Fantastic Four Reboot: Less Crossover, More Camp

Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a visually entertaining, giddily retro reboot of the company’s first superhero family. The funniest moments are about its art deco/inner-space furniture. There’s a lot of beige upholstery. The cast is good, from the notable leads (led by Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach) to the scene-stealing Julian Dennison as a nosy teenage genius. But when it comes to tension and feeling, the movie is a little light. It checks all the stylistic boxes of early-60s science-fiction pulp, but it never really amps up the energy to make it land.

Producer Kevin Feige called it “a no-homework-required” movie. By that, he means it’s a good entry point for Marvel fans and non-fans alike. In a cinematic universe that requires near-perfect recall of its multiverse, mid-credits scenes, and constant lead-actors-as-annoying-cameos movie formula, it’s a relief to see a Marvel property not freighted with reboots and preexisting know-how. The Fantastic Four is in many ways a “where were you when” origin story. This time, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm don’t have to trudge through a bewildering continuity of past iterations, major reboots, and mindbending spin-offs. The movie is a return to the drawing board—and a return to simplicity, to the point of being a little simplistic at times.

The action starts with a black-and-white talk show hosted by Mark Gatiss. Gatiss’ character is a fantastic piece of mid-century set-dressing, but he also conveniently provides a recap of the Marvel first family’s origin story. Four years before the start of the movie, the Fantastic Four’s deep-space mission to collect rare metals and test new propulsion systems gave them all radiation poisoning that mutated their DNA. Reed (capably played with levity and compassion by Pedro Pascal) developed the elastic ability to stretch and deform his body. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue can make herself invisible and project energy shields. Joseph Quinn plays Johnny as a reckless firebrand who can set himself ablaze and fly. And Ebon Moss-Bachrach plays Ben Grimm as a hulking, amiable oaf who turns into The Thing: a rock-covered giant with super-strength.

These four live in a commune in an apparent mid-century modern space compound furnished with antigravity cars, fly swatters, chalkboard equations scribbled all over the walls, and a toddler-size robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. who roams the halls and tends to their needs. The world of First Steps looks like it was assembled from a grab bag of 1960s TV shows and comic books: square television screens, no cell phones, overly stylized design, and about the same quotient of underlying dread (no iPhones! Whoopee!). Imagine The Jetsons, Lost in Space, and a stack of Marvel Comics thrown into a blender.

The style and tone are delightful, but the story itself could use a little more urgency. The film’s emotional through-line is the family dynamic between the leads. Sue has become pregnant, and we meet the Fantastic Four at the start of Reed’s anxious and loving realization. Early in the movie, he’s talking to H.E.R.B.I.E. and has the robot set up their home to be baby-proof. He then moves into the lab and has H.E.R.B.I.E. render the entire place full of breakaway sockets and rounded corners. Meanwhile, Johnny and Ben settle into their obnoxious-but-loving big-brother roles. The first half of the film largely plays out as a domestic comedy punctuated by gleeful inventing.

But not for long. Someone wants to eat the Earth. Galactus, an otherworldly armored giant with red eyes and a silvery cape, is traveling through space on a collision course with the planet. He’s an iconic Marvel villain, known to casual readers and obsessive ones. His reputation precedes him, but he doesn’t show up until well into the movie. Before he arrives, he sends an emissary, a silver-skinned warrior played in motion capture by Julia Garner. The Silver Surfer flies into Reed’s lab in silver-spiked form that is both stylish and slightly unnerving. Johnny immediately hits on her (the movie kind of plays this for laughs), but her focus is on relaying Galactus’ message: he’s arriving soon to eat the Earth.

But there’s not much damage done before or after his arrival. The various superheroes chase Galactus around space, zip around the world while zapping each other with powers and laser-like blasts from Galactus’ floating head, and endure heavy whacks and scrapes. The film is light on extended action, mostly thanks to Marvel’s decision to keep the visuals retro. When explosions happen, there are washes of orange and gold. Even the superheroes’ destruction has stylish flourishes and cartoonishly narrow misses. Sue gives birth in zero gravity toward the end of the movie, and it’s the big finish to an anticlimactic action scene: the couple has made it back to Earth just in time for Sue to go into labor while Johnny simultaneously tries to talk her down from a panic attack.

It’s a weird combo. Birth juxtaposed with the end of the world, à la On Golden Pond, meets Godzilla. But the visuals are a nod to 1970s movies about supernovas and retro space travel color palettes. The blend of earnestness and craziness captures the tone of the whole film. There are legitimate emotional stakes here. But the pastel coloring and quaint design tone down the tension before it can reach any kind of fever pitch. Even as the Earth’s end approaches, it still plays a little more like a kiddie adventure than a new-reality-will-be-born bloodbath.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a serviceable entry in Marvel’s increasingly crowded corner of the superhero genre. It’s light on tension and intense drama, but heavy on retro-future looks and solid acting. If you’re looking for a lighter, less grim, more brightly colored superhero flick than The Eternals and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, this may be a fun time for you. If, however, you’re seeking a mind-bendingly ambitious marvel of cinematic technology and direction with enough new characters and plot points to last five feature films, you may not get the rush you were looking for.