FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Movie Minute Review

This is Paul Salfen with your KLAK Movie Minute. In theaters this weekend is The Fantastic Four: First Steps, yet another reboot of the Marvel First Family and well, it’s not so fantastic. Even though he’s the man of the hour right now, Pedro Pascal is a very dull and not a very superhero-like Mr. Fantastic and Vanessa Kirby redeems herself at the end after half-there first half, but it’s really The Thing and Human Torch that are the stronger half of the team here. The baby is super cute, though, but somehow the robot is not, which is a surprising miss. The new Silver Surfer, this time a female, is a solid fresh addition and Galactus embodies the feel of the classic comic villain well as does Paul Walter-Hauser’s Mole Man, and while it’s very visually appealing and feels like a classic comic book, it’s just missing that superhero special element. It thankfully isn’t a retread origin story or assumes that you know so much about the characters but director Matt Shakman, best known for the WandaVision series veers more into Disney+ territory here. Overall, it’s not a bad superheroes narrowly save the earth story, but this has all been done before. That’s it for this week. Join me next week and every week for another Movie Minute right here on 97.5 KLAK, AMFM Magazine, and RECRD.