When Retro Meets Redux: Fantastic Four’s Playful New Start

Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a shiny, sometimes silly fan-service update of one of the publisher’s earliest comic-book heroes. Despite plenty of strong acting (led by Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the film never ramps up the drama or stakes enough to be more than the sum of its kitschy parts.

The film itself is “a no-homework-required movie,” as producer Kevin Feige put it during a press day Q&A. In a shared cinematic universe that’s lately relied on viewers’ familiarity with its multiverses, Easter-egg cameo appearances, and multiple spin-offs, that’s a luxury. First Steps reintroduces Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm without testing viewers’ knowledge of the sprawling continuity of previous live-action adaptations. First Steps is a good Marvel movie in that it’s pretty simple—and sometimes, too simple.

The story begins with a breezy talk-show recap of the events that led to the Fantastic Four’s origins, narrated by Mark Gatiss in a sweater vest. (The narrator was a smart move. These character histories can get complicated.) Four years earlier, a group of scientists and doctors took a cosmic space trip. The ship they were on was irradiated, and the characters’ DNA was altered. Reed (Mr. Fantastic, played by Pedro Pascal with both smarts and heart) can stretch his body and limbs as if he were made of rubber. Sue (Vanessa Kirby) can turn invisible, while her “bracelets can release pressurized blasts of force.” Johnny (Joseph Quinn) can spontaneously combust into flame and fly like the Human Torch. Ben (Moss-Bachrach) was transformed into The Thing for the long haul: a hulking, rock-covered mutant with incredible strength.

The movie’s Fantastic Four now live together as a family in an apparent mid-century modern space compound. Outside, the streets are full of flying cars and weird goons on scooters. They have a chalkboard full of equations in their living room. And in the kitchen, the toddler-sized, humanoid robot H.E.R.B.I.E. flits around making toast. The retro-future world of First Steps is square television sets, no smartphones, and technology in primary colors. The family’s house is about as close to a graphic novel adaptation as you can get before it all becomes a sepia-toned comic.

The visuals of this retro-futuristic family haven are so fun that the film itself never quite develops much urgency. The throughline of this origin story is family—both these four lead characters and their real families. Sue, in the early stages of pregnancy, is nervous about her impending childbirth, and Reed is both nervous and doting about the prospect of becoming a parent. In one comedic bit, he has H.E.R.B.I.E. take inventory of their home and science lab to ensure everything is childproof. Meanwhile, Johnny and Ben square off in typical sibling squabbling, while both seem to be mostly game for the family expansion.

But just as Sue is preparing to go into labor, and just when they’re all marveling at their new family and science-fueled future, a massive armored figure with glowing red eyes comes into view. Galactus, destroyer of worlds, is coming for the Earth to devour the planet. Before he arrives, he has a herald come to deliver the bad news: the Silver Surfer, an alien (Julia Garner, in motion capture) who flies a surfboard-like vehicle and is dressed in shiny silver skin.

In action terms, it’s not very action-y. While the four characters chase Galactus through space and dodge the silver-skinned Surfer, the special effects have a similar ’60s feel: a dash of light here and there, streaks of flame and fire, and obvious streaks of green smoke. The film’s climax, of Sue going into labor on an away mission in space, is less edge-of-your-seat than trippy. It’s as if Marvel were making an aesthetic statement by having birth coincide with planetary destruction.

The movie does have its moments of sincerity and fun. But between the surface-level humor and the extremely low-stakes visuals (brown laser blasts!) and sets and sets of pastel-colored costumes, those beats are sometimes lost. The stakes are never particularly high, even when the planet’s fate is on the line. The movie is more children’s adventure than an action-adventure thriller.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a pleasant, lightweight superhero movie with strong performances from the leads. It’s got the Marvel hallmarks: it’s accessible, filled with fan service, and occasionally heartfelt. But it’s not a Marvel film at its peak—their best mix of superheroics, wit, heart, and stakes. (See: all three Ant-Man movies.) It’s fine if you’re in the mood for something lighter than cosmic doomsday. For others, it may be a beautifully wrapped box that’s mostly empty inside.