Movie Scene: The ‘good enough’ four

Known as ‘Marvel’s first family’, the Fantastic Four haven’t had the best of journeys on to the big screen, beginning way back in 1990 with the Roger Corman-directed film which, to date, has yet to be released, Tim Story’s two-fer starring Jessica Alba and a then as-yet-unknown Chris Evans and the least said about Josh Trank’s attempt the better.

With the rights now back at Marvel, their first official MCU entry, ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’, sweeps into cinemas in a blaze of retro.

Like ‘Superman’ earlier this month the wise decision has been made to forego the ‘origin tale’, instead giving backstory in the form Mark Gatiss’ TV chat show host. When we meet the quartet in a retro-futuristic Earth 828, not only are they established, but are celebrities of sorts living their best life.

In the opening moments, it’s established that the four will soon become five as Sue (Vanessa Kirby) tells husband Reed (Pedro Pascal) she’s expecting and that the futuristic Baxter Building that they share with Sue’s brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is going to get a little bit crowded.

Mysterious herald Silver Surfer (Julie Garner) arrives to tell Earth that her master Galactus (Ralph Ineson) has earmarked Earth for destruction unless the pair gives up their new-born child so it’s up to you-know-who to save the day.

Fans of both the comics and ‘The Jetsons’ will be pleased. Brighter and breezier than a lot of previous superhero films, ‘First Steps’ is bathed in a mix of primary-coloured sets which feel very 60s, lo-fi tech (huge cassettes for their robot HERBIE, vinyl and chalkboards are still in use) and futuristic elements in terms of computers, large old-school TVs literally built onto apartments and the presence of a huge rocket in the Hudson to which no one bats an eyelid.

The production design is absolutely spot on and should be commended. However, the film feels like that’s where most of the creativity went.

The story is… fine and pretty standard MCU; large alien hovers into view, good guys have to defeat it, do just that, the end. ‘First Steps’ feels shackled by pedestrian storytelling, in both Matt Shakman’s direction and a script that had four writers (tellingly, Shakman wasn’t one of them).

What ‘First Steps’ fails to do is give us four fleshed-out characters that gel together. There are hints of course; Johnny and Reed have a little bit of rivalry going on while Reed himself does struggle with the idea that even the world’s smartest man is having trouble navigating both saving the world and fatherhood to the point that he doesn’t know which one scares him the most.

Ben, at peace with his rocky form, is given a love interest that lasts all of two scenes and Sue is ‘mother’ and that’s it. The problem is, there are only snippets of these ideas and that failure to delve further hinders both the characters and performances; there’s more to be said, but, hey, Galactus is coming so let’s forget about that and do the crashy-bashy stuff which is impressive for the most part, save for a horrible CGI baby moment.

Back when ‘First Steps’ was announced, Pascal and Kirby were immediately touted by the internet and it seems the producers listened. But the pair lacks any real connection as a married couple for me and Pascal has more of a connection with Quinn, while Moss-Bachrach is given little. Meanwhile, Garner finds herself forgotten until the plot requires. It’s clear the cast are also taking their ‘first steps’ and are trying to run before they can walk.

‘First Steps’ is ‘good enough’ four at best.