The Fantastic 4: First Steps

Directed by Matt Shakman, The Fantastic 4: First Steps, which unfolds in a parallel universe, follows the title team (Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s The Thing, and Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm) as they attempt to prevent an enormous cosmic being (Ralph Ineson’s Galactus) from eating the planet. Filmmaker Shakman, armed with Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer’s screenplay, delivers an erratic yet generally rewarding endeavor that fares best within its opening and closing stretches, as the film, which runs an admittedly overlong 114 minutes, kicks off with an appealingly lighthearted first act that effectively establishes the story’s retro-futuristic atmosphere and central protagonists – with, in terms of the latter, the picture’s four stars stepping into the shoes of their familiar figures with a relative degree of success. (They all seem a bit more subdued than one might’ve anticipated, ultimately.) And while the movie’s midsection feels needlessly padded-out and meandering, particularly as the heroes attempt to figure out a plan to deal with their adversary, The Fantastic 4: First Steps eventually progresses into an unexpectedly involving climax, wherein the Fantastic Four battle a rampaging Galactus, that ensures the film concludes on a stirring, engaging note – which does, in the end, secure its place as a better-than-average superhero blockbuster.

**1/2 out of ****