a good time.

My last real gripe is the entire movie is just kind of devoid of charm. There's flashes of it in Human Torch, but really across the board I thought it was lackluster charismatically. Pascal/Reed Richards was the epitome of that feeling -- but I think all the characters lacked charm. I really liked the performance/personification Kirby gave Sue Storm -- but it was very one-tone. Human Torch should be an explosion of personality. Just think it needed some more juice all around.

Despite these nitpicks, I really did enjoy this movie a lot. I think leaving the theater I was even a little more satisfied than I was with Superman. After sitting with it for a week, I really struggle to pick one over the other. But I think the cast, action, and villain give Superman a slight edge, but I truly did enjoy both of these movies and think they did justice to nostalgic heroes.

Score

76/100

Previous Bean's Blog Review Scores:

Hit Man: 90/100

Sinners: 89/100

Warfare: 85/100

Twisters: 81/100

Superman: 78/100

Fantastic Four: First Steps: 76/100

Snack Shack: 74/100

Carry-On: 72/100

Wicked: 70/100

Happy Gilmore 2: 38/100

Let me know if you have suggestions for a future Movie Monday! Might go with a rewatch of a classic movie for next week -- comment below or on the Instagram Post what classic movie you'd like to see reviewed!