Well, it took 4 tries, but we finally have a good Fantastic Four movie. I saw First Steps on Friday, came out enjoying it. It was refreshing to finally see some chemistry between Marvel’s first family and I was shocked by how much I ended up liking Silver Surfer, gender swap and all (yes, I know there was a female Surfer in the comics, but it wasn’t the Surfer). I don’t like changing characters for the sake of it, but Surfer being a chick actually felt organic to the story and worked surprisingly well and Julia Garner was great as Shalla-Ball. She also has a scene with Johnny that really packs an emotional punch and sets the stage for the rest of the movie. And Galactus looked amazing in all his flesh-and-blood glory, even moreso in IMAX. Finally the Galactus we deserve even if he does take a backseat to Surfer, who does the bulk of the villain work. They also nicely tied Vanessa Kirby (who’s perfectly cast as Sue Storm)’s real life pregnancy to the meat of the story, it made it feel very high-stakes. Kinda gave me early Raimi Spider-Man vibes with the weigh of the world on their shoulders.
