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Wall Street Journal

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Review: The Best Superhero Saga of the Year

Women with astonishing abilities are an essential component of superhero movies, but as 'Thunderbolts*' proved, the more effortlessly they shoot, kick and punch their way out of every situation, generally while firing off comical wisecracks to show us how bored they are with their own coolness, the less excitement they generate. 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps,' by contrast, zeroes in on a far more interesting superpower: creating new life. There's an extended sequence built around a hero going into labor in zero gravity while hurtling through the cosmos, and it exemplifies the movie's unusual feel: interstellar yet down-to-earth. Making your characters relatable, likable, charming and vulnerable might seem to be a fairly obvious assignment, but it conflicts with the comic-book-movie urge to make its characters completely and devastatingly awesome. In getting back to basics, 'First Steps' proves to be easily the best superhero movie of the year.