Among Outposters, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of anticipation for The Fanstastic Four: First Steps. Among normies, however, the anticipation is much higher.
As always, we need to simply ask ourselves one question – is it any good?
According to the scores and the early reviews it seems the answer might be “Yes”, at least for some.
Actual, proper reviewers have it sitting at 86% from 118 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. So what do they have to say?
“Rather than allowing the action to define the story, the filmmakers let the poignant character-based scenes do the heavy lifting. That should not imply any lack of excitement.”
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter
“Matt Shakman has done something Marvel Studios doesn’t do very well anymore. He’s made a superhero movie that embraces the ‘super’ part. And the ‘hero’ part. And the ‘movie’ part.”
William Bibbiani, The Wrap
“This is a solid, intelligent, occasionally inspired comic book movie that delivers most of what a popular audience demands from the genre plus a little bit more.”
Matt Zoller Seitz, RogerEbert.com
“For now, we can bask in this movie’s elegant, cathode-ray chic and not have to think too hard about anything else, confident in the colorful delusion that studio executives, much like our benevolent superheroes, have our best interests at heart.”
Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“First Steps doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre, but it has its own freshness — it’s uncluttered, good-natured and altogether good value — even if it might be the Marvel film ultimately remembered for its nice bathrooms and kitchen fittings.”
Jonathan Romney, Financial Times
“What they’ve created is a toybox, a diorama that marries design styles and technology but that never feels like a place where actual people live.”
Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“It feels less like a victory than it does a total surrender. You have to walk before you can run, but at this point the MCU is back to crawling on its knees, and at this point it seems like it might be too afraid to ever stand back up again.”
David Ehrlich, Indiewire
Oooof. That last guy seemingly didn’t like it one bit.
Anyway, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens this week, and is currently tracking for a decent haul in the post-COVID era.
