The Fantastic Four: First Steps
- DB
- Oct 29
- 4 min read
Marvel's First Family finally join the Marvel Cinematic Universe... in a way.
Here's what I've been watching and playing over the last seven days... (or eleven for First Steps...)
MOVIES
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Movie summary: Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, the Fantastic Four must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic herald, the Silver Surfer. (IMDb)
There's a reason for that subtitle above, which is because The Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place in an entirely different universe (Earth-818) to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-616/-199999 depending on how much you value the comics).
Doing so was a pretty great idea rather than trying to awkwardly insert them into almost twenty years of continuity and allowed the movie to make some choices not available to other MCU films.
The first being the visuals, with the Earth-828 being a type of retro-futuristic, taking huge inspiration from the Sixties (when they debuted, appropriately enough) in a similar manner to the Fallout franchise and the Fifties.
That means that First Steps genuinely looks very unlike anything else Marvel Studios have put out, including far stronger colours than is the norm for the MCU, even if you can tell the colour grading did its best to change that.
The lack of having to tie into continuity also means that the world could be set up exactly as needed to suit the film, with the heroes already established and world famous - a neat, almost in-universe montage quickly sets everything up, so even people without too much knowledge of the Fantastic Four can jump into this movie with no issues.
For me, that's First Steps greatest strength: even if you've never watched any Marvel movie before, you can watch this completely on its own and not feel like you're missing something or need to look up any information before watching it.
The score is great too, with Michael Giacchino knocking it out of the park creating an instantly iconic theme for the main group and elevating all the action on-screen.
Maybe I should be careful using the word 'action' though, as there isn't as much as you'd expect from a comic book superhero film - I saw a critic say it was more like Star Trek than the normal MCU movie and meaning that as a negative.
In fact, that is actually exactly what a Fantastic Four film should be like, so I agree with the comparison except I mean it as a huge compliment to the movie.
I was also pleased that the film gave Sue so much focus and Vanessa Kirby nailed it with one of my favourite performances in the MCU so far.
Sue has been acknowledged in the comics for a while as being the most powerful in the group and it was great to see that reflected on-screen for once, especially in the climactic showdown with Galactus.
Speaking of the big G, it was also great to see him done justice in live-action and Ralph Ineson was perfect for the role, his voice in particular now the definitive version of how Galactus should sound for me.
Not to forget the rest of the cast either, with practically every role performed as they should be, even if Reed (Pedro Pascal) and Ben (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) don't get quite as much to do as the Storm siblings.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a really, really good movie that stands on its own two feet, looking, sounding and feeling like something truly different to the rest of the MCU - more please. [9/10]
GAMES
911 Operator
A game made available for free on Steam recently a pretty fun time-killer, even if it can get pretty stressful at times.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice
There's a lot to like about how this game looks and especially about how it sounds, but the gameplay is getting pretty tedious already even though I'm also enjoying the story and want to see what happens.
Slay the Spire
Forgot I had this installed, so am playing this in-between doing other things and enjoying it a lot.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
I'm not noticing too much difference in the quality of the visuals playing it on PC compared to PS4 Pro, but the extra power of my graphics card has certainly boosted the frame rate and made everything feel that little bit smoother.
Also currently playing: FTL: Faster Than Light, Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020)
TV
Star Wars: Rebels, Season Two
Episode 12, “A Princess on Lothal”
Leia! Hammerhead Corvettes from Knights of the Old Republic! And more Clancy Brown! A really fun episode that packs a hell of a lot of story into its running time.
Episode 13, “The Protector of Concord Dawn”
A decent episode featuring a group of Mandalorians, but nothing special.
Episode 14, “Legends of the Lasat”
This was definitely Star Wars leaning more into the ‘fantasy’ side of the franchise than sci-fi and I wasn’t really enjoying it until the actually quite good climax, aided by some excellent music.
Episode 15, “The Call”
A decent enough episode and the debut (I believe?) of the purgill – basically, a cross between whales and squids that can live in space and travel through hyperspace.
Episode 16, "Homecoming”
Another okay episode linking back to Clone Wars, even if the story is essentially “Hera’s dad is a dick, but not too much of a dick.”
Episode 17, “The Honorable Ones”
A really great Zeb and Kallus story as enemies working together to survive and Kallus beginning to realise that maybe the Empire isn’t quite what he thinks it is.
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