Fourth time’s the charm. First there was the low-budget version of “The Fantastic Four,” produced by Roger Corman, which Marvel managed to bury before it hit theaters (though bootlegs abound). The comic-book company was far more enthusiastic about a pair of early-2000s adaptations at Fox, which boasted a fun cast — including Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis — but couldn’t get the tone right, skewing corny in both the dialogue and effects departments. Then came the 2015 reboot, which was a bomb, turning the characters into sullen, moody versions of themselves (and Dr. Doom into an emo megalomaniac).
As live-action adaptations of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s pulp quartet go, Marvel’s back-to-the-drawing-board “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” succeeds where earlier attempts have faltered — and good thing, too, since the studio has a lot more riding on this franchise now. At their peak, Marvel movies earned upwards of $1 billion at the box office, but they’ve lost steam of late, as the studio unfairly asks fans to consume every film and TV show in its extended “cinematic universe” just to keep up with the increasingly convoluted mythology (one complicated by alternate realities, time travel and so on).
The new movie, which Matt Shakman directs with a stylish retro-futurist flair, skips over the whole origin-story shtick we typically get whenever new superheroes are introduced. Personally, I find that to be the most relatable aspect of the genre: the part where we get to see how ordinary people adapt to the gift/curse of being granted extraordinary powers. It’s the stuff that comes next, when those same characters must inevitably face off against some force hell-bent on destroying Earth, that bores me.
What a pleasant surprise, then, that the opposite proves true in “First Steps,” which centers almost entirely on a threat from Marvel’s biggest villain to date, the planet-sized Galactus. The Fantastic Four are already famous when the film opens, appearing on an “Ed Sullivan”-style variety show to celebrate four years of protecting the world from all manner of human-scale villains (relatively manageable pests like Mole Man, who resurfaces here in the form of Paul Walter Hauser, or Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, name-checked early on in a nod to the vintage comics).
Set in the early 1960s, the movie starts out almost like a sitcom from that era — albeit one filmed in the high-definition Imax format — presenting a brief but impressive shot of the Baxter Building, an elegant space-age skyscraper that’s home to our heroes (in “Mad Men”-era Manhattan), before cutting to a domestic scene between Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and his wife, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby). Sue, who can generate force fields and make objects (and herself) disappear, has just learned that she is pregnant — something these two struggled for years to achieve. In this couple’s case, however, the discovery adds an understandable anxiety other parents needn’t worry about: What effect will that fateful exposure to cosmic rays, which gave the Fantastic Four their powers, have on their unborn child?
It’s common knowledge that “The Incredibles” writer-director Brad Bird had the Fantastic Four in mind when he conceived his beloved Pixar cartoon, which resonated with audiences because it focused on the everyday concerns of an exceptional family. Now “First Steps” returns the favor, adopting what worked so well in that animated homage — especially the mystery of what mutant abilities their adorable computer-generated baby might inherit (the two films also share a composer, Michael Giacchino). Here, the central foursome are more or less related: Reed and Sue are married, and they live with her hotheaded younger brother Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Reed’s strong but sensitive best friend Ben Grimm (“The Bear” star Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Ben came back from their fateful space flight permanently transformed into a hulking rock monster, which hinders him from expressing his romantic feelings toward Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne), a friendly teacher from his old neighborhood. Visual effects technology has come a long way since filmmakers obliged Chiklis to don a bulky foam latex suit as the Thing, and Marvel is now capable of conjuring the expressive orange character entirely from CGI — even if his mouth doesn’t always match what he’s saying. As visual effects go, it’s hard to top the handsome Pascal, who gives the elastic Mr. Fantastic a gravitas missing in previous ensembles. As Sue, Kirby delivers her super-baby in space, but that’s nothing compared with the marathon labor scene in “Pieces of a Woman.”
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Shakman, who has only directed one other feature (2014’s “Cut Bank”) but counts all nine episodes of the “WandaVision” limited series among his extensive TV credits, gives the Fantastic Four sufficient time to establish their personalities before introducing Julia Garner as Galactus’ herald, Shalla-Bal. Looking like a cross between a hood ornament and a chrome-plated surfing trophy (when she should be at least as impressive as the liquid-metal man from “Terminator 2”), she travels all the way to Times Square to announce that Earth will soon be devoured by her all-consuming master.
Gender-swapping the Silver Surfer is the biggest — and likely most controversial — change to Marvel arcana, although it does yield an intriguingly flirtatious dynamic with Johnny. Marvel has made clear that the studio is preparing the Fantastic Four’s most iconic nemesis, Dr. Doom, for a forthcoming film, but the planet-obliterating combo of Galactus and Silver Surfer hardly feel like second best. If anything, they trump even Thanos, a force so strong it took uniting all the Avengers to defeat him.
Superhero experts can tell you where this is all headed, along with the significance of certain inside jokes, including references to whether Sue Storm will give birth to twins and catchphrases from the classic Hanna-Barbera animated series. Truth be told, “First Steps” can feel like a live-action “The Jetsons” at times, between the flying Fantasticar and production designer Kasra Farahani’s brightly colored modern sets, like Reed’s lab and the family kitchen (where robot assistant Herbie does the cooking). Somehow, the brains at Marvel must find a way to get this team from the past — and a parallel reality on Earth 828 — over to where the rest of their stable now reside.
Now that Deadpool, Wolverine, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have been reunited with the other iconic Marvel characters (under the same corporate umbrella, at least), Disney is well positioned to do something interesting with them. And yet, there’s relief to be had from a Marvel movie in which you needn’t have carefully studied multiple other movies to make sense of what’s happening. Kid-friendly and funny enough without veering into self-parody, “First Steps” represents the launch of Phase Six for the studio, building toward another two-part “Avengers” tentpole from the Russo brothers.
True to its subtitle, the film feels like a fresh start. And like this summer’s blockbuster “Superman” reboot over at DC, that could be just what it takes to win back audiences suffering from superhero exhaustion.
From Variety US