Rightly or wrongly, my son Liam and I have seen every film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.* It’s not an exaggeration to say that’s a lot of movies. Along with that is a lot of television. In total we have hundreds of hours of people in billion dollar combat armor, super-soldiers, gamma irradiated folks, a dude who can get itty-bitty, a guy with dissociative identity disorder with an unhealthy fixation on the moon, a couple of people who rule at shooting arrows, and an angsty teen who can stick to walls.

We, along with everyone else who pays attention to this nonsense, have noticed the MCU has been in a good news/bad news scenario.. The good news is that they were one of the most successful movie franchises in the history of the medium. The bad news is the word “were” in the previous sentence. Recent entries in the MCU have failed to land with both audiences and critics. This year alone, Marvel Studios lost around fifty million dollars on Thunderbolts (Unfairly, I think) and may have lost more than one hundred million dollars on Captain America: Brave New World.

In the parlance of movie critics, those numbers are ass. If the MCU wants to keep going for another decade or two, they need to deliver a good time at the movies and characters that audiences can latch onto. So what did they do? They picked the very first characters created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in Marvel Comics, characters that various studios have tried to bring to life onscreen five times. For one reason or another, the previous four films never quite gelled. With Fantastic Four: First Steps, it turns out that fifth time is the charm. 

On Earth-828,** there are no Avengers, no X-Men, no Eternals. I’m pretty sure Blade isn’t running around, and unless I miss my guess, there isn’t even a Howard the Duck. There is a Fantastic Four, and they’re the protectors of this world. Four years ago, during a space mission, they were bombarded by cosmic radiation. They came back different, and swore to use their powers to help humanity. They are:

• Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), a brilliant scientist who possesses the power to elongate his entire body. He is Mr. Fantastic. 
• Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), the founder of the global peacekeeping initiative The Future Foundation with the power to become invisible and generate force fields. She is the Invisible Woman.
• Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), an astronaut and skilled pilot who was transformed into a strong and durable rock monster. He is the Thing. 
• Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), Sue’s impetuous brother who has the ability to fly and generate flame. He is the Human Torch.

For four years, the Fantastic Four have dealt with a wide variety of threats, everything from subterranean terrorists to Russian super apes.*** But there are two challenges that may be beyond them. The first is Franklin, the unborn son to Reed and Sue, and they’ll discover that parenting may be more difficult than saving the world. Speaking of which, the second challenge is the arrival of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). She’s the herald of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a cosmic being of unimaginable might who devours planets. Now Earth is in his sights, and time is running out.

As per usual with Critic & Son installments, Liam will offer his thoughts in italics, then I’ll jump in with a few of my own. Then we’ll wrap up and all of you readers can decide if my son writing part of a movie review is a form of child abuse. Onwards!

Fantastic Four: First Steps is a very good step forward for the MCU. It feels similar to Superman this year in that it embraces the core whimsy and zaniness that’s inherent to these characters. The film also has a very good, old-fashioned, sci-fi vibe that it carries well. My main gripe is that it feels like there was more that we didn’t get, specifically for The Thing and Human Torch. There feels like there’s this absence in the film for their stories, much like John Malkovich being entirely cut from the film. Now, I think that they were cut to avoid slowing the film down too much, and the film is very good regardless, but it just feels that we are missing a couple small beats. This is however a phenomenal MCU film, and with Thunderbolts before it, I’m now very hopeful that the MCU can whip itself back into quality again.  

What he said. Director Matt Shakman has identified a number of the pitfalls with late-stage entries of the MCU. He avoids the muted color palettes and sluggish pacing. Instead, he’s made a movie that’s a visual dream. The 1960s retrofuturism production design pops, and it provides the film with a welcome degree of style and energy. The pacing is also nimble, perhaps too much so. It’s my understanding that numerous scenes were heavily edited and, in some cases, cut out entirely. You can feel that just a little, and I think it would have benefitted with ten or fifteen extra minutes.

As Liam mentioned, the screenplay by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Ian Springer and Jeff Kaplan does outstanding work establishing the individual characters of the FF and their group dynamics. In particular, they nail Reed’s constant worry about solving everything and Sue’s fierce determination to protect her child and her family. They also made a smart and comic-accurate decision regarding the portrayal of Galactus. A lesser film would have portrayed the Devourer of Worlds as evil (or a giant purple cloud). Here, he’s a cosmic force that exists beyond petty moralities. That’s exactly the right decision for a Fantastic Four movie, since the property has always been less about super heroics and more about wild science fiction. I should also mention the laser focus by the quartet of writers in creating a standalone adventure. There are a few nods to connections with the wider MCU, but they never feel like homework.

Say what you will about Marvel Studios, but their casting game is usually on point. They knew that the FF must feel like a bonded family, and that only really happens with the right actors. I liked the omnipresent Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards. He sells Reed’s vast intelligence and vast fear about what he doesn’t know. Ebon Moss-Bachrach does strong work as Ben Grimm. He knows that the core of the character is sadness, gruff humor, and endless loyalty. Having said that, it feels like some of the cut scenes may have come at Moss-Bachrach’s expense. He fades into the background at times, and that’s a real disservice to a talented actor playing a fan-favorite character. Joseph Quinn’s take on Johnny Storm is different from the source material. I understand that, for numerous reasons, the original portrayal of Johnny as a girl-crazy himbo creates more problems than it solves. Quinn plays him as smarter and a bit more overtly insecure. Rather than being a literal and figurative hothead, Johnny gestures in the direction of being impetuous. The standout performance is Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm. She might be the best recent casting in the MCU, and she takes a notoriously underwritten character in the history of the comics and brings her to the forefront. Kirby’s Sue is confident, slyly funny, competent, and scared to death about how her pregnancy will change her life, her relationships, and possibly the world. 

I’m not sure that Fantastic Four: First Steps works quite as well as Superman. It doesn’t matter, since it remains a solid summer movie and an improvement by Marvel Studios. The irony doesn’t escape me that this will probably be the last Critic & Son installment I do for a while, and it’s for a movie about the importance of family. You see, Liam is headed off to sunny Los Angeles for college next month. He’ll be forging his own path, and while we might yet see him around these parts, it won’t be as frequent. That’s okay. Like the Fantastic Four, he’ll be looking towards the future and embarking upon new adventures. Also, like the Fantastic Four, he’ll know that wherever his travels take him, he’ll always have a home. That’s because family is home.

*My wife, on the other hand, tapped out a few years ago as she has a stronger sense of self-preservation than we do.

**The MCU is set on Earth-616. Do with that information what you will.

***Pouring one out for John Malkovich, who was cast as the Red Ghost for this film and whose role was cut at the last moment for pacing reasons. Who’s the Red Ghost? He’s a character that’s absolutely insane, even by Stan Lee standards. You can read more about him here.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.