I just watched the most recent attempt to revitalise the Fantastic Four franchise, and it makes a pretty good effort to rekindle a lighter era of supe flicks. I also discuss the refreshing move away from the relentlessly dark trend of superhero moviemaking since the release of a certain Nolan-directed masterpiece over 15 years ago.
I watched the original Fantastic Four films a long while ago now. Probably because they came out a long while ago when I was a fair bit younger myself. I might not have been the razor-sharp critic that I am today, but I still thought those films were pretty shoddy back in the day. The acting was cheesy, yet everyone was taking themselves a bit too seriously. And some of the actors weren’t exactly stellar, either. Sure, Chris Evans was in a kind of embryo period before he hit the supe stage right with Captain America, but his Johnny Storm’s kind of an ass. As in the screenplay makes him a bit of a douche, but Evans doesn’t help with that. I mean, the character didn’t deserve what he got in Deadpool vs Wolverine, but still, he was kind of meh. And Jessica Alba didn’t gel as Sue Storm, either. The actress isn’t particularly great and it feels like she’s just in there for a bit of eye candy. Plus, like Johnny, there’s not much depth to the character. It’s hard to get invested in characters that have limited…character. And the sequel wasn’t much better either. Probably slightly worse. As for the next attempt in the franchise, I didn’t watch it. The stylised title put me off initially (Fant4stic? Come on now. Se7en’s already got the best stylised number title. You can’t compete with that). The cast looked pretty stacked, I can’t deny that. But all the negative reviews put me right off placing my backside in a cinema seat.
But First Steps feels like a much-needed refresher. Is it a masterpiece? Nope, far from it. Although it does feel like a significant change from what’s gone before. Thankfully, like James Gunn’s recent Superman remake, it doesn’t drag us through the long origin story. We’ve seen it already. We don’t need it again (as for younger audiences? You can go watch the old films. That’s fine). Instead, both films deal with all the backstory in the opening gambit so there’s no need to drag us through what we already know. First Steps takes a welcome approach by drenching its visuals in nostalgia and old-time vibes. Everyone knows Marvel’s first family in a retro-futuristic 1960s America, as Mark Gattis’ hammy TV presenter provides running commentary on the lives of the famous quartet. It also leans into the ham in terms of the special effects, which is nice. Mr Fantastic’s stretching scenes seem pretty goofy, but good goofy, you know? Like how it would look in the comic books, which is pretty appropriate. And the soundtrack follows suit. Plus the colour palette has some jazzy tones. The film doesn’t exactly break any boundaries, but it doesn’t follow the same old formula in the way many recent supe entries have.
But in terms of breaking boundaries, just take a quick look back at The Dark Knight. It’s probably boring at this point to keep mentioning that it’s the greatest superhero movie ever. ‘Cause it is. No supe flick has bettered it since its release back in 2008. Part of its genius is that it doesn’t quite feel like a superhero movie with its heavy crime drama/film noir genre blending as well as its uh, dark, tone. Heck, the bad guy wins. And what a bad guy. It takes a lot of talent to steal all the attention from the lead hero. And the late great Heath Ledger brought that talent in spades. And an ample supply of killer quotes come courtesy of the razor sharp screenplay. It’s just a shame that The Dark Knight’s success led to an avalanche of dark flicks trying to compete with the king. Zod’s neck got snapped, the lighting went down to a crazy degree, Batman’s voice got grisly to the nth degree, and superhero films all got a bit solemn-faced and serious. You had outliers like Guardians of the Galaxy, but there were still too many flicks trying to jump on the dark train. Good news, then that this Fantastic Four reboot is a first step in the right direction.