REEL | 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Relaunches Marvel's First Family

"It's not clobberin' time?"

Marvel Studios

Marvel finally brings its famed first family of superheroes into their shared cinematic universe (after many attempts) in the retro-futuristic throwback adventure film, The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Helmed by veteran television director Matt Shakman, things are set in an alternate 1960s space age on Earth-828 without our other familiar MCU characters as a galactic presence threatens the existence of their dimension.

Our attractive, tight-knit family, Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn, star as an alternate-timeline version of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing, and Human Torch. They are already established in a 1960s-era of hopeful space travel where no other superpowered being exists (just yet anyway).

Four years after their empowerment, a female-version of the intergalactic traveller, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), visits to warn of Galactus' (Ralph Ineson) inpending arrival to destroy Earth unless the Fantastic Four make a grave sacrifice. Its a surprisingly grim central conflict despite the otherwise light, colourful tone devoid of any mid-century political divisions. Everyone in the world seems uncharacteristically united without any world leaders depicted.



Everything is enhanced by the sparkling powder blue and beige-tinged visuals, largely inspired by co-creator Jack Kirby, lensed by British cinematographer Jess Hall in tandem with composer Michael Giacchino's jazzy musical score. Another highlight, comic actor Paul Walter Hauser, delights in every scene or montage he briefly appears in as an extended cameo plasying the team's first-ever underground antagonist, Mole Man.

Scripted by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, much of the first two acts are breezy in their retro aesthetic before devolving into a series of unsatisfying finale sequences that lose steam. We are constantly reminded of what a genius Pascal's Reed Richards is, but his various plans to save the planet from being devoured are ridiculously simple-minded. Sadly, this Fantastic Four is also light on laughs or enough humour due to the self-serious stakes established early on.

First Steps firmly sets up its optimistic, period-era family of superheroes. It takes the time to establish the somewhat dated characters, after previous lacklustre incarnations, to make sure they can appear in other films, sequels, and interdimensional team-ups. There's a wholesomely fun, adventurous feel to it that compresses the weirder, more cosmic elements of its dense 1960s mythology. Ultimately, The Fantastic Four as a goofy cinematic property likely works better in animation, best evidenced by the existence of Pixar's The Incredibles.


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