We’ve certainly waited long enough.
After this seminal superhero team’s disastrous earlier big-screen outings — in 2005, ’07 and ’15 — Marvel Cinematic Universe fans and long-time comic book nerds were understandably wary of this new attempt.
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| Ben (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) has a polite "discussion" with the Fantastic Four's helpful robot, H.E.R.B.I.E., regarding the proper way to cook a meal. |
You’ll be charmed immediately by the film’s look and atmosphere. Production designer Kasra Farahani establishes a retro-futuristic style that evokes the era when writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby debuted their comic book series in November 1961. It’s a time when recordings still are made via vinyl discs and reel-to-reel tape, with fashion, cars and household accessories in a mischievous, not-quite-accurate reflection of what our grandparents wore, drove and used, back in the day.
A television documentary-style flashback celebrates the quartet’s fourth anniversary in a kinder, gentler world — this is Earth 828, in the multiverse — where they’re beloved by everybody, and nations peacefully cooperate amid mutual respect.
(God knows, this sure isn’t our Earth.)
The flashback clips describe how Dr. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) and her younger brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) were bombarded by cosmic rays during an outer space mission, granting them unusual powers as, respectively, the stretchable Mr. Fantastic, the super-strong Thing, the Invisible Woman and the Human Torch.
Scenes of the quartet saving civilians during natural disasters are intercut with battles against more ambitious foes; longtime comic book fans will smile when the FF’s first issue cover image monster and villain — the Mole Man — are referenced. Reed and Sue subsequently married, and the quartet established a fancy headquarters in New York’s iconic Baxter Building.
Moving to the present day, Shakman and his scripters take their time with the first act, focusing on the quartet’s “down time” behavior and interpersonal dynamics: the “human element” that immediately set Marvel Comics characters apart from their DC competitors (Superman, Batman, etc.). These four people are messy, and they struggle with relatable problems.
Reed, the resident scientist, agonizes over decisions big and small, constantly second-guessing himself; Pascal displays the right blend of analytical sharpness and emotional befuddlement. Sue, the group’s heart and calming influence, also is an accomplished diplomat for world peace; Kirby delivers a performance that radiates warmth, caring ... and a ferocious degree of protectiveness.
To the casual eye, Ben and Johnny are like squabbling brothers, the latter forever trying to get under the former’s rock-hard skin. Quinn emphasizes his character’s sloppy and often reckless behavior, particularly during a crisis. Moss-Bachrach’s Ben, finally, is the group’s tragic member: forever trapped in an oversized orange body that may delight children, but is a constant reminder that he’s unlikely to enjoy the sort of romantic relationship shared by Reed and Sue.
These folks are fun, behind the scenes. They’re like family.
As it happens, the “family” is about to expand, with everybody wondering whether Reed and the very pregnant Sue’s first child will have super powers.
Such cheerful speculation vanishes with the unexpected arrival of a cosmic herald dubbed the “Silver Surfer” (played with unsettling stoicism, in a cheeky gender switch from comic book lore, by Julia Garner). She stuns everybody by announcing that Earth has been “marked for destruction” by the massive, planet-devouring entity known as Galactus.
“Enjoy these final few moments with your loved ones,” she intones, and then soars away.
Well.
Tracking the Surfer’s energy signal allows Reed to determine Galactus’ path of destruction, light-years away; the team boards their spacecraft and — thanks to faster-than-light orbital “doorways” — travels to a distant galaxy, hoping to negotiate with this entity.
The trip involves considerable danger, well staged by editors Nona Khodai and Tim Roche, along with the film’s special effects team. Our heroes learn that Galactus (Ralph Ineson) isn’t a villain per se; insatiable hunger has driven him to consume planets for eons, and he thinks no more of a given world’s inhabitants, than we do of the animals that died to provide us with hamburgers.
Even so, this being’s cold detachment is the stuff of nightmares. Ineson’s reading of one line, at a critical moment — “Clever little bugs” — is chilling.
Galactus senses that Reed and Sue’s unborn son could free him from this insatiable burden, so he offers a trade: He’ll spare Earth ... if they give him the child.
The quartet’s horrified refusal provokes Galactus’ rage. Once back on Earth, with the Surfer and Galactus not far behind, the still shocked Reed briefly explains what happened to anxiously awaiting media reporters. Unable to lie — candor being one of Reed’s faults — he even shares the offer that was turned down.
You can imagine the world’s response to that.
Having thus established a planet-threatening crisis that has backed our heroes into an impossible corner, Shakman and his scripters gleefully turn the screws during an increasingly calamitous third act. How can this problem be solved?
Although this film is an enjoyable, increasingly exciting thrill ride, the execution is not without issues. We raise eyebrows at the notion of the nine-months-pregnant Sue blithely charging into outer space; that’s difficult to accept. Paul Walter Hauser’s sarcastic, comic-relief portrayal of the Mole Man also is a serious mistake; he seems to have wandered in from an entirely different film.
Those missteps aside, Shakman capably orchestrates this adventure. Michael Giacchino enhances each scene via an emotionally powerful score that balances soulful themes, for intimate family moments, with soaring anthems during space-faring action. (He describes his score, in the film’s liner notes, as “a mash-up between the Disneyland Electrical Parade and The Right Stuff.”)
We have, at last, a movie that does justice to Lee and Kirby’s ground-breaking comic book series.
Do hang around during the end credits, which include a brief cut-scene that foreshadows future MCU events.
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