Vanessa Kirby, Pascal & Co. Bring Heart to a Lightweight Plot

Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a shiny, playful new look at the company’s first superhero team. Stuffed with charming performances—led by Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach—and fetishized ‘60s trappings, it throws itself into its retro-futuristic romp of a storyline with verve. For all of its style and earnest heart, though, the movie is perpetually on the brink of something thrilling, but it never quite arrives.

Marvel producer Kevin Feige was not wrong when he called this a “no-homework-required” Marvel movie. As a child of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s easy to grow fatigued with films that call upon the audience to track not only multiple interwoven timelines and multiverses, but also increasingly sprawling lists of superhero cameos and side projects. First Steps takes the burden of that buildup off, serving as a re-introduction to Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm that is unencumbered by the connected continuity of previous adaptations, on or off-screen. It wants to be uncomplicated—and in many ways, it does. Too many, even.

First Steps wastes no time. After a few minutes of setup and worldbuilding from a Mark Gatiss-hosted talk show (Gatiss himself, doing double-duty as the show’s in-universe host and a flesh-and-blood audience surrogate), we flash back to the Fantastic Four’s formation. A mission to outer space four years ago that exposed them to cosmic radiation mutated the quartet’s DNA. Reed (Pascal), with his bandy limbs and expressive eyebrows, gained super-stretchy elastic-body elasticity. Sue (Vanessa Kirby) can make herself invisible and project concussive force fields. Joseph Quinn’s Johnny becomes the Human Torch, an actual torch he can light and fly with. And Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm becomes, well, The Thing: A towering rock-skinned giant with super-strength.

All four now live together in what one can only assume is some sort of mid-century modern space compound, flying cars, chalkboard equations, and all. A toddler-sized robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. runs errands for them and collects vinyl records. The whole thing—set design, costumes, technology, props, effects—looks to be from another time. Square television sets, no cellphones, and flat-front pleated pants are the order of the day in this Marvel world. The overall effect is cartoonishly optimistic. The Jetsons meets Lost in Space as if both were drawn by a Marvel comic book artist.

The overall effect is disarming, and it suits the pleasant lack of tension in First Steps’ plot. The Fantastic Four have all formed their family unit, and the strongest, most enduring throughline of the film is their closeness. Sue reveals to Reed early on that she is pregnant. Their dynamic is largely one of nervous anticipation from both parents-to-be. Reed studies his anatomy with scientific awe and childlike wonder, and he trains H.E.R.B.I.E. in the ways of “baby-proofing” their home and secret science laboratory. Johnny and Ben, meanwhile, are brotherly carousers, engaged in typical fraternal banter: sibling rivalry that can both be incredibly irritating and secretly quite endearing, coupled with obvious but endearingly crass enthusiasm at becoming older brothers (and uncles). It’s cozy and self-contained—until the obvious space-based antagonist shows up.

Galactus is a huge, armor-plated, glowing-eyed creature that inhales planets. He is coming to Earth, unless someone can stop him, so he sends a herald with a silver-skinned body. Played in motion capture by Julia Garner, the Silver Surfer makes a stylish, swoopy entrance into the proceedings. She is to Galactus as a mail carrier is to Christmas: an emissary of dread and doom. It’s a familiar Marvel antagonist, and he and his herald will be known to audiences from previous adaptations. He isn’t made into a new villain to re-introduce, and so he remains familiar and featureless. Galactus makes some dense corporate synergy-y exposition speeches; the Surfer is mostly beautiful and mystifying. Johnny falls for her in a few minutes, which, if nothing else, is efficient character work.

Heedless of the End Times, the Fantastic Four take to the skies (ground? decks?) to hunt down Galactus and learn what’s what. Galactus proves slippery, and the foursome dash around his massive spaceship, racing to a conclusion that never actually feels like one. As they scramble around and away from the Surfer’s attacks, the action mostly hews to the space age retro of the world. Big blasts of yellow light, emerald flame trails, misty sunbursts. There’s more choreographed fighting than the trailers let on, as Ben and Reed exchange some one-on-one blows while Johnny slips and slides through holographic hallways.

It’s all pretty tame. I don’t mean this to make First Steps sound dour or lackluster, because it’s not, not really. This is another Marvel movie to be taken on its terms: a ‘60s pastiche packed with charm and goodwill. Sue goes into labor during the climax, but the sequence doesn’t land with a bang so much as waft in like a lullaby. Partly it’s simply execution, but First Steps also gets tripped up by its earnest weirdness. The cosmic destruction is a space-age color palette that is as close to benign as an end-of-the-world superhero movie can get.

First Steps wavers between heartfelt sincerity and wide-eyed naïveté. There are some good, quiet moments between the foursome, but they are too often lost in the tonal candy-coating of pastel colors and gentle slo-mo. The stakes don’t feel particularly high, even with the planet’s life flashing before our eyes. It is more of a children’s adventure story than a big-budget action blockbuster. There’s fun to be had, but precious little thrill.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is comfortable, well-cast, and unabashed. It’s fun to look at, it’s sweetly goofy, and it’s nice and clean. It’s a Marvel movie for the easily distracted, for the Marvelverse-weary, for the nostalgia-addicted. But if you’re hoping for something with a bit more adrenalized punch, you’ll find it nowhere to be seen here.