'Fantastic Four: First Steps' review: Fresh, fun, and free from the MCU's shadow

The Star

2 days ago

Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the titular team, alongside Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson.
Just as the original Fantastic Four comic book heralded the new Silver Age of Marvel Comics back in 1961, Fantastic Four: First Steps brings forth a new era, or rather, phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
How new is it? So new that it's not even set on the actual designated Earth that the MCU is supposedly set on (Earth-199999, in case you were wondering), but on a completely different world altogether - Earth-828.
What this immediately means is that this movie is completely standalone and is completely unconnected to the previous MCU movies, resulting in arguably the freshest and most 'free' that a Marvel Studios movie has felt in ages.
We are dropped into Earth-828 four years after a space mission went wrong, exposing the team to cosmic rays and giving them superpowers, which led to them becoming the 'Fantastic Four'. At this time, the team is already well-established as the saviours of the world, protecting the people from threats that range from alien invaders to subterraneanal dwellers.
The new Squid Game uniforms were out of this world.
Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) is Mr Fantastic, the super genius with stretchy powers. His wife, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) is the Invisible Woman, with the power to bend light in order to turn herself and others invisible, or create force fields.
Her brother, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) is the Human Torch, a literally flaming hot flying force of nature, and rounding up the team is Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) aka The Thing, who is a walking, talking, super strong rock man.
The film begins with a positive pregnancy test, as Reed and Sue prepare to welcome a new addition to the family. But the happy news is disrupted by a cosmic threat, as the Silver Surfer (Julie Garner) flies in on her shimmering surfboard to announce that the planet is doom to become a planetary snack for the cosmic entity Galactus (Ralph Ineson).
Boldly proclaiming to the planet that 'we will save you', the FF blast off to meet this Galactus, but is confronted with an impossible decision that could either tear the family apart, or cause the destruction of the entire world.
Looks like someone forgot to put new batteries in the Human Torch.
This really is a fun, fresh new start for the MCU's latest phase, one that revels in building an entire new world for one of Marvel's most iconic superteams.
And what a beautifully colourful world it is. Director Matt Shakman gives Earth-828 a retro 1960s feel that is a welcome change after the gloom and doom of Earth-199999 in the last few MCU movies. Michael Giacchino's snappy, catchy score also captures the breeziness of the world.
As a result, we are a lot more invested in this world when Shakman contrasts its with the seriousness of the Silver Surfer (Garner, er, shines despite being covered in CGI silver paint the entire time), and the industrial mechanism of Galactus' ship.
First Steps also benefits from a stellar cast that really brings out the best in Marvel's First Family.
Pedro Pascal may be THE go-to man for major pop culture franchises these days, but he is exactly what the film needs moustache and all - a well-known name who is comfortable enough to play a fatherly figure and deliver performance that stands out enough for you to forget that it is indeed Pedro Pascal.
Not even Reed Richards can calculate the reason why someone thought it would be cool to call the last movie 'Fant4tic Four'.
Kirby is the real MVP of the show though. Her Sue Storm is a powerhouse of a superwoman, from having the most useful power, to the way she carries not just herself, but the entire team in moments of great stress. (Not to mention she also literally carries the fifth member of the family in her belly.)
Moss-Bachrach also turns in a, er, rock solid performance as Ben Grimm, despite being a hulking CGI rock man the entire time; while Quinn brings the heat as the Human Torch, toning down the arrogant cockiness that the character is usually known for and replacing it with a more assured self-confident attitude instead.
Sue Storm's force fields come in handy when she has to cross the road during rush hour.
Like their Distinguished Competitors' Superman , First Steps revels in being completely unshackled from the core MCU, instead allowing Marvel's First Family to shine in their own right.
That means you can go watch it with no prior knowledge of the previous MCU movies, nor any of the increasingly clunky lore that has been accumulating over the last 17 years of the MCU. (This won't last, of course, as it has already been teased that the FF will be appearing in next year's Avengers: Doomsday ).
The result is arguably the best MCU movie in years, one that takes some tentative first steps towards making people care about the MCU again.