Fantastic Four: First Steps is a propulsive superhero movie about parenting anxieties

The Fantastic Four are the newest additions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe but they’re also not new-new.

On the one hand, here’s a big, splashy blockbuster that’s stylistically very cool with its 1960s retro-futuristic production design and a line-up of stars that are both famous and talented actors.

Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach are award-winning thespians – with real gongs, not Golden Globes or People’s Choice - while Joe Quinn has had an amazing rise since his scene-stealing break-out on Stranger Things three years ago.

Fantastic Four: First Steps has proper emotional stakes and the actors to convincingly pull them off. You will believe that this film with characters who can set themselves on fire or turn invisible is a thoughtful exploration of parenting anxieties.

On the other hand, there have been three other Fantastic Four movies this century, the most recent of which, the 2015 effort starring Miles Teller and Michael B. Jordan, had the distinction of attracting a Rotten Tomatoes score of 9 per cent. Happily, very few people actually saw it. The two 2000s movies were not much better.

So, yes, this new version is a mix of fresh and familiar, drawing from comic book characters that for Marvel, are among the top three teams in the comics, alongside the X-Men and the Avengers, but for casual audiences, it’s something they won’t have seen before.

In the post-pandemic era, Marvel has become synonymous with convoluted narrative universes that feels like homework. Fantastic Four: First Steps is genuinely not that. You do not need to have seen any other Marvel movie or TV show, it does not (yet) connect to them.

There’s even an in-joke in Fantastic Four: First Steps in which Reed Richards is explaining the possibility of parallel universes and upon seeing a classroom of bored faces, stops, and then asks, “Who would like to see an explosion?”.

Explosions you will have while multiverses, at least for now, have been banished to a future movie.

The Fantastic Four characters are Pascal as Reed Richards (he’s stretchy), Kirby as Sue Storm (she turns invisible and can create force shields), Quinn as Johnny Storm (he can control fire and fly) and Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm (he’s a big rock dude, obviously super strong).

They were four astronauts whose space mission encountered a cosmic ray which changed their DNA and gave them their powers, which they now use to help people, saving children and defeating bad guys.

At the start of the film, marrieds Sue and Reed discover they’re pregnant, which despite his great joy, also sets off Reed who is worried about every possible danger, from electricity sockets to the effect of their altered genes on their baby.

Not long after, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) appears on Earth to herald the imminent arrival of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a planet-devouring being whose appetite can never be satiated.

As far as threats go, it’s not something that can be fixed with baby gates at the top of the stairs.

Pascal is the big super star of the moment, and he is, indeed, very good in this film as Reed feels the burden of both impending parenthood and the responsibility as Earth’s protector. The character is meant to be the biggest brain in the world, and the frustration of not being able to solve a problem is palpable.

While there have been few superhero parents on screen, having care of a child and of the world, are not that different. You have the best intentions but you control little.

Johnny and Ben also have their own mini-arcs, in addition to their roles in the wider family dynamics, but the film really belongs to Kirby.

We know Kirby is a superstar talent, having firmly established her credentials in The Crown, Pieces of a Woman and as the only performance in Napoleon that made sense. Here, she is brilliant as Sue, who has a quiet emotional strength that rivals her physical prowess.

Sue doesn’t always say exactly what she’s thinking or feeling and she doesn’t need to, it’s all in Kirby’s performance, full of feeling and gravitas.

All four leads also have excellent chemistry as a family unit, and it’s those scenes of domesticity, the moments of tension and love that holds the film together. Even in the action set-pieces, it’s clear what the intention is, what each character’s emotional stakes are in addition to the general world-saving ones.

Director Matt Shakman worked on one of the most creatively successful MCU streaming shows, WandaVision, and he has brought his sensibilities to Fantastic Four: First Steps with its blend of action and character beats – the former is never without the latter, and that’s the mark of a great project.

It’s reminiscent of one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, The Incredibles, which obviously borrowed a lot from the Fantastic Four comics, although it’s not as sharp as that flawless Pixar film.

There are also some dangling threads or supporting characters (Natasha Lyonne and Sarah Niles’s roles, for example) that feels like set-up to something else down the line. But, for the most part, it is a rare standalone entry in the MCU.

Will it be enough to convince sceptics who have wearied of Marvel’s connected stories? For the performances alone, it should. If this Fantastic Four crew is the future of Marvel, it’s looking a lot brighter.

Rating: 3.5/5

Fantastic Four: First Steps is in cinemas