Our other bit of entertainment on Sunday was watching Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is technically the fifth movie adaptation of Marvel's First Family. The super science nature of the comic has made me a bit of a fan of the franchise, but the various movies have been of very mixed quality. And none of the movies (including this new one, I suppose) have given us a proper depiction of Doctor Doom.
I had pretty high hopes for this movie, given what we had seen in the trailers and the initial feedback from special screenings. To be fair, we were promised a movie that actually brings a proper Galactus to the big screen, versus a CGI cloud that was indistinguishable from the movie version of Parallax over on the DC side of the fence. Plus, the retro futurism styling of everything we had seen in the trailers just felt perfect for a Fantastic Four movie.
The actual movie was...okay. Not great, amazing, or fantastic. Not terrible or unwatchable. But definitely rather disappointing for a number of reasons.
First, what I really liked was this unique little universe they created for this movie. It's peak retrofuturism with a vibrant 1960s aesthetic all over, with touches of Reed's super science having pushed certain things along faster than what we experienced in our own world. You have something as advanced as HERBIE the robot, but you also see that his programming module consists of a magnetic tape cartridge inserted into his head. All that was great.
I also loved those moments when Sue calls Reed out for his propensity (or need?) to think of every possibility, even the options he won't actively consider. It doesn't make him evil or anything - it's just how his brain works. And this has come up a number of times over the years since no marriage is every perfect.
One of Tobie's biggest gripes about the movie is how everyone's powers felt somewhat muted or at least underutilized on film. The montage of their adventures that appeared early in the movie had the promise of a lot of awesomeness, but we didn't get a lot of that throughout the movie. Reed's stretching abilities were used the least, followed by the Thing being legitimately strong. Johnny kept running into plot-contrived roadblocks for using his fire powers more, like how we never got him going nova.
And Galactus...walked around the city. Why would the Destroyer of Worlds walk? He's supposed to have science that would be indistinguishable from magic by your average human, and we had him walk down city streets? I know we saw this bit in the trailer, but I didn't expect the context of the scene. And the way he was finally defeated...did not feel appropriately Fantastic Four. Reed is supposed to be one of the smartest people on Earth, and their final plan was...that? Oh boy.
I've watched a few Easter Egg and analysis videos, and I agree that the movie definitely felt like it was safe more than anything else. It could have gone further and pushed harder, but instead it wanted to give us something that was easy enough to understand and not too shocking. And this feels extra disappointing since the director has the likes of WandaVision under his belt, and this movie didn't feel as bold or daring.
At least there was a lot of love for Jack Kirby woven into the very fabric of the movie. That man deserves a lot more love and praise from the community at large and maybe this movie will sort of help spread the word a bit more.
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