★★★★

Set on a pastel painted Earth, parallel to our own and, thus far, unburdened by the weight of the cumbersome perplexities of the MCU, The Fantastic Four: First Steps serves up a breezy continuation of Marvel’s recent revival in legitimate entertainment. It’s ‘no homework required’ – in the words of Kevin Feige himself – fun and so game for good times that it squeezes the titular quartet’s entire origins story into a five minute montage. Wise move. Those in the know, know already that the Four are to join the main fray in next year’s hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. Those who couldn’t care less can sit back, relax, and switch off – assuming they haven’t already, in a different sense of the phrase. Never mind first step, it’s a stride back in the right direction.

The film is directed by Matt Shakman. An understanding of this should go some way toward explaining First Steps pleasing specificity and individuality in tone, visual identity and interactional dynamics. Shakman was responsible also for the Disney+ series WandaVision. Combining mid-century costumes and vintage shop windows with flying cars and robots, the vogue here is a buoyant retro futurism. It’s New York but not as you know it. Even the digital billboards of the film’s alt-Times Square recall chunky 50s TV screens – a fabulous visual. The effect may defy sound logic but elevates just about everything else. Herbie the cassette eyed robot, drawn from 1978’s “The New Fantastic Four” cartoon series, is a hoot.

Homaging the same sitcom vibes that powered much of WandaVision – from The Dick Van Dyke Show to I Love Lucy, with more than a little of the Bewitched – the film posits a familial Four as a house sharing unit. Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby bring stoicism to the ostensible grown ups in the dynamic – Reed “Mister Fantastic” Richards and Sue “Invisible Woman” Storm – with Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach amusingly infantilised as Johnny “Human Torch” Storm, Sue’s younger brother, and Ben “Thing” Grimm, Reed’s closest friend. In the stead of tiresome moodiness and rote fracturing – vis-à-vis every other attempt to bring the Four to screen – is a team who share mutual respect and genuinely appear to enjoy each other’s company. Time is even devoted to the evening meals they sit down and eat together each day.

First Steps’ real trump card, however, lands in the form of a pint sized newcomer and the early revelation that Sue is cooking up a super-baby. She and Reed had been trying for two long years and had all but given up. It’s their dreams answered. We assume the little tyke will be born a supe – his dad stretches and mum can wield force fields, after all – but it’s an unknown weighing heavily on the worrisome Reed, even before Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer sweeps in to announce all of humanity is doomed.

Indeed, the world-chomping Galactus (Ralph Ineson) looms large on the horizon. He’s munched his way through at least five local-ish planets already and, with a whiff of some Manhattan foliage, come to the conclusion that Earth-828 will prove a satiating amuse-bouche. There is one bargaining chip with the power to change Galactus’ mind, though, albeit a terrible price. With so many Marvel films dependent on total carnage and globalised threat these days, a shift to more microcosmic steaks – while just as monumental – feels sincerely welcome. One life in First Steps hits harder than fifty per cent of all life did in Avengers: Endgame. Watch for the affecting sequence that sees the Four prioritising a city-wide evacuation to ensure that not one soul is harmed in the final showdown. It could be a first for the franchise.

Mining its humour from lived-in relationships, First Steps enjoys warmth and tonal gentility. It’s a world away from the laugh-out-loud snarks of James Gunn’s Guardians trio but earns its consistent, heartfelt smiles. The film feels refreshing for simply expressing its own simplicity in so undemanding a form. It’ll be a shame to see the Four brought into the fold next year but one hopes the move will be temporary. Earth-828 has mileage enough to remain self-contained.

T.S.