The Fantastic Four: First Steps

My wife and I saw this movie on opening weekend when it came out. With a new kid coming, this was our choice for one of our last dates for the foreseeable future. Clearly, I was excited. I was also a little nervous, as life after Endgame has been mostly brutal for Marvel projects. We had heard good things though, and were still pleasantly surprised.

The most refreshing part of the film was that unlike most recent Marvel entries, this movie felt like it was its own thing, not primarily a lead up to a future movie or show. There wasn’t the obligatory 30 minutes spent explaining how we travel between universes, or backdrop of thirty movies and shows to reference. This allowed the story to be simple, clean, and exciting. If anything, FF4 moved too far in that direction – there was such a heavy focus on plot and action, that there was almost no time devoted to character development. Given how bad the limited dialogue and attempts at humor were, it was a great choice to make this an action film in the mold of Mad Max: Fury Road.

The action worked because the movie had excellent aesthetics and perfect background music. The acting was limited but solid. Overall I was engaged and enjoyed the entire thing. One concern with an action movie like this is how it will hold up outside of the movie theater, but I’ll have to save that for an updated review in a few years.