Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has the audacity to take characters born from the silver age of comic books and translate them to a movie that FEELS like a silver age comic book. With colorful antics, a fully realized space-age world, a comforting family dynamic, and no need for a laborious origin story, Marvel’s latest sets course for a fairly self-contained adventure that does not bother intersecting with the larger Cinematic Universe at all. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” feels intended, in many ways, to be a cool drink of water, refreshing without a hint of controversy, political metaphor, or conflict beyond the most basic Good vs. Evil construct. It’s a simple film played simply, as consistent as it is flavorless.
And that’s a problem.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” exists in a reality where The Avengers and Spider-Man do not. As the film opens, we learn that four years ago, this world became the home of four superheroes whose powers were born from a space flight gone wrong. Super genius Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife, diplomat Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), pilot Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Sue’s kid brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) returned forever changed; mutated by a proprietary concoction of cosmic radiations that gave them superpowers. Now, Reed can stretch, Sue can turn invisible, Johnny goes incendiary, and Ben Grimm is a hulking rock creature. Instead of rejecting these monstrous transformations, the world, a 1960s space age fantasy, embraces them. A frenetic sequence in the opening fifteen minutes of the film attempts to catch us up with a family that everyone has decided is benevolent and worthy of near constant fawning; there are licensing deals, a Saturday morning cartoon, and a bevy of super villains for the Four to tackle in crowd-pleasing fashion. This crime-fighting is mostly implied via the most tedious of cinematic devices, the expositional info dump montage. One slight interlude against the Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser) and a green, ghoulish kaiju-like creature that mimics the first cover of the first issue of the Fantastic Four comic is the closest we get to seeing anything resembling fisticuffs for the first hour of the film. Table setting abounds as Producer Kevin Feige and Director Matt Shakman try desperately to convince us that not only do the people of this reality love the Fantastic Four, but WE love the Fantastic Four. Sadly, the movie doth protest too much, as for all the light and sparkle, the Fantastic Four themselves have all the emotional depth and conflict of a B-tier Super Friends cartoon; all gee whiz and moralistic platitudes. Movies are more than that, or at least they should be. Oh, I nearly forgot, in the opening scene, we learn that Sue Storm is pregnant and Reed is terrified that their baby might have some unknown mutation all its own. While this matters to the plot, these are the titular “First Steps” after all; the film has no interest in diving into anything resembling true human drama. It is rare to see a film divest considerable creative and financial resources to a production that seemingly prides itself on narrative inertness. There are sounds and flashing lights and color, mostly blue. Delight and whimsy are pumped into the audience’s eyes “Clockwork Orange” style as if screaming, “You love this! You love them! You always have!” But in the end, this is sound and fury signifying nothing more than a pre-packaged serving of faux nostalgia blended with a dash of schmaltz and a heaping pile of dehydrated corporate interest.
The film is largely laid out like a comic book from a bygone era, one with big splash pages and a plot that is simple enough to be wrapped up in a bow before the next issue. There’s no time for introspection or complication; there are rich, logo-branded superheroes living in a penthouse research laboratory to worship. For characters best known because of their physical metamorphosis, the movie cares not one bit for allowing them to grow emotionally or interpersonally at all. Reed is a neurotic genius, Sue is a protective mother, Johnny is a well-meaning hot head, and Ben is a gentle giant. Their family unit is one of Sunday night dinners, playful ribbing, and perpetual emotional support; something to aspire to, yes, but dull as dirt when there is no conflict festering beneath the surface. By the time an intergalactic doom herald, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), arrives to inform this Earth that a billion-year-old giant called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) has chosen this world to be consumed like a late-night crunch wrap, I was praying that catastrophe was on the horizon; if only to offer some wrinkle into the pristine existence of our heroes. Sadly, as the film played out further, I found myself disappointed, but maybe that’s just because I’ve seen this done better within the last two weeks.
This is the summer of superhero movies hoping to instill hope in the masses, with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” and “Superman” clearly reading the same cultural tea leaves. We need a hero, even a fictional one, to pull us from the cynical death dive of our day-to-day, and these two films offer distinct visions of the same basic aspiration: that it is possible to uphold the values of decency and kindness in a world spiraling toward imminent destruction. Yet, while “Superman” paints a vision of a hero for whom failure is well acquainted, who has all the powers of a God yet still is as relatable as a friend, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” has little on its mind besides quips, platitudes, and pop iconography. It’s fairly damning when “The Incredibles,” obviously inspired by the “Fantastic Four” in both aesthetic and power type, has more depth, nuance and earned conflict in its stretchy little finger than this film does in its entire running time. We don’t go to the movies to see a perfect family do the right thing; we go to the movies to see our heroes burn out, stretch themselves, put up force fields around their feelings and be forced to break down the rocky exteriors they create to protect themselves in an effort to become something more. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is all about the mistakes without the growth. How can one become a better version of themselves if they’re already the vision of perfection, beloved by all? In the battle over which antiquated superhero, brought into the modern age, I’d rather spend more time with, I’ll pick Superman; at least he is human enough to have the same bad taste in music that I do.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is not a bad film, frankly, far from it. There is spectacle and kid-friendly peril throughout; a good starter superhero movie, if not a great one. But if you’re on the fence and want to actually feel something walking out of the theater, just see “Superman” again.
You’ll be glad you did.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is playing at Prytania Uptown, Prytania Canal Place and The Broad Theater.
