Vanessa Kirby as as Sue Storm-Richards/The Invisible Woman. Photo / Supplied
Vanessa Kirby as as Sue Storm-Richards/The Invisible Woman. Photo / Supplied
Review by Russell Baillie
NZ Listener Arts & Entertainment Editor Russell Baillie has worked at the Listener since 2017 and was previously the editor of the NZ Herald’s TimeOut section.
Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman, is in cinemas now.
When they weren’t defeating their arch enemies, The Fantastic Four were the Brady-Jetsons Bunch of the superhero world – a married couple, a brother and best mate, who hung out in a space-age bachelor pad with a robot.Their 1960s origins are embraced in this enjoyable but instantly forgettable Marvel film.
It’s an improvement on the risible previous attempts at F4 movies, possibly because, as well as its eye-catching back-to-the-future, Kubrickian mid-century design, it comes on like a live-action version of The Incredibles. The 2004 Pixar hit about a family of superheroes facing a public backlash took quite a few ideas, such as a super-stretchy character and a subterranean villain with a very big drill, from the original F4 comics.
Director Matt Shakman previously showed his feel for retro style with his Marvel television series WandaVision. Here, as he did with Elizabeth Olsen in that show, he gets lucky with a cast that has Pedro Pascal as elastic-limbed boffin Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as his telekinetic missus, Sue Storm-Richards/The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as her flame-flying brother Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as the rock-solid Ben Grimm/The Thing.
They make for a zingy ensemble. And First Steps does have a few things never seen before in a Marvel movie. Such as giving birth in zero gravity on a spaceship attempting to slingshot around a neutron star while being chased by the Silver Surfer. It’s all part of a story involving planet-earthing space god Galactus. But even with a newborn baby aboard, the story defaults to the Marvel movie template, without any stretch of the imagination.
