The Fantastic Four: First Steps

I thought the movie was…fantastic. I know, it is a terrible joke, but I could not resist (I am sure every review makes this joke). The kids also loved it, Logan was close to crying toward the end (because it was sad, figured I better clarify that one). 

The cast was great. I do not care if Pedro Pascal has facial hair, I thought he pulled off Reed Richards. Vanessa Kirby captured Sue perfectly. Believable as a scientist, but also as someone who would broker a deal with Mole Man, or get the world to sign a disarmament treaty. Ebon Moss-Bachrach killed it as Ben Grimm. Also, the CGI looked incredible. But the star was Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. He was funny, charming, brotherly…and you know what? He was smart. Not Reed or Sue smart, but Johnny is not a moron. He was a NASA pilot, he knows stuff. So it was cool to let him shine at times. 

Okay, so that was the non-spoiler stuff…read on from here at your own risk.

-I was 100% convinced that they were going to fail. Especially when the Surfer tells them to flee the planet. I thought when Galactus came back through the portal, Reed would tell his family to get to the ship, and it would end with them leaving their universe. Reed was explaining the multiverse to the school kids earlier…it just fit. But I liked how this ended. Sue maxing out her powers to save her family, then the big purple guy coming back, only to be stopped by Silver Surfer. Definitely cool.

-I loved this version of the Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal. I was not sure if they could actually make the Silver Surfer look cooler than what they did back in the Fox movie. They did more with the Herald’s powers in this movie, and actually made the surfboard look cool while flying through lava.

-The mid-credit scene was cool. Looks like Doctor Doom is showing Franklin his mask. I was trying to explain to the kids afterwards just how cool of a character Doom is, but they could not grasp it. “But he is a villain??” Side note, I noticed all the times Latveria was shown absent from the world leader meetings.

-Logan was kind of crying when he thought Sue was dead. Also, Payton thought Franklin brought her back through the power of love. Huey Lewis would be proud. 

-I think I should get credit for the movie being set in the 1960s. I have been saying this for years. I think my big idea was just to have Johnny explaining who they are to the Avengers, but the flashbacks be of that era (and be Johnny-centric, so we would never know how accurate the adventures were). But someone read those posts and ran with that idea, and with making Johnny more of a star, and not just the comic relief.