Has Marvel finally made a great Fantastic Four movie?
After years of false starts and forgettable reboots, Marvel has finally delivered a Fantastic Four that lives up to its name. From its first seconds, First Steps isn’t like other Marvel movies; it’s cool! Every frame of First Steps is packed with eye-popping artistic design, and the film announces its unique artistic identity within the MCU.
Vanessa Kirby is a standout as Susan Storm, and the set design dazzles, but this franchise-starter is still weighed down by the usual unfunny banter and pathological Marvel aversion to risk. It turns out that a great set, good actors, and a serviceable plot aren’t enough to propel a Fantastic Four film to anything truly fantastic. The Fantastic Four: First Steps shoots for the moon, but lands at three stars.
Each cast member shines, but Vanessa Kirby is the standout
Each cast member shines, but Vanessa Kirby is the standout. She commands every scene with intelligence, warmth, and power. But no one shines brighter than Sue Storm. Vanessa Kirby is simply outstanding as the Invisible Woman.
Far from softly lit visages of motherhood, Sue is steely, pragmatic, ruthless, even her motherhood transforming her heroism into a ferocious defensive mechanism that becomes genuinely frightening in scope. She’s brave and reassuring when she needs to be, but Sue comes out swinging more than once, literally and physically. Sue is the anchor the film needs, giving depth and gravitas to what could have been a fun little romp, turning First Steps into a treatise on the anxieties of parenthood.
With its inclusion of parental anxieties and tribute to mothers, the first family of Marvel finally has a film worthy of their legacy
And Kirby, perhaps the true soul of the film, offers us a portrait of motherhood as tender as it is ferocious, culminating in one of those rare feminist fist-pump moments that feels natural, and not like the writers are waiting for you to pat them on the back.
The chemistry between Reed and Sue is so strong that you not only believe their relationship, but also absorb their anguish at an obscene proposal that transforms them from heroes to villains in the eyes of a populace that thinks it’s worth considering. This movie belongs to Vanessa Kirby… establishing Sue not only as perhaps the MCU’s best female hero, but one of its most compelling heroes, period.
“I did not expect to walk out of Fantastic Four loving Sue Storm, because I have never loved Sue Storm, but Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm? I will fight for her!”
