In 2004, Brad Bird and Pixar released The Incredibles, which at the time was considered one of the best superhero films ever made and — even if not in name — the best version of Marvel’s first family, the Fantastic Four, that had yet made it to screens. Tim Story’s pre-MCU Fantastic Four came and went the next year, and then there was a decade wait before Josh Trank and Fox released their abortive, darkly tinged Fantastic Four (the third attempt at “properly” adapting the source characters, and landing firmly in the midst of the Marvel explosion), after which lots of folks opined that of all the Marvel Comics properties, FF would benefit the most from the faithfully transcribed, bright poppy colors and wisecracking tone of the MCU house style. Now, with the release of the honest-to-goodness MCU The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we can all realize that both of those yesteryear opinions are still true: as a cinematic outing for a family of squabbling superheroes, The Incredibles is still as good as it gets; and First Steps gets just enough right to be a perfectly okay introduction to the MCU for the characters.

First Steps places our fantastic family on an alternate Earth (Earth 828, to be exact), a seemingly stuck-in-the-’60s techno futurist utopia. Scientist Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), his best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Sue’s brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) have been superpowered by gamma rays for four years already, and in that time they’ve become both massive celebrities and almost world leaders. We don’t even find out who the U.S. President is, but Sue is a big wheel at the UN and Reed is so revered that, for instance, when he asks the entire world to enact an electricity curfew, it’s done without question. It’s a little odd to see a big movie like this cheering for a supposedly benevolent tech genius captain of intellect, but that’s the vision of optimism First Steps is sticking to.

It’s only when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to inform humanity that a massive space robot God thing named Galactus (Ralph Inneson) is imminently going to show up and eat the entire planet and everything on it that the Fantastic Four come into conflict with their responsibilities — mostly because Galactus says he’ll spare the planet if Reed and Sue turn over their infant son, Franklin, to him. It’s a strange request to be sure, but apparently the boy has some immense cosmic power, and also this is a world that has already dealt with an incursion by a race of underground dwellers led by Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), so this sort of thing is simply all of a piece on Earth 828.

It’s that kind of kicky humor and Silver Age comics sincerity that keeps First Steps bouncing along at its best. The four leads have enough credible chemistry, and the script leans just enough into their squabbles and insecurities as opposed to special effects and action to let the charm and comedy to do its work; it’s easy to see Marvel’s priorities in this regard in bringing aboard Matt Shakman, who was something of a house director for a decade on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, amongst dozens of other big-name TV credits. Unfortunately, for a planet-destroying threat, Galactus doesn’t really clock as anything but a big fat CGI robot, mostly because his powers and motivations are either unlimited or not really clear, and also because Reed is so brilliant that the audience is just sitting around waiting for him to design some impossible machine to do some impossible thing (which, alas, is exactly what happens). And so, once the characters take a back seat to the spectacle — which is perfectly serviceable MCU spectacle, to be fair — the movie switches over to autopilot.

Still, it’s at least a little refreshing to get a bit of a clean slate for such key Marvel characters. Setting this apart from the monolithic franchise — at least for this one movie — removes the need for a lot of homework with regard to the limited series slate and offers the characters the chance to legitimately establish themselves rather than merely fit into prescribed positions for a future installment. That said, clearing that low hurdle speaks more to a core franchise weakness than a strength of this specific film, and First Steps can’t help but still largely feel like more of the same, even if this installment tastes a bit better than the last few bowls of slop Marvel has served.

DIRECTOR: Matt Shakman;  CAST: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Ralph Ineson;  DISTRIBUTOR: Walt Disney Pictures;  IN THEATERS: July 25;  RUNTIME: 1 hr. 55 min.

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