‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps': Marvel goes interstellar in an amiable outing for comic books' First Family
Here, Earth's mightiest heroes are space-age pioneers too: the pregnant Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), her scientist hubby Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), her headstrong brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Reed's best pal, hulking concrete-faced enforcer Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). There are no other superheroes to clutter up the scene, leaving the four to protect humanity together – when they're not squabbling amicably in their gleaming HQ.
Having previously demanded near PhD-level knowledge of their interlocking stories, superhero movies now seem to be flipping to the other extreme. As with James Gunn's Superman, the back story and set-up are brushed past swiftly, via an ABC special fronted by Stephen Moffat, First Steps ' answer to Basil Exposition. The quartet, we learn, were zapped by cosmic rays on a space voyage and returned to Earth with superpowers.
What those powers are, and why they're all different, remains a little hazy for anyone not versed in MCU lore. But there's plenty of chance to figure them out in the action ahead – including a 2001 -esque foray into space. Gender-swapped (deal with it) space-nymph the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives to share the news that giant, planet-munching superbad Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is en route to make Earth the latest Malteser in his interstellar buffet.
For a movie that looks this sleek, there's a lot of scrappiness around the fringes
It's all entertaining enough, with Moss-Bachrach an earthy presence beneath Ben Grimm's rocky CG exterior and Quinn injecting a note of boyish vulnerability into an offbeat flirtation with the Silver Surfer. Kirby anchors the drama as a mum-to-be trying to pull off the ultimate juggle, while Pascal is charmingly gawky as the anxious Reed, who reacts to impending fatherhood by having the city's villains rounded up. 'You're baby-proofing the world,' notes Grimm.
For a movie that looks this sleek, there's a lot of scrappiness around the fringes. Paul Walter Hauser is fun as subterranean mastermind Mole Man, but gets barely a toehold on the plot. Half of whatever Natasha Lyonne's character, a teacher with a thing for The Thing, was due to be doing is surely on the cutting room floor. The Four's droid helper H.E.R.B.I.E. doesn't leave a massive impression.
Needless to say, don't leave your seat as the credits roll, as a crucial new character gets intro'ed (the second post-credit sting is the very definition of inessential). Next stop? Avengers: Doomsday. Your research starts now.
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Scottish Sun
an hour ago
- Scottish Sun
Fans confused over Vanessa Kirby stroking co-star Pedro Pascal's face on press tour asking ‘why are they so touchy?'
The pair are starring as husband and wife in Marvel's Fantastic Four: First Steps IN IT TOGETHER Fans confused over Vanessa Kirby stroking co-star Pedro Pascal's face on press tour asking 'why are they so touchy?' FANTASTIC Four's Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby have left fans confused over their close friendship – though the reason behind it is actually quite sweet. Videos of the pair's tactile relationship, often cuddling up to each other, holding hands and Vanessa even stroking Pedro's neck, has started circulating online causing debate on X. Advertisement 6 Pedro and Vanessa's affectionate friendship has confused fans Credit: PA 6 Vanessa was seen playing with Pedro's neck in one picture Credit: 6 Pedro and Vanessa play husband and wife in the new movie Credit: Getty Vanessa and Pedro play married couple Reed Richards and Sue Storm – AKA Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman – in the new addition to the Marvel universe. And their friendship clearly extends outside the show, with the duo seen showing each other support on tour. However, some fans have taken exception to their affectionate friendship, complaining it is "weird". Vanessa has noticeably become a particular source of support for Pedro, starting back at San Diego Comic-Con last year when they took to the stage alongside co-stars Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Advertisement A nervous-looking Pedro grabbed Vanessa's arm as he appeared on stage behind her, and in response she grabbed his hand and held it. Speaking with Vanity Fair in June this year, Vanessa praised her co-star explaining they were both as nervous as each other and their affection is a sign of unity. She said: "What happened is we were both incredibly nervous going out in front of thousands of people who love this comic. 'He wanted me to know that we were in this together, and I found it a lovely gesture and was very glad to squeeze his hand back.' Advertisement This is something the pair have been doing in the months since, especially as they've been sent around the world to promote the movie. Often paired up on the press tour due to their characters' relationship, Vanessa has been seen soothing Pedro with hugs and physical affection. Marvel release a clip from their latest super hero flick The Fantastic Four: First Steps He has also been seen resting a hand on Vanessa's pregnant belly on red carpets, following news she is expecting her first child with her partner, American lacrosse player Paul Rabil. Pedro has previously stated that touch helps soothe him when he suffers from anxiety – even notably doing it to himself while on the red carpet alone, creating a unique pose by standing with his hand on his chest. Advertisement During a screening event of his Sky/HBO series The Last of Us in 2023, Pedro told co-star Bella Ramsey during an interview with Deadline: "You know why? It's because my anxiety is right here." In response, Bella posed on the carpet with him in the same manner. 6 Vanessa is expecting her first baby with partner Paul Rabil Credit: AP 6 Vanessa and Pedro have become close during filming the Marvel movie Credit: Alamy Advertisement
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Even die-hard Marvel fans can't get excited about The Fantastic Four: First Steps - but surprised critics are giving it 5-stars and say it's funny, clever and even quite moving!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Verdict: Relentlessly daft, but these retro heroes are super-fun Rating: A rebooted superhero franchise from the Marvel Cinematic Universe might not be near the top of the list of the things you want most in life. It might even be close to the bottom. But wait. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while not likely to send even diehard Marvel fans into a state of rapture, is so pleasingly and jauntily retro that it falls only just short of boasting 'Pow!' and 'Zap!' captions. Even the special effects look a bit ropey, I presume deliberately, and while the plot is of course monumentally silly, it is also blissfully easy to follow. At the heart of it is one of the oldest themes in the book: the unwavering ferocity of a mother's love. Vanessa Kirby, in real life so exquisitely and quintessentially English that she comes from Wimbledon, again flaunts a pure American accent as Dr Susan Storm, the astronaut who returned to Earth with superpowers after a cosmic storm compromised her DNA, as cosmic storms will. Sharing that fateful journey into space were her brilliant scientist husband Reed Richards (the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal), her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and their friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). The Fantastic Four: First Steps, while not likely to send even diehard Marvel fans into a state of rapture, is so pleasingly and jauntily retro that it falls only just short of boasting 'Pow!' and 'Zap!' captions They all gained other-worldly abilities up there, transforming them in turn, when it suits them, into Invisible Woman, Mister Fantastic, Human Torch and The Thing. Mister Fantastic may have copped the worst superpower (he's very stretchy), but poor Ben definitely got the worst name, not to mention an unsightly dermatological condition. Made entirely from rocks, he's not much to look at. On the upside, he is spectacularly strong and has his own catchprase, which as all fans of the original comics will know, is ... 'it's clobberin' time!' The quartet live together in a pastiche of 1960s Manhattan, where the fashions are very Mad Men but nobody smokes, or talks about civil rights. They are formidably equipped to protect New Yorkers from criminal gangs, but still have worldly problems of their own. For instance, Reed and Sue have been trying for two years for a baby, which you'd think would be the very least that a pair of copulating superheroes could expect. But no dice, until now. At the start of the film, hallelujah, she finds she is pregnant. And soon there is a real gurgling baby. We don't see her give birth, which might be just as well. Imagine telling a superhero to push. It is not long, however, before a silver-skinned inter-galactic emissary arrives on a turbo-charged silver surfboard with decidedly bad news. A gigantic baddie called Galactus who roams the galaxy devouring planets has decided that it's time to gobble up Earth. 'Your planet is now marked for death,' the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) tells the Fantastic Four, gravely. However, there's a potential get-out clause. If Reed and Sue will just hand over their super-cute baby boy, Galactus will turn his cataclysmal attentions elsewhere. Not unreasonably, he thinks that, as the progeny of Invisible Woman and Mister Fantastic, it will be blessed with faculties that could help him conquer absolutely everything. Just as reasonably, and despite mounting public pressure, Sue will not countenance the idea. Sharing that fateful journey into space were her brilliant scientist husband Reed Richards (the ubiquitous Pedro Pascal), her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and their friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) 'I will not sacrifice my child for the world, but I will not sacrifice the world for my child,' she declares, a line surely intended to evoke JFK's 1961 inauguration address: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.' Anyway, a huge battle ensues as our heroes try to get the better of Galactus, albeit at the expense of great swathes ofManhattan, trampled underfoot in the brouhaha. It's a relentlessly daft movie but never less than engaging, and infinitely better than the botched 2015 reboot Fantastic Four. The calculated retro feel works nicely, and so does the motherhood theme, Sue Storm leaving us with the reassuring message that she's a mum first, and then a superhero, just as it should be. Matthew Bond reviews The Fantastic Four: First Steps Rating: Just when you thought it was safe to be properly world-weary, even cynical about the seemingly endless stream of Marvel films (36 and counting) along comes The Fantastic Four: First Steps and it almost takes your breath away. Never mind that it is the third iteration of this particular set of comic-book characters in 20 years, this is by far and away the best and so, so good. Set in a deliciously depictedretro-futurist version of early 1960s New York, when the future was going to be bright, shiny and often spherical, the production design alone deserves awards, major awards. This is still a world of cassettes, vinyl records and cathode-ray-tube televisions but it's also a world where four pioneering astronauts have been transformed into superheroes by a cosmic storm and now park their gorgeous space rocket in the East River. It's notable that in this latest incarnation, the four are more often referred to by their real names – Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) her brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) rather than their comic monikers. This may be a source of regret for fans of super-stretchy Mister Fantastic but it's certainly good news for the mineral-muscled Grimm, whose nickname, The Thing, now seems cruel and dated. The Fantastic Four have arrived, with Pascal and a beautifully styled Kirby doing a wonderfully watchable job of leading both team and film. We begin with Sue discovering she is finally pregnant, but no sooner has Reed begun researching whether the baby will be born with superpowers or not, Earth has more serious problems to face. A mysterious intergalactic traveller known as the Silver Surfer – this time female, possibly naked and played by Julia Garner of Ozark fame – arrives with a terrible warning of impending doom. Can the Fantastic Four possibly save the entire planet? What ensues is funny, cleverly constructed and even quite moving. It's a delight to look at from beginning to end and a picture that director Matt Shakman, who cut his Marvel teeth on the TV spin-off WandaVision, can be rightly proud of. One of the unexpected treats of the summer.
Time Out
an hour ago
- Time Out
‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps' filming locations: how Marvel's retro-futuristic 1960s was created
The 37th entry in the MCU, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a world of its own – in every sense. The movie's Earth-828 is a planet set in another corner of the multiverse from the rest of the Marvelverse. Here, comic-book legends Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's 1961 creation the Fantastic Four comes back to action-packed life courtesy of WandaVision director Matt Shakman and his ridiculously charismatic everything you need to know about how – and where – the film's Mad Men -meets- The-Incredibles version of 1960s New York came together. What happens in The Fantastic Four: First Steps? A tale of space travel, scientific discovery, intergalactic peril and motherhood, First Steps (re)introduces audiences to Kirby and Lee's cosmically superpowered First Family: team leader Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal); world leader Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby); stompy rock man Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach); and boyish singleton Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn). The quartet, zapped by cosmic rays on an earlier space voyage, are all that stands between humanity and Ralph Ineson's perpetually peckish planet devourer Galactus literally eating the Earth. Presaging this fate is the Surfer Surfer (Julia Garner), Galactus's herald in a scene in Times Square. Where was The Fantastic Four: First Steps filmed? Legendary industrial designer Syd Mead once called science fiction 'reality ahead of schedule'. The 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner contributor was a key influence on Shakman and production designer Kasra Farahani's gleaming retro-futurist vision – and his definition of sci-fi sums up The Fantastic Four: First Steps perfectly. This 'Kirby meets Kubrick' aesthetic of an alternative 1964 New York is full of flying cars, light-speed space ships and zippy monorails, a reality we're still awaiting. Thanks to technology we do have – cutting-edge VFX and set design – this alternative metropolis came together 5000 miles away from the real Big Apple. Here's how they did it. The movie's alternative New York was created at Pinewood Studios, UK After filming most of Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* in the US, the MCU was back in its adopted homeland of England for First Steps. A big chunk of the 85-day shoot was filmed at Pinewood Studios outside of London, kicking off in late July 2024. The vast majority of the movie's '60s New York locations – Yancy Street in the Lower East Side, Times Square, Reed Richards' lab in the Baxter Building – were created via 30 sets across eight sound stages on Pinewood's two backlots. The alternative 1960s Times Square backdrops several key scenes in the movie, including the Silver Surfer's doom-laden first oratory. Julia Garner gave the speech on a Pinewood tower in a Pinewood backlot. 'The combination between the set design, the scale of the set, and also just shooting in Pinewood was really magical,' she tells Thought Catalog. Real 1960s premises, including Horn & Hardart, Whelan's, Leighton's, RKO Palace, Embassy Theatre and Forum Cinema, were recreated on a set that was 22 percent smaller than the real-life locale. Another key New York location recreated at Pinewood is the fictional Yancy Street (above), a riff on the real Lower East Side thoroughfare of Delancey Street where Kirby grew up. 'We wanted Yancy Street to feel like part of the normal world, not the futuristic one,' says set decorator Jille Azis. 'When Ben Grimm visits, it feels like home – a place to escape the stress and reconnect with the past.' The set had been used in Deadpool & Wolverine and was repurposed and redressed for First Steps. Reed Richards' lab was filmed on Pinewood's S Stage Reed Richard's Baxter Building lab was a set built on Pinewood's S Stage, recently used in Black Mirror, Warfare and Andor, while the Reeds' penthouse was built across the studio on W Stage. Look out for colour-coding to demark the different areas of Mr Fantastic's workspace: red for his hands-on tasks like robotics; yellow for brainstorming; and blue for mission control. Modernist architects like Eero Saarinen and Oscar Niemeyer helped inform the tower's stylish futurist aesthetic. 'It was in a penthouse of a high-rise in Manhattan,' says production designer Farahani, 'so we drew a lot of inspiration from single-family-home mid-century architecture, especially from the West Coast.' Mole Man's Subterranea base was created inside Middleton Mine, Derbyshire In First Steps, cult Marvel antagonist Mole Man lives below ground with his acolytes, the Moloids. Played by Richard Jewell and Black Bird 's Paul Walter Hauser, he's an enjoyably ambivalent presence: borderline besotted with Sue Storm but generally done with everyone else's shit. His realm, Subterranea, was constructed in the spectacular lead and limestone mine in England's Peak District.A 725-foot section of the 32 miles of mines was dressed to reflect this strange community of below-grounders, with pipes and other weathered industrial fittings added and a bus shipped in as Mole Man's HQ. Middleton Mine is firmly on the Hollywood map these days: it was also used for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning 's climactic scenes. Baxter Building interiors were filmed at Palacio de Congresos de Oviedo, Spain The Asturias city of Oviedo is the latest Spanish location to feature in the Marvelverse, following Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Eternals and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Over four days in The Palacio de Congresos, a futuristic 2011 building designed by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, was used for scenes set in the lobby of the Baxter Building and the assembly hall of the Future Foundation, Sue Storm's UN-like institute. The real New York was used for the CG backdrops Of course, you can't recreate the entirety of the Big Apple on a Buckinghamshire backlot, and photography of the real New York was shot for VFX plates. And one location that doesn't feature… Lulworth Cove, Dorset The natural limestone arch on England's south coast – one of the UK's most recognisable beauty spots and a filming location for Nanny McPhee, Wilde and the Carey Mulligan Far From The Madding Crowd – was closed, along with surrounding beaches, for filming for two days in June 2023. Thwarted tourists will be frustrated to discover that the scene – which involved Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm – doesn't feature in the finished movie.
