Marvel wants to innovate the superhero genre with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The film about Marvel’s oldest hero family is set in a different world than that of Iron Man, Thor, and Spider-Man. Reviewers differ in opinion about the success of this ‘restart’.
“Fantastic Four throws everything on the screen: from the destruction of planets via a delivery without gravity to scenes that are quite shamelessly copied from Interstellar. It’s messy, but that delivers some memorable scenes.”
“The setting is interesting from time to time. Retrofuturism shows a future that could have been. In key scenes, Fantastic Four plays with the then optimism about international cooperation and consumer technology as household robots and flying cars. It is a utopia in which you would like to disappear, until you realize that the same space age in Fantastic Four is window dressing for the same story that Marvel has been telling for years: about monsters that roam through world cities and grumbling child men who learn a lesson about cooperation and family.”
“This is an excellent attempt to film the Marvel comic. As said, partly thanks to the cast and the light tone. They do not completely prevent the film from feeling just a little too light, which is mainly the result of the relative ease with which the evil force that threatens the earth is defeated. Because of course it is defeated, otherwise there is no sequel. And sequels, just like children are for the Richards, are essential for the survival of the MCU.”
“This film is certainly better than the previous four films. Visually it is often impressive, but there is little time to really dwell on it. In comic books you can slide your eyes across the page, linger on a panel with powerful action or emotion; here scenes consist of so many short shots that your brain has barely been able to process them before they are already over. The plot rushes forward, towards a goal without real consequences. Even if the earth is about to disappear, it is all a show of strength.”