Fantastic Feast

Pretty excited to finally see The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025). As I have mentioned, FF are my favorite superheroes. I loved two Tim Story movies, hated the Josh Trank one. I was hoping that this one would be the one to get it right.

It skips the origin story, and goes right to Reed (Pedro Pascal) and Sue (Vanessa Kirby) Richards. They are married and living in the Baxter Building. Reed is looking for iodine for a cut he got in his last battle. Sue reveals that she is pregnant. 

This version of the FF is world famous and well loved for the many villains they've thwarted, and the world loves the idea of their baby. 

Meanwhile, Pascal has the family robot, HERBIE, building a crib for the baby, while he studies some strange anomalies. Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn, Stranger Things) promises not to tell Sue that he is shirking his family duties to do science. And Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is wandering around Yancy Street, where he meets a nice Jewish girl, Natashe Lyonne, outside a synagogue. 

It turns out that those anomalies were the Silver Surfer - a naked silver woman, played by Julia Garner. The Four try to fight her, and she barely notices. They chase her into space, discover the remnants of destroyed planets, and finally meet - Galactus!

This Galactus is more or less comics accurate. We find out about his diet of planets, and his plans for Earth. But Galactus makes an offer - he will spare Earth in exchange for the Richards baby. He can see that the child will be powerful, powerful enough to take his place as planet destroyer.

When they get back to Earth, they tell the world that they did not defeat Galactus, and aren't giving up their child. Now the world turns on them. And Galactus is coming. 

A couple of fun things about the movie: It's set in an alternate 1960s, so the Fantasticar has tailfins, and the president (maybe) is named Bobby. It's a fun look. Director Matt Shakman directed the WandaVision shows, so he's used to retro timelines. Also, he wanted to use a lot of practical effects vs. CGI. But I'm pretty sure the Thing was CGI.

I liked the casting. I don't like Mr. Fantastic with a mustache, but I did like Pascal. Kirby's Invisible Girl was a lot like the Sue Storm I imagine. Quinn's Torch was a lot like Chris Evans', but not as obnoxious. And Moss-Bachrach's Thing face, with a pronounced brow ridge, was just right. Also, he hates the phrase "It's clobbering time," because that's from the cartoon.

Altogether, I liked this a lot. I have two related quibbles. One is that I have trouble accepting a world where the Fantastic Four are loved and idolized. I'm more used to them being in trouble for the damage caused in their fights with the villains, and always being behind on the rent. Then, there's the occasional monologue, like the one Sue makes to a crowd. They are very uplifting and corny, and the crowd reacts by going right over to her side. Yeah right. Maybe it's intended to be "comic booky" - I think a lot of the other dialog is. 

In conclusion, I still like the Tim Story pair best. We'll see after I've watched this one a few more times.