The Fantastic Four: First Steps

They only finished shooting this in December so I'm guessing the effects are far from done as they don't even show Reed stretching once. Galactus isn't a cloud that's good.

I love Galactus just walking around New York like an asshole.

I hope they let the Surfer get angry at some point...



(I think she'll have a thing with Johnny in the movie based on their interaction in the trailer and the fact that banging a silver surfing alien is totally a Johnny Storm thing to do.)

EDIT: you can probably guess what the clip is based on it being age restricted, SIGH.

He's cute.

^His flames make the Thing lighter than air like a hot air balloon.



The visuals actually look more impressive in this half trailer thing than in some of the proper trailers.

Movie is good. It hits great a few times, but for the most part it's good. What I liked most about it is that it's finally a MCU movie that feels different. It's set in another universe and actually does feel self-contained. The retro future look does a lot to help differentiate it, but I think what sets it apart the most is the warmth and lack of cynicism. The scene where Sue talks the world out of being angry with them and everyone agrees to help save Franklin wouldn't work in real life, of course, and wouldn't even work in a regular MCU movie, but I like that it works here. They're proper heroes who are loved on their world and have actually made it a better place. It's nice!

Casting is very good, the team are all believable as a family and as people who have known each other for years prior to the movie. There's no meanness between them, just kind of sweet family interactions. Vanessa Kirby probably gets the most chances to impess (her "Johnny, kill her" line and her cry when she's saving Franklin at the end stick out) but Joseph Quinn as Johnny really surprised me in the end by how well the character turned out. Julia Garner is excellent as Shalla Bal with the compassionate way she deliverse world-ending news. I don't know how much she was on set but it certainly looks like her face through the CGI and she makes some good sad silver faces.

Where it reaches greatness is the part in the middle where they go into space, meet Galactus for the first time, are chased by the Surfer and ending with Sue giving birth. This is all looks amazing, I can't even think of another sequence in the MCU that looks this good. The image of the Surfer trapped in the black hole or whatever in particular really stood out and all the stuff with the Surfer surfing on weird space things...just great stuff. Giancchno's score really delivered here too.

Unfortunately, the movie never really htis that level again. The final showdown with Galactus is good but it's not a patch on his first appearance. There's also just this feeling you get with a lot of these movies that they've cut a bunch out, that there was a mandate to get it under two hours or somthing. Like, what was with Natasha Lyonne's charcter? There's no pay-off at all. Mole Man is GREAT...for the two mintues he's on screen. We get a lot more name drops of cool sounding vllains and of course I know they cut John Malkovich as Red Ghost from the movie not long before release. I really think the first half of the movie would have been improved by more of these characters appearing. An extended sequence of them fighting Mole Man, rather than it all being in the opening montage, would have been a great way to introduce the team and their powers and enhance Mole Man's later important appearance. Galactus felt like he needed a bit more screentime too.

I liked that Johnny was smart and his scene with Shalla in Times Square is very strong, but it unfortunately makes Reed look dumb by comparison as his "swap the baby carriages!" plot is ridiculous.

Mid credit scene was weak as Doom didn't look intimidating at all. I wonder if they haven't even figured out what he's going to look like in his next moviet yet. They could have at least had RDJ utter one line or something.

But yeah overall this is good and the visuals in the space sequence are so good that it's one I'd recommend seeing in the cinema rather than waiting for Disney+.

I don't think so? But that's not something I was looking out for or would remember. Probably no more than any other movie like this.

Thinking about it some more, I think why I liked this is because its best moments feel more like a Star Trek movie than a MCU movie. Like the thing Johnny does near the end is a total Star Trek move. Which is ironic as Matt Shakman was going to direct the next Star Trek movie before he did this instead.

There's probably websites where you can look that kind of infromation up, don't take my word for it.

The girl would have tro be invisible in that group!