Fantastic Four: First Steps (A Review)
I liked this movie.
So, let me just get my main grievance out of the way to start with, and then we can go from there: this needed to be longer. It is just barely short of the two hour mark including the end credits, and it should've been pushing the three hour mark excluding them, I think. I'm keeping this spoiler free, like usual, so I can't go into too much detail about that. Suffice it to say that Silver Surfer's character definitely should've gone in, well, basically any direction whatsoever, more so. We get one, short scene to serve as an exposition dump regarding her back-story, and what they should've done instead of that was, you guessed it, pad out the running time even a little bit. Also, this is the first film in what is being referred to as Phase Six of the MCU, and takes place on Earth-828, which is a separate universe from Earth-616; the latter represents the main continuity for the MCU so far. So they're starting from a clean slate. They're setting up an entire universe here, and I have no problem with anything they did, in fact, set up with this one; I just wish they'd set up more. As I've already said, more back-story for Silver Surfer, and likewise Galactus. That would've gone a long way. We get basically nothing in terms of Galactus' back-story. I honestly walked out of the theater feeling like part of the movie was missing.
I thought all of the major actors gave great performances.
I'm not the first person to make this comment, and I won't be the last: the aesthetic reminded me, in a good way, a lot of The Jetsons. It really makes me wonder in what ways Earth-828's technology has advanced, and when, and in what order. This is set in 1960. Their screens are all what look to me like CRTs, and they still use vinyl to listen to things—and they also have faster-than-light travel and teleportation. Really interesting.
Something I haven't heard anyone mention in any of the (admittedly few) reviews I've watched for this movie, is how much of it was practical effects. H.E.R.B.I.E., the robot, who is awesome, was actually built. So were a lot of the main sets. It shows. A lot of it would've looked fake if it'd been green-screened. On the other side of that coin, the CGI all looks good, too. If this movie doesn't hold up well years or decades from now, visually, I will be shocked.
I'm gonna come as close to spoilers as I can here without technically spoiling this plot specifically; as per Wikipedia as of the most recent edit at the time of writing:
Franklin Benjamin Richards is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is a supporting character in Fantastic Four. He has been portrayed as a child and as a novice superhero.
Franklin is an immensely powerful being with vast reality-manipulating and psionic powers beyond most Omega level mutants. He is the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, the older brother of Valeria Richards, and the nephew of Invisible Woman's younger brother, the Human Torch. His parents named him Franklin Benjamin Richards; his middle name is taken from his godfather Ben Grimm, the Thing. Franklin's first name comes from Franklin Storm, his maternal grandfather. He has started using the code name Powerhouse. Franklin restricts the use of his powers to once a year in order to give himself a normal, healthy childhood.
So, that is, clearly, what they're trying to set up here. I still haven't, technically, spoiled anything already committed to cellulose, yet.
I feel like they what they have set up for the new universe was good; like I said, good enough that I wish they'd done more of the same, actually.
Honestly, I regret that this isn't a longer review, but for one thing, that's hard without spoiling anything. Also, I have to be up at 0400 so I think I might call it a night soon.
I would recommend seeing it. I saw it in 2D because 3D always gives me a headache.
