<em>The Fantastic Four: First Steps</em> Is Breezy, Beautiful, and (Thankfully) Self-Contained

It might be off-putting to mention Stan Lee when The Fantastic Four: First Steps wears its affections for Jack Kirby on its knit sleeves. But Lee used to say that Marvel's stories reflected the world outside our window. He died in 2018, right before a pandemic rewired our behaviors for the worse, a climate change morphed storms into disasters, and the new gilded age of oligarchs. Before water-guzzling AI, crypto, ICE raids, brain rot, doomscrolling, and situationships. Oh, and before the thrill for the Marvel Cinematic Universe vanished with a snap after Avengers: Endgame. The world outside our window? It's grim. Why would we want to see it reflected in IMAX?

It's funny, then, that the newest Fantastic Four reboot, from assured WandaVision director Matt Shakman, is the first time in the exhaustive and verisimilitude-minded MCU that we glimpse a truly different world. In theaters July 25, the aptly-titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the MCU debut of its title heroes, who were prized IP previously lost in the abyss of 20th Century Fox. Disney's seismic acquisition of the rival studio means Mr. Fantastic and co. can now kick it with the Avengers. But the self-contained and mostly put-together First Steps is a baby step to a brighter future—or at least one hopes—and it gets off on the right foot. Made by formula but executed with vision, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is steadfast in its mission priority: remind audiences who Marvel's cobalt quartet are—again—before the bigger crossovers.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps invites audiences to Earth-828 (in honor of the legend Jack Kirby), a luxe, space-age, alt-1960s where the wonders of science are embraced—and not denied by skeptics with podcasts. It is also a world uncomplicated by strife. There's no visible civil rights movement, nor political quagmires in Vietnam. When the Fantastic Four build power-sucking pylons as their Hail Mary play against the planet eater Galactus—including one smack dab in a squeaky-clean Times Square—international cooperation comes easy. The optimism of the age and promised utopia of technology, in deep contrast to our real tech dystopia, is beautifully realized in this breezy summer tentpole that pleases the eye more than it moves the heart and soul.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the official kickoff to Marvel’s Phase Six.

Unlike previous Fantastic Four-led efforts that strove for popcorn thrills (the pretty bad 2005 reboot) or David Cronenberg-like body horror (the really bad 2015 reboot), the guiding light of First Steps is its preoccupation with braving the unknown. Intellectual curiosity and space exploration are how humanity progresses forward. But parenthood—an ancient duty dating back to our own species' first steps—freezes the brilliant Reed Richards, known to the world as Mr. Fantastic (played by a functional yet still daddy-riffic Pedro Pascal). The prospect of fatherhood stiffens the stretchiest superhero.

Surrounding Pascal's Reed are the others from Marvel's "First Family," all adorned in the coziest blue costumes you'll ever lay eyes on. (Cosplayers will be warm this Halloween.) There's the ethereal Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, whose powers of invisibility and energy shields take a swift back seat to her newfound motherhood (which amounts to her entire personality); Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, more ascetic and less blazing than Chris Evans and Michael B. Jordan's takes on the character; and Ebon Moss-Bacharach as The Thing, whose stony skin betrays his gentle demeanor. While individually their performances feel underpowered—Quinn's most of all, whose Johnny is the least defined of the bunch—when put together, this cast finds their proper sitcom-style groove. There are stretches (pardon the pun) inside the Baxter Building, their skyscraper fortress with midcentury chic interiors, when a studio laugh track wouldn't feel out of place in the audio mix. Zipping between the four is their robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E. Interchangeable with the droids of any given Star Wars spin-off, the little guy shoulders plenty of the movie's cutesy appeal.

When First Steps begins, the Fantastic Four of Earth-828 are entrenched in their superhero lifestyles, and Shakman plays their Silver Age origins in fast forward. They have an adoring public and a rogues gallery to keep their days interesting. For a solid chunk of the movie's first act, these characters' biggest challenge isn't another Saturday morning villain, but the impending arrival of a fifth member of their family of four. Sue is pregnant, and the logic-oriented Reed is now confronted with questions no formula can solve. Such are the personal, but not world-ending stakes the Fantastic Four deal with until a figure arrives from space.

First contact (on this Earth, anyway–Chitauri are unheard of here) comes in the form of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), a being coated in sometimes impressive visual effects. She's an emissary for the world-eating giant Galactus (Ralph Ineson); his imposing size and threatening aura qualifying him as the single-most intimidating Marvel villain in recent memory. Gone are this franchise's bad habit for quips and gags that undermine the antagonist and their gravity. The Silver Surfer is appropriately solemn and haunted while Galactus is a nightmare evocative of H.P. Lovecraft's cosmic horror canon.

Vanessa Kirby stars as Sue Storm, a.k.a. Invisible Woman, in The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

While First Steps is about confronting the unknown, it's ironic when it falls into Marvel's schticky routine. However appealing its Jetsons surface and arguments weighing the great power of superherodom against the dire responsibilities of parenthood, this is still a Marvel movie we're talking about here. The pluses or minuses you expect from the studio's theatrical efforts are calcified into its bones: sweeping action set-pieces, snappy humor, and dynamic action figures that stand in place of flesh and blood people. All of these highs and lows are present in First Steps at the molecular level. If this is good news, you're likely grading on a curve. If this is bad news, then you must be new here.

It's not wrong to say the movie coasts beyond its actors and script, like its immaculate designs and featherlight score by Michael Giacchino. (A triumphant choir motif fosters plenty of First Steps' whimsical atmosphere.) But it would be unfair to say it's all cheap. The world on display in First Steps is nothing short of an achievement, and Marvel would be wise to begin prepping its Oscar campaign for the technical categories.

First Step clears the low bar for this particular Marvel sub-franchise. A mid-grade movie would have made it the best one by default. But Shakman and his collaborators have turned in an above-average effort that is only held back by the crushing weight of familiarity. First Steps is nothing Marvel hasn't made already, but with such delectable aesthetics and nostalgia goggles (likely packaged in Johnny's cereal boxes) for a world that never was, it's also like nothing you've seen before.

There's a moment in First Steps that exhibits self-awareness by the MCU, and hope the sinking juggernaut has life yet. During a montage that (re)introduces the protagonists, the spotlight lands on Reed mid-lecture about the multiverse to bored-to-death school children. "Do you want to see an explosion?" he asks, and they cheer in delight. You can't illustrate the sorry state of the MCU better than the target demo snoozing while an unintelligible grownup yaps about parallel Earths. But light up some fireworks, and see how fast the kids get back on their feet.