I may be a late joiner sometimes – that's certainly true of my interest in the MCU, which until about four years ago was non-existent. But once I'm into something, I tend to stick with it and hope desperately for it not to fail. You could say I'm very Swedish in that regard. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that The Fantastic Four: First Steps will be considered a success, and a drop-off in box-office sales for its second weekend won't be too bad a sign (I mean, it still topped the box-office list domestically, so there's that).
What did I think of it myself? To use a quote from a reaction compilation video on YouTube: I liked it, but didn't love it. Make no mistake, though, it's well worth watching on the big screen, and the two-hour run time is relatively humane. (Is the length of films an equality issue? I have a vague impression that guys can hold it better, especially the young ones, and are thus more positive towards three-hour extravaganzas.)
The strengths of Fantastic Four are very strong indeed. It has likeable characters and is set in a world you are happy to explore. The acting is great and there's a lot of chemistry between the protagonists; they are convincing as "Marvel's First Family". I have a special soft spot for Joseph Quinn's Johnny Storm, and loved the scene where he managed to get through to the Silver Surfer and stir her conscience – after their semi-flirtation, which I also enjoyed, things suddenly got very serious.
The film also does many of the things that those in the know have urged Marvel to do for years. It introduces new characters, and does not rely on nostalgia (not for old MCU films, at any rate). No homework is required: people can watch Fantastic Four without having seen a single MCU film or TV show and follow it fine. Because the film's literally set in another universe, the world building feels fresh and inventive. The sassy "Marvel humour" everyone claims to be sick of is largely absent. The four protagonists' banter is more a way of bonding with one another than anything else, and draws an indulgent chuckle rather than right-out laughs. The effects are good and not rushed: main villain Galactus is an impressive sight.
My personal problem with this is that I like the classic MCU ingredients. I'm by no means tired of "Marvel humour" – it's one of the things that drew me into the MCU in the first place. Another canny thing the MCU films tended to do was to mix other genres with the superhero stuff, in order to attract mainstreamers like me. I was, after all, firmly anti-cape at one time, and to this day the action pieces where protagonists show off their "powers" are still what interests me least about a superhero flick (maybe in competition with all the agonising about "secret identities", which is mercifully absent from this as from most MCU movies).
It has been said approvingly of Fantastic Four, as of its box-office DC rival Superman, that they are very "comic-booky" films designed to win back comic-book readers who've found the Marvel and DC film universes a bit dreary. I can see that. Less dreariness is certainly welcome. But I'm not a comic-book reader – at least not the kind who's read superhero comics. It could be that exactly the ingredients that work best for "real" fans, who actually know and love the comic-book originals of these characters, slightly push away ignorant "normies" like myself.
But if you're into superhero movies, you should definitely watch this one. The story is a bit hokey, and some choices the characters make unfathomable (at one time, I sat whining quietly in my cinema seat: "no, don't tell them"), but it's well made and engaging. For my personal part, though, I think I prefer Thunderbolts*: a slice of the good old MCU, "Marvel humour" and all.
