The fourth time’s the charm for Marvel Comics’ flagship super-team.
Fantastic Four: First Steps is in fact Hollywood’s fourth iteration of the FF (the first, produced by Roger Corman, was never even released). Lovingly directed by Matt Shakman and set in the retro-futuristic mid-century modern Manhattan of the 1960s, it’s the most satisfactory of the lot. There’s always something interesting to look at in this movie.
The summer’s other superhero blockbuster, James Gunn’s Superman, begins in the middle of the action, but this film takes a surprisingly leisurely approach to re-introducing us to these characters, presented as world-famous celebrities beloved by the public because they’ve already thwarted a string of bizarre menaces that threatened New York.
They are Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, respectively Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing (names that are rarely mentioned during the film). Playing against type, the Thing is the most sensitive of the Four. Moss-Bachrach brings an understated charm to his role that I’d like to have seen more of, but the planet Earth has to be saved, after all.
And the threat from the gigantic, cosmic, world-devouring Galactus is particularly overwhelming. The Fantastic Four’s super powers are as nothing against it, and the situation confronts the team with a horrible moral dilemma.
Galactus is heralded by the Silver Surfer, a character who has been pointlessly gender-switched. Nevertheless, Julia Garner gives one of the best of the several good performances in the movie — as coldly alien as her shiny metal skin.
Pedro Pascal hits just the right note as Reed Richards, the noble, worried super-genius who, admittedly, has a lot to worry about.
I have to think that, if I had seen these Superman and FF movies as a child, I’d have fainted dead away with delight.
As in the Superman movie, these characters are pretty faithful to their comic book versions. And again as in Superman, the actors worked hard to make these characters real — not an easy task with such childish source material. But the actors do not condescend to their characters.
One great actor we don’t see in the movie is John Malkovich, who played the intangible Russian villain the Red Ghost. But his performance was cut.
Poor Malkovich has had bad luck with Marvel movies. He was to have played the Vulture in Spider-Man 4, but that film was never made.
Jim Hampton:
ReplyDeleteI had a Red Ghost/Malkovich discussion earlier with a friend. There was a quick reference to RG in a nightly news story in the movie. I suspect Malkovich's RG role was in the scenes that establish F4 at the beginning of the film when the TV show host is reviewing their careers thus far.
The movie is a visual feast with mid-century modern/retro futurism down to the last button on a man's overcoat. The retro-futurism was a brilliant move. They "exist" more believably in a retro futuristic setting. To be honest, I think they're more fun in that setting. I can't see the F4 any other way now. Marvel FINALLY got it right.
Overall I give it an A-. It's a home run to be sure. It's a huge shot in the arm Marvel desperately needed.
Joeletariat Feliciano:
ReplyDeletefull disclosure: fantastic four is my all time fave/and first comic book love/obsession. to say i thoroughly enjoyed it would be a monstrous understatement.
i think every comic book fan wants three things from their heroes in a comic book film: see the characters use their power in a way that is essential to the story's outcome, see their hero win -- or at the very least leave EVERYTHING on the field, and lastly, simply see them being themselves. doing nothing but tending to the myriad quotidian details, responsibilities and nuisances that everyone -- hero or not -- must do. that's why viewers were so gobsmacked by the seemingly banal shwarma post credit scene from the first avengers. we saw so much character being revealed in that little, beautiful moment. and the power of the banal is beautifully put on front display in first steps. from the first shot -- seeing reed looking for antiseptic, to ben shaving, and johnny eating lucky charms breakfast cereal -- first steps gave me everything i could have wanted. i saw them all use their powers to glorious effect, saw them fighting with everything they had, and i saw THEM. at home. as a family. with no one (other than us fortunate viewers) paying any attention to them. the only thing i wished could have happened differently is for stan lee to be around to see his first family get the film they deserve.