First, the good news: you can take your seat for this semi-standalone Marvel blockbuster and enjoy the zippy action and affectionate banter of its charismatic cast without the nagging concern that you haven’t seen 17 or so other films first, or need to go on a Google dive in the multiplex foyer. Your past failure to watch, say, The Marvels or The Incredible Hulk will not be punished via an obscure but pivotal reveal midway through. A full 36 films into the MCU, it’s a weight lifted.
First Steps, the third and best go at the Fantastic Four (low bar), is set in what you might call the CDMCU (A Completely Different Marvel Cinematic Universe). We’re in the New York of Earth 828, a ’60s-coded metropolis of flying cars and stylish Mad Men aesthetics. Full marks to director Matt Shakman and his production designer Kasra Farahani for creating a retro-futuristic Big Apple that looks this good on a studio backlot.
Here, Earth’s mightiest heroes are space-age pioneers too: the pregnant Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), her scientist hubby Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), her headstrong brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Reed’s best pal, hulking concrete-faced enforcer Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). There are no other superheroes to clutter up the scene, leaving the four to protect humanity together – when they’re not squabbling amicably in their gleaming HQ.
Having previously demanded near PhD-level knowledge of their interlocking stories, superhero movies now seem to be flipping to the other extreme. As with James Gunn’s Superman, the back story and set-up are brushed past swiftly, via an ABC special fronted by Stephen Moffat, First Steps’ answer to Basil Exposition. The quartet, we learn, were zapped by cosmic rays on a space voyage and returned to Earth with superpowers.
What those powers are, and why they’re all different, remains a little hazy for anyone not versed in MCU lore. But there’s plenty of chance to figure them out in the action ahead – including a 2001-esque foray into space. Gender-swapped (deal with it) space-nymph the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives to share the news that giant, planet-munching superbad Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is en route to make Earth the latest Malteser in his interstellar buffet.
For a movie that looks this sleek, there’s a lot of scrappiness around the fringes
It’s all entertaining enough, with Moss-Bachrach an earthy presence beneath Ben Grimm’s rocky CG exterior and Quinn injecting a note of boyish vulnerability into an offbeat flirtation with the Silver Surfer. Kirby anchors the drama as a mum-to-be trying to pull off the ultimate juggle, while Pascal is charmingly gawky as the anxious Reed, who reacts to impending fatherhood by having the city’s villains rounded up. ‘You’re baby-proofing the world,’ notes Grimm.
For a movie that looks this sleek, there’s a lot of scrappiness around the fringes. Paul Walter Hauser is fun as subterranean mastermind Mole Man, but gets barely a toehold on the plot. Half of whatever Natasha Lyonne’s character, a teacher with a thing for The Thing, was due to be doing is surely on the cutting room floor. The Four’s droid helper H.E.R.B.I.E. doesn’t leave a massive impression.
Needless to say, don’t leave your seat as the credits roll, as a crucial new character gets intro’ed (the second post-credit sting is the very definition of inessential). Next stop? Avengers: Doomsday. Your research starts now.
★★★
In cinemas worldwide Thu Jun 24.