Fantastic Four takes first steps

Though the new Marvel movie plays it safe at times, careful directing and good acting redeem the quartet by creating a rich, retro-futuristic aesthetic and building a strong emotional core. Plus, it's fun. By Noelle Adams

- By Noelle Adams

The key words in The Fantastic Four: First Steps are those last two. Because despite all the marketing that has trumpeted how this superhero ensemble brings the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn't do that.

Well, at least in the most obvious sense.

If you were expecting to see element-inspired heroes Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) rub shoulders with Avengers like Mark Ruffalo's Hulk and Anthony Mackie’s new Captain America, rein in those expectations.

First Steps is the very start of the process that is marrying Marvel's First Family and the Avengers across the Multiverse.

But The Fantastic Four: First Steps has another important function to complete before all that: after three Fox Studios-made movies of varying quality, First Steps needs to reclaim and elevate its costumed quartet.

A better time

It starts by putting its characters in a Silver Age setting. First Steps stands out from its MCU peers thanks to its retro-futuristic 1960s world, which mixes science fiction with recognisable real-world history.