I have been reading comic books ever since I was 10 years old. I first started reading GI Joe comics and then progressed to reading superhero comics like Spider-Man and many others. I first read the Fantastic Four during the John Byrne run. Byrne understood the legacy that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee started in the 60s of Marvel’s First Family. There was a certain vibe and aesthetic to what they were trying to achieve with these characters. They were like a true family. The Fantastic Four First Steps achieve that same goal. Matt Shakman knew the goal and accomplished it with flying colors. This is another winner for comic book and MCU fans everywhere.

Right from the very get go the Fantastic Four Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Venessa Kirby), Johnny Storm  (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) are depicted as the saviors of Earth 828. They have saved the day on more than one account. They are about to embark on their biggest challenge yet as Sue Storm lets her husband and the rest of the team know she’s pregnant with her first child. Like a family, they work on this new chapter in their lives as a team.  Whether they want to or not. This was going to be the biggest challenge of their lives up to this point.

Shakman, the director of the film, used a specific look called Retro Futurism to give the film its iconic visuals. The sets were all practically built to give the film a more authentic vibe. I felt like I was thrown back in time with the amazing look of the film. The production design is some of the best in any MCU film to date. The Baxter building where the team lives and works  looked phenomenal.  The Retro Futurism gave the movie the perfect aesthetic for fans of the comics to feel right at home. The futuristic Fantasticar is the gorgeous Kerry blue and white. uniforms and looked perfect for the vibe Shakman was going for.

I am always curious how the casting director comes to the conclusion on who and why they cast specific actors for roles in various films. That was on my mind, specifically when I heard the names of the four actors who were cast in this movie. Pascal is everywhere right now. This is the fourth, ironically enough film he’s in this year, and he’s also in The Last of Us  as well, the popular video game show on HBO. He wouldn’t have been my first choice for this character, but once I started watching the movie, I didn’t see him. I only saw the character of Reed Richards.  Venessa Kirby not only looks the part of Sue Storm, she’s portrayed a woman who has given birth to a baby in a film before, Pieces of a Woman,  and she’s pregnant in real life. So, playing a pregnant superhero was right up her alley.  Joseph Quinn has been having a moment lately ever since his breakout role in Stranger Things Season 4. Even though he’s not blond in real life, there was nothing like a little hair dye that couldn’t change that, and walla, you get the hot young fireballs of the family. He has some good repour with Ebon Moss-Bachrac, who plays the man with the rocky exterior and resident pilot of the team Ben Grimm.  He made me believe he was this character. I saw those baby blues and believed every word he said in this movie. The casting directors got it right on the nose with this film. I can’t imagine anybody else playing these characters even though others have played them before in other films. They reminded me as if they were an actual family. Their chemistry was off the charts.They were all terrific.

Aforementioned, there have been multiple incarnations of Marvel’s First Family in the past, but there was always something of in all of the other versions of these four iconic characters. It was either the story, the villains, the casting, or the aesthetic that the various directors like Tim Story were going for that were off in all the other iterations of this team. That wasn’t the case this time around. All of the things Shakman and company were going for worked exactly as planned within the context of the film they were going for. I couldn’t have imagined a better version of this family brought to film. Everything worked as fast as I’m concerned. 

Some of those things are the score by Micheal Giacchino, the composer of the music for the film. He created some other MCU scores, most notably the Avengers score in the past. The score for The Fantastic Four First Steps arguably rivals that score. It is grandiose and magical. It hits the right notes at the right time. I find myself being drawn to it ever since I heard it earlier this evening. It is good enough to be considered for an Academy Award next year. I love it that much, and I’m sure others will as well.

With all superhero movies, a key aspect of if they work or not is the visual effects. This one relies on a lot of visuals from Reed’s stretching abilities,  to Sue’s force shields to Johnny’s flaming abilities, and I can’t forget the look of Ben Grimm over the mocap work of Moss-Bachrach.  He looked amazing, by the way. There is a lot of CGI in this movie. Space sequences galore and an entire big bad character that Shakman finally got right after Story’s bad iteration of him, Galactus, in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.  And speaking of the Silver Surfer, Julia Garner did a fantastic , no pun intended,  job of playing this character, whose sex has been changed from the comics. The visual effects are seemingly included in the story. I didn’t notice them at all. That’s a good thing. When a story implants CGI this good, it needs to be mentioned. 

The story of this version of the Fantastic Four is like an amalgamation of multiple stories from the comics. The scriptwriter got the memo from Kevin Feige to go in a certain direction with the story, and it worked perfectly with Shakman’s direction. The vibe they were going for worked so well with the overall aesthetic of the film. As a fan of the comics, I can understand that the films are completely different, so I can get behind a story that differs from the Fantastic Four comics from the past. This story is going to relate to more than just fan boys. It’s going to relate to families and specifically mothers. Having those kinds of aspects makes it a well-rounded story. I was genuinely engaged by all the plot points in this film.

If there was one minor quibble I had with this iteration of Marvel’s First Family, it’s that the story, though very good, was a bit predictable. With Marvel Studios and Kevin Feige putting the cart before the horse regarding the announcement of the cast using set chairs for Avengers Doomsday, it’s a little predictable on what was going to happen in this film. The life-threatening situations weren’t as life-threatening as they’d normally be if viewers didn’t know what was going to be coming next down the MCU pipeline. If that’s the only problem I have with this movie, then it’s not a bad thing. Everything else is impeccably done.

The Fantastic Four First Steps was everything I’ve ever wanted in a Fantastic Four Film. It had a beautiful look to it from the production design, sets, and visual effects as well as the gorgeous blue & white costumes the team is known for. The score is big and magical from Giacchino. The story fits into what a Marvel version of this team would be like. The family aspects and teamwork were all there. The performances from the entire cast of actors, most notably the Fantastic Four themselves, Pascal,  Kirby, Quinn, and Moss-Bachrach had enough chemistry to last for days. They were that good together. I can’t imagine anybody else ever playing these characters. Shakman accomplished the unimaginable with this film. He finally made a “Fantastic Four” movie comic book fans, and everyone included can get behind. I loved this film!

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen