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The Fantastic Four: First Steps

A few years ago, we hit the S.S.P. (Superhero Saturation Point). And the best way for studios to arrest, or even maybe reverse, the law of diminishing returns is to JUST GIVE IT A FUCKING REST. There's enough residual goodwill in the fan base to guarantee profits....for now. But, as Malcolm Gladwell said, there must be a tipping point.

So into this cinematic avalanche slips The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the first film of Phase Six and the thirty seventh overall! It's quite dull for the first 30 minutes, setting up the characters, ensuring the audience understands we're on a slightly different Earth (828), and a different time as well. It only gets going when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) appears and promises everyone death by devouring. She's not going to eat them, she works for a massive space turd called Galactus, played by Finchy himself, Ralph Ineson. He'll do the devouring.

Here's the thing - this film is a perfectly serviceable entry, not brilliant, not terrible, but I'm so tired of the same old stuff. And I don't mean superhero fare necessarily. I mean the lack of originality within the framework. Thunderbolts* recently tried something a little different, and The Boys (on TV) is actually fantastic. F4, though, had to go down the tried and tested route, where there are huge, existential stakes, yet we all know that, really, there's zero peril.

The cast aren't to blame, especially the two leads - Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, and Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards. They're quite unencumbered by snark, there's not a whiff of self irony about them. I reckon Kirby has the most interesting throughline, with something of a Sophie's choice to deal with.

This choice might have been a chewy angle but the whole 'family-is-the-most-important-thing' shtick is overdone, as always. I have a theory that these big films rely on this trope so as not to alienate any section of the community (I'm mainly thinking of the U.S. far-right, here). Don't take an obvious side in the culture wars, focus on family (everyone's got or had a family, right), and hoover up the cash from both sides of the divide. Simples. Sure, there's no need to go political in a pyjama movie, even though some of the best certainly are, but at least pivot away from family once in a while. Gripe concluded.

I realise this take has gone straight to the heart of the periphery (© Mark Kermode), seeing as this group of characters is the 'First Family' of Marvel. I also understand that any writer who DIDN'T focus on their familial bonds would have been Edgar Wright-ed out the door. Still, I live in hope. Stupid, I know.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is showing on Aussie screens right now, but I saw it at Palace Raine Square in Perth.

See also:

Considering FOUR of the cast (Pascal, Ineson, Joseph Quinn, and Mark Gatiss) were also in Game of Thrones (2011-2019), maybe time for a rewatch? Also, Kirby all but pilfed Sir Ridder's Napoleon (2023) from Joaquin Phoenix, so there's that as well.

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