Ever since Captain America: Winter Soldier and And Man (and also Logan), I've been eagerly awaiting Marvel Studios to be able to make a Fantastic Four movie. Winter Soldier and Ant Man were both genre pieces (a spy thriller and heist film, respectively). And, of course, Logan (not made by Marvel) is a western. The success of those movies as both comic book films and also genre films had me excited for the potential of a Fantastic Four movie that would be a science fiction genre film.
After all, the Fantastic Four differ from most other comic book heroes in that they don't just save the city or the world from bad guys, but they are also scientists and exploders. Many of their comic book adventures involve them flying their rocket ship into space to explore new planets and phenomena, and interacting with cosmic and celestial beings.
It took a long time for Marvel to re-acquire the rights to Fantastic Four (by its parent company, Disney, outright buying the previous rights-holder, Fox). In the meantime, Black Panther kind of beat Fantastic Four to the punch as Marvel's "sci-fi" genre piece. But that didn't lessen my anticipation.
This is the first Marvel movie in a long while that doesn't feel like it requires homework. It stands alone, and is a welcome breath of fresh air. It also feels much more in line with the good movies from phases 1 and 2, in terms of both its quality, and also in its lack of baggage. It's easily the best Fantastic Four movie (and I'm someone who thought the first 2 from the early 2000's were just fine), and it's probably the best Marvel movie since Infinity War.
Silver Age Sci-Fi
But is First Steps a "science fiction" movie?
It certainly has a lot of the trappings of a science fiction film. First and foremost is its wonderful 1960 retro-future aesthetic that feels like it's pulled straight from a 60's-era silver age comic or science fiction pulp. Much in-line with science fiction, the central problem of the movie (and, in fact, many smaller problems as well) is treated more like a scientific or engineering problem that the four have to solve. This is in contrast to most other super hero movie that simply requires the hero to play "detective" to figure out where the bad guy is going to be, and what their weakness is. And of course, there's a healthy dose of outer space adventure in the middle of the movie.
Unfortunately, the space-faring adventure is just that: adventure. There's little in the way of exploration or discovery.
Image ©: Walt Disney, Marvel
There is a stand-out space-faring chase scene.
The outer space scenes do make for a pretty spectacular set piece though. I particularly loved the way that the heroes use the gravitational time-dilation of a neutron star to help them resolve a problem, and then have to calculate a sling-shot maneuver to seal their own escape. It's the sort of thing that you would see in a sci-fi pulp story, or even in an episode of Star Trek (though this movie involves a lot more visual spectacle).
Better yet, this scene isn't just a superfluous action scene that exists for the sake of having an exciting action scene. It happens to also coincide with plot-critical events, and a major emotional milestone for the heroes.
And at the end of the day, this is where Fantastic Four really earns its wings as a science fiction genre piece. It's sci-fi trappings are used to ask a question about fundamental human nature: what would you be willing to sacrifice to protect your family? Would you be willing to risk the entire world? People always talk about the Fantastic Four being a story about "family". Well, a super hero movie doesn't get much more about "family" than this. The entire story is one big metaphor for the lengths people will go to in order to keep their family together and safe.
Also in keeping with the tradition of great science fiction stories, the central conflict of the movie also acts as an allegory for a contentious social or political issue. In this case, the primary villain, Galactus, is a metaphor for anthropogenic climate change. Part of the aforementioned scientific and engineering problem that is required to defeat him, involves the entire world cooperating to conserve electricity in order to save the world from this global threat.
Image ©: Walt Disney, Marvel
This is a near-perfect depiction of Galactus.
A hunger, satisfied?
In addition to this being the best Fantastic Four movie, it might also be the best version of Galactus that has ever been put on screen -- with the possible exception of the Silver Surfer animated series from the late 90's. This isn't some stupid, abstracted cloud monster. It is Galactus from the comic books.
Ralph Ineson delivers a menacing performance, and Galactus has tremendous screen presence. The rest of the cast is great too, but Ineson's Galactus is a real scene-stealer.
Honestly, I think the only thing that would have satisfied my personal sensibilities more, would have been if, instead of going to space specifically to confront Galactus, the Fantastic Four were in space to explore, and only stumbled onto Galactus. Early in the movie, Reed records some transmissions from space, which he and Johnny try to decipher (but without luck). I could imagine an alternate version of the movie in which the Four, after discovering these messages, set off into space to find the source of the message, and meet an alien civilization, only to have that civilization tell them that their message was a call for help against the coming threat of Galactus. While the Four are visiting the alien world, Galactus shows up, devours it, and the Fantastic Four barely escape, and have a confrontation with the Surfer, who follows them back to Earth and summons Galactus.
That, in my opinion, would have introduced the final piece of the sci-fi puzzle that I was hoping to see: an element of genuine exploration and discovery.
Image ©: Walt Disney, Marvel.
I would like to have seen a bit more exploration and discovery.
I also do have a few minor nitpicks, specifically involving the neutron star scene. My nitpicky Neil DeGrasse Tyson complaint is that the characters make a point of saying that it's a "neutron star", and that neutron stars are basically black holes (they aren't). Then the visual on-screen looks just like a black hole, and it even seems to have an event horizon (which neutron stars don't have). So if the writers or director wanted it to look and behave like a black hole, why not just say that it's a black hole, and cut the line where they say it's a neutron star?
Also, they use a slingshot maneuver to get up to 88% of the speed of light (a possible Back to the Future reference?), in order to get back to Earth in a month. But the nearest neutron star to Earth is over 400 light years away. Heck the nearest star to Earth is over 4 light years away. So getting back to Earth in a month should not have been possible without the FTL drive. But then again, after the slingshot, the ship appears to re-enter a warp bubble. So I don't know, maybe getting back up to 88% of the speed of light somehow allowed them to re-establish their warp bubble without the FTL drive? Maybe I missed the line where that was explained. Whatever. It's a small nitpick in an otherwise great movie.
The CGI was also a bit spotty sometimes. The texture and wrinkling of The Thing's clothing always looked off (even though The Thing himself looks great). There's also some scenes with a CGI baby that looks very CGI. It had me wondering if the other scenes with the baby ever actually used a real baby, or if they were just better CGI.
Lastly, I felt like the Silver Surfer and The Thing were maybe a bit under-utilized. But I also get why the Silver Surfer didn't get more focus. Rise of the Silver Surfer was almost entirely about the Silver Surfer, so this movie really wants to differentiate itself. The movie being a bit sparse in action scenes means that The Thing doesn't have a whole lot of opportunities to punch things. But he does kind of make up for it by being a sensitive character who sort of serves as the emotional heart of the entire team. He's great, but I just wish that he had a bit more to do.
Image ©: Walt Disney, Marvel
I would have liked to see a bit more of the Silver Surfer's story.
On its own 2 feet
Nitpicks aside, I really enjoyed this movie. It looks remarkable, aesthetically. In fact, the 60's retro-future aesthetic kind of makes me want to see a reboot of the MCU that is set entirely within the 1960's, and more directly adapting the silver age comics. Versions of Spider-Man and Iron Man set in the late 60's or early 70's would, in my opinion, be very cool to see. The cast and performances are all good as well. The music is good. Production design is good. The story and plotting are tight and concise, requiring only a few minor stretches of logic to make everything work. It isn't constantly throwing dumb jokes, quips, and one-liners at the audience. And yes, it largely captures the science fiction element that I had been hoping for and expecting from a Marvel Fantastic Four movie.
I think this stands right up there with Iron Man, Winter Soldier, Black Panther, and Infinity War as one of Marvel's best movies to date. In fact, one of the friends who I saw the movie with said that he thinks it might be his favorite of all the MCU movies. Honestly, I'm not even sure if comparing it to the other Marvel movies is even fair, since this movie stands so much on its own.