Fantastic Four: Marvel's stunning First Steps puts A-list cast of Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby to good use

Herald Sun

11 hours ago

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With the best-looking superhero movie ever made, a tired reboot and a challenging comedy, it's a mixed bag at the movies this week.
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS (PG)
Director: Matt Shakman (feature debut)
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner.
***1/2
Barely a stumble, and always looking the goods
First, the very, very good news about The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It is the second superhero movie in a row to flat-out not suck.
That is quite an achievement when we remember there has been three truly terrible Fantastic Four flicks over the past two decades.
Let's move on to some very good news. First Steps could well be the best-looking superhero movie ever made. The production design is a triumph of inspired aesthetics, conjuring a retro-futuristic world that is believably unbelievable.
The planet Earth that the F4 team are required to save seems to have hit the pause button in 1964. The fashion, the architecture, the furniture and the innocent optimism of the era are displayed both precisely and pleasurably.
Joseph Quinn, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Ebon Moss-Bachrach at The Fantastic Four: First Steps premiere in Los Angeles. Picture: Getty Images
Chilean-US actor Pedro Pascal leads a stellar cast. Picture: AFP
And yet, the technology that underpins every aspect of life on this version of Earth is from the year 3064. Yes, that was a flying car whooshing by, complete with chrome tailfins and a vintage Chevy front grill.
Now for some merely good news regarding First Steps. While it never quite matches the new Superman in terms of telling a compelling story or generating euphoric levels of excitement, it is still an entertaining and enjoyable screen experience from start to finish.
The key here is that Marvel have ditched the usual entry-level requirements of prior knowledge and considerable patience for viewers (demands that have ruined much of the studio's recent output).
You can safely show up to First Steps completely unaware of the F4 origin story, as a niftily succinct montage early in the movie will set you straight inside three minutes.
The team sheet for the Fantastic Four is comprised of a quartet of ex-astronauts accidentally exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation during their final mission. The ordeal blessed them with a varied suite of superpowers.
Though Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) is the brains of the F4 outfit, he is also famous for a body that can stretch and bend like a high-tensile rubber band.
Vanessa Kirby. Picture: Getty Images
Reed's wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) can turn invisible and emit giant force fields of energy at will. Her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) is adored by the general public in his guise as the flying fireball known as the Human Torch.
Then there is their good friend Ben Grimm, aka The Thing. He is the strongman of the unit, a rock-encrusted cousin of the Hulk, whose favourite time on the clock is 'clobberin' time.'
The F4's chief assignment in First Steps is to prevent Earth being swallowed whole by a gargantuan Thanos-on-steroids named Galactus.
To be honest, the plot surrounding how our heroes will thwart Galactus and his heavy-metal henchwoman the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is charged with a silliness that never quite earns our respect or awe.
Thankfully, the warm and inviting chemistry shared by the A-list cast stops any possible descent into B-movie blandness for First Steps. And when all else fails, there is all that astonishingly attractive imagery to gawk at.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in cinemas now.
Sarah Pidgeon, Madelyn Cline, centre, and Chase Sui Wonders, right, in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER (MA15+)
**
General release.
We all know what Hollywood did late last century, because they keep recycling horror hits from yesterday like there is no tomorrow. For this tepid update of a so-so slasher flick from the '90s, the formula remains exactly the same as before. A quartet of semi-annoying, totally clueless young friends mistakenly assume they have successfully covered up their involvement in a coastal car accident a year prior. Now they're all getting threatening notes from an unknown entity inferring their shared secret will soon be a shared death sentence. Eventually, a mysterious rain-slickered psychopath will start checking off names on his personal to-die list in tired, predictable and curiously unscary fashion. A few casting cameos from the original might tweak a nostalgic pang or two, but there's no crime in waiting for this sluggish effort to show up on home streaming.
Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in Friendship.
FRIENDSHIP (M)
***1/2
General release.
This decidedly unorthodox affair gets a welcome run in cinemas on the strength of its casting of former Saturday Night Live regular Tim Robinson in a leading role. Via his acclaimed Netflix series I Think You Should Leave, Robinson has proven himself to be one of the most daring figures remaining on a diminished American comedy scene. Some familiarity with Robinson's often-surreal brand of humour will come in useful here. Robinson plays Craig, a regular suburban dad who slowly, but surely loses his mind after misinterpreting a polite gesture of thanks from a new arrival in his neighbourhood, Austin (Ant-Man's Paul Rudd). With Craig mistakenly assuming he and Austin are best buds, he fails to notice his marriage, job and grasp of reality are slipping away rapidly. Though not without its share of laugh-out-loud moments, this is actually a poignant and disarming portrait of male loneliness in the modern age. Strong, striking and unique stuff, even if not for all tastes.
Originally published as Pedro Pascal leads 'best-looking' A-list Fantastic Four reboot