The group dynamic that unfolds when MCU superheroes fly as a team, as they have done ad nauseam in the Avengers, X-Men and The Marvels adventures, operates on a completely different plane in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, a reboot of a film series that has struggled to achieve sustained commercial success.
A family that stands together and fights for the wider community they are a part of is at the root of the movie. Not every step that the brood of superheroes take is in the right direction, but the progress they make in reinventing Marvel's First Family represents a move of promising proportions.
What the FF dish out here might not possess the potential to dramatically alter the MCU landscape but it does pull off a refreshing new way of looking at invincible heroes endowed with powers to prevent the annihilation of their endangered planet.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a standalone film. Nothing that occurs in it connects it directly to plot elements of past MCU movies nor do the latter impinge upon the war to save Earth 828. It ploughs its own furrow and paves the way for what could be an effective franchise if it is built right.
Indeed, The Fantastic Four: First Steps holds much potential - markedly more than what the previous attempt - 2015's underperforming Fantastic Four - contained.
Scripted by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, it is a touch low on conventional superhero action and also a bit lean on narrative meat, but it is perky, pointed and punchy, especially when it knows which way it needs to go.
First Steps is an unusual MCU superhero film in that it does not foray into the Marvel multiverse. Taking place in an alternate, retro-futuristic 1960s reality, it is focused on establishing the characters, their mission and their cavernous ultramodern home and headquarters, Baxter Building, equipped with snazzy high-tech gear and robotic assistants.
Never overly fantastical, it has emotional and ethical heft. It explores pregnancy and childbirth, identity and kinship, parenthood and friendship, and even intimations of mortality, in a way that is strikingly unique for the genre. It is about human feelings, family bonds and interconnectedness beyond what we perceive as home and habitat.
In the process, First Steps has to deal with inevitable conflicting impulses. It vacillates between wanting to be a family drama and being a true-blue superhero adventure. The tussle makes it all the more interesting.
Despite its manageable runtime - five minutes under two hours - it slows down appreciably at times to explain what it is trying to convey to the audience through its simple story of a close-knit group defending their home.
They face a grave threat from a giant ravenous being Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who, like an all-powerful pagan God and an arch-villain rolled into one, devours planets to satiate his hunger. It is an outer space creature, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), who conveys the dire news of impending doom to the people of Earth 828.
Who else can the alarmed people turn to but the Fantastic Four? Though they are more scientists who brainstorm before they leap than primed-for-action heroes always ready to hit the ground running, the quartet wastes no time in putting their heads together and responding to the onerous challenge of keeping Galactus at bay.
It is four years since the four have acquired superhuman powers from exposure to cosmic rays during a mission in space. Dr Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and his wife Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) are expecting a baby they thought they would never conceive.
For them as well as Sue's brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Reed's best pal, the rock monster Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the arrival of the baby is a cause for great joy.
But having had their DNAs altered, Reed and Sue worry about the powers that the child might be born with. The baby is caught (as a bargaining chip and a bait) in the battle that erupts between the Fantastic Four and Galactus even as the mother is determined not to let any harm befall her newborn son.
The onus is now on Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben to balance their individual and familial priorities with an operation that is far larger than themselves because it involves everybody that they share the planet with, people who unquestioningly depend upon them as protectors.
The first 20 minutes or so of First Steps are terrific - the film opens with an earth-shattering event - but the sequences that follow the prologue take their own sweet time to deliver the anticipated highs.
Not that the film does not ever kick into top gear but it might have done well to weed out the hint of flab that it gathers along the way. Way too much information is doled out via television reports and announcements. Nothing is more gratuitous than one key character holding forth before an impatient mob and enumerating the film's broader themes.
But the over-exposition eventually proves to be just a minor irritant. What serves The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman (known especially for directing the TV miniseries WandaVision), best are the actors, who breathe life into the characters even when they do not appear to be etched with the required sharpness.
The quartet of Pascal, Kirby, Moss-Bachrach and Quinn are acutely aware of what they need to bring to the table. They lend a sense of seriousness to the proceedings, especially when they are wracked by doubt and even when they engage in banter and exchange wisecracks.
Production designer Kasra Farahani imparts to the film the classic aesthetic of the comic books from which the franchise has sprung and then extends the look and tone in a way that enhances the visual texture. The score by Michael Giacchino (Oscar winner for the animation hit Up) injects buoyancy into the film.
A few but firm steps for the Fantastic Four may not be a giant leap for the MCU, which is now entering the Sixth and Final phase of the Multiverse Saga. However, First Steps could be counted among the best and boldest of the 37 Marvel films made thus far.
-
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn
