Fantastic Four First Steps: one small step for a movie, a huge leap forward for marvel

Yes, I am well aware that in the long battle between Superman and Fantastic Four ultimately Fantastic Four came out last and the movie is potentially considered a Flop but Regardless I do believe that as a movie it is actually better than Superman.

Unfortunately, this sort of thing isn't uncommon in today's day and age and since the beginning of cinema as a medium if one thinks about it hard enough, because the reality is, it isn't enough for a movie to be good as a piece of art, in order to succeed it has to be entertaining and it has to appeal to as low of a common denominator it can without feeling overly sanitized or by the numbers.

Movies like Blade Runner 2049, the original Tron Movie and the Shawshank Redemption have always and will always be made and it is a both a sad and understandable fact that this sort of thing happens.

However Fantastic four is very close to the 500 dollar mark that it needs to cross in order to not be considered a flop by any metric(and even that is a bullshit metric because it has already earned back more than double its budget but who said all internet metrics are correct?)

And anyone who has seen it is singing praises and asking for more, as such it is a very strong belief of mine that going forwards these same characters appearing will lead to billion dollar films kind of like Iron Man and Captain America both if whose first movies earned in the 350 to 600 dollar Range but then both became household names moving forwards.

In the case of both the common knowledge and consensus of them was:

And this was when most characters among the avengers(save the hulk because of that 2003 movie) had next to zero pop culture presence.

Here in 2025 Fantastic Four does not have next to no pop culture presence.

21st Century Fox made sure of that...

Too bad they didn't also make sure that this image wasn't absolute dogshit like they somehow managed to do with the X-Men films... At least at first then they released X-Men Origins: Woverine and Dark Phoenix.

The First two Fantastic four movies while decent Films over all do not exactly instill a lot of confidence in a general movie going audience. I mean Galactus the incredible cosmic threat was essentially reduced to a Giant space Fart.

And coincidentally he is also the villain of this movie.

And that is not to mention the most recent outing which was written and re written more number of times than the first draft of my first Novel.

Does anyone remember the naked Thing?

Now all of the above and the fact that everyone and their mother is waiting around like sharks calling for the blood of a failing Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Multiverse now.

Has been working against this movie. Not counting of course the fact that it was against Superman and Weapons at the Box office.

So I would say all things considered this movie did actually pretty well.

So why is that?

And did the retro futuristic aesthetic it chose for itself actually work in its favour or against it?

Well that is what we are going to talk about.

But first I need to get it out of the way that the beginning of this movie scared the shit out of me when I noticed that the universe is called Earth 828 because that sounds very similar to 838 and we all know how the Reed Richards of that universe turned out

And actually I kind of was hoping that that would be the case because for one that would have been a cool call back and I was also hoping that the missing seat on the illuminati was occupied by RDJ Doctor Doom who was also the Iron Man of that universe, but oh well, you win some you loose some.

I mean by the mid credits we do see Dr. Doom talking to Franklin Richards so it is prudent to assume that RDJ doom is from this universe which I prefer becausr Doom and Richards are supposed to be college roommates.

But thats enough of what happened around the movie, what happens in it?

Well for one it actually was the first Marvel Project that finally gave me Wanda Vision vibes, even more so than Agatha All Along which is a sequel series to Wanda Vision.

And I believe this is partly because Matt Shackman carried over from that series to this movie but more than that, it is because at its Core this movie is about:

And I don't just mean it in terms of oh the four of them work together as a family or what not, no this movie is literally a metaphor for family troubles.

The beginning of this movie starts with Sue doing a pregnancy test and it coming back positive.

And it is precisely at that moment that Galactus comes to attack the world.

Fantastic Four is pretty much the only super team in all of this earth, I say pretty much because there are other Superbiengs its just that they aren't a team and they aren't defending Earth.

People say their Family is their world, and while the arrival of a baby while a wonderful thing can also be quite a shake up that can disrupt it.

Especially when it comes to Reed, it isn't just a joke when Johnny tells him:

Because Reed is quite literally the clichéd disconnected Genius who sits in his lab the whole day and had very little Idea over how Humans work.

I mean if it weren't for Ben Sue and Johnny Reed would probably have gone off the deep end locking himself up for days on end and doing crazy science stuff.

Thankfully thats not the case and they are here and they find his quirky Genius quite endearing actually.

But then there is Galactus heralded by Shalla Bal as Silver Surfer, Ironically also a scientist from a distant planet probably faced by the same dilemma that's facing the Fantastic Four right now, do I give up my family for the sake of the world?

And Shalla Bal chose to sacrifice her life with her family to become the Herald to Galactus, actually more than a Herald, Galactus takes time to get around and the surfer who is significantly faster goes around searching for a suitable planet.

In the Earth X comics the Celestials reproduced pretty much in the way they do in the MCU and there it was revealed that Galactus chooses planets specifically with a celestial seed to keep their population in check.

If the Eternals had taken place in a different universe maybe they could have connected it to this one, but who knows maybe all universe earth's have a celestial seed, regardless its not mentioned here.

And the way that Galactus comes through a planet isn't unlike a celestial.

But the point is Fantastic Four go straight to Galactus to bargain with him

Well I mean kind of like that but not exactly.

See there unbeknownst to Dormammu Doctor Strange has the upper hand as in he has trapped Dormammu in an eternal Time Loop and won't let go until he agreed to spare Earth and his universe.

Even if doing so causes him eternal pain which is the ultimate act of self sacrifice.

But in this movie the four are not in a position of Power, they are on uncharted territory and quite out of their depth.

Besides the timing is actually quite not that great as Galactus does something to immediately put Sue in an early Labour.

But one thing is certain my Boi Galactus is no longer a space Fart.

And he gives the four an offer they cannot Reject, give up their child and the Earth will be spared.

I mean come on that is a slam dunk for my theory innit?

And the Fantastic Four Reject it.

Wait what?

Now you see in a general Marvel movie sense Family is not really a virtue most Marvel Characters carry, I mean it is already a meme that most marvel characters have bad father's, on top of that, there are multiple cases where giving up a life with your loved one is a necessary step in saving the world.

Take for example What if...? Episode 4 What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? where the pursuit of a life with Christine is what finally leads to the destruction of Doctor Strange's universe.

On the same note he sacrifices his own chances at a happy life and a family as per Multiverse of Madness when he makes the choice to give up the time stone.

Spider man No way home once again involves spidey giving up the chance of a life with MJ and Ned to save the universe from a multiversal incursion.

And take even WandaVision for example the one this shares so many similarities with, in the end she is forced to end the lives of her family, a family that is proven to be very real by Agatha All Along so that she can take down the Hex.

So the Choice made by the four is already somewhat unorthodox.

And the people do not like/respect respect them for this choice, they see them as selfish and not doing their jobs, sitting up in their tower and looking down on them.

This is reflective of two things, firstly about how People often believe that as fans it is their right to have an opinion on every single action that their object of obsession does, and secondly it is indicative of pretty much everyone's attitude towards problems like this

"As long as I am safe I dont care if someone else gets hurt" they feel that they are owed this sacrifice, even after all the 4 have done for them, they have taken them for granted, were any one else in this position they would make the same choice.

But they are not, truth is, there are a lot of emotions going around and they have nowhere to go and the 4 are easy targets.

If in this situation the 4 show anger then it will only escalate.

The truth is tho there is one amongst them who is ready to take that choice if worst comes to worst.

And that is Reed, this is why I call this movie a metaphor for a family's Struggles with a newborn.

This almost breaks reed and Sue appart, but Sue keeping a cool head, reassures the people that while she doesn't intend to sacrifice her child for this world, neither will she stake the world for her child.

And so the four start working together to make an escape plan.

After trying lots of things, they finally settle on teleporting planet earth far away from where they currently are so galactus is delayed significantly and hopefully thrown off the scent.

This project is so extensive and so energy intensive that they have to turn off all power in the world to conserve the strength to be able to do this.

Theu cant even do it with one teleporter, they use many placed around the world all activated in tandem in a move which is surely inspired from the Event horizon telescope collaboration.

But it doesn't work, the Silver surfer jumps in destroying all but one of the teleportations towers.

And then we are treated to something that Fox would have never allowed for Johnny Storm the comic relief character to do.

Johnny followed the surfer into space during her first visit, and it is there that she gives him a blessing in her native language a blessing that he matches with previous transmissions and uses that to decode the language.

He is able to do this cause he asked the surfer for a translation of the blessing and is able to match it to other transmissions to get a full translator working.

He uses this knowledge to speak to her in her language telling her of how her people are thankful for her sacrifice and celebrate the life she has given them everyday...

And then he confronts her for bringing the same tragedy to other planets and tells her they just wish to save their world like she did, and while she isn't immediately convinced, it plants a tiny seed in her mind that helps them later.

But now with only one teleporter left they Instead plan to bring galactus away from his ship and teleport him far away so he is a threat no more.

But the question is, how do they lure him? They lure him using Franklin and while they all realise that they must put their child in danger to make the danger go away, Sue goes to take some space for herself.

Their final plan is to have galactus scan for the baby, and then switch him out while they spring their trap.

But galactus is smart, he sees through their deception and goes to search for the real Franklin

Forcing Sue to push herself to the limit to push him away and into the portal, and even as she lays dying, it isn't enough, Galactus comes back and Johnny decides to do the next self sacrifice except the surfer jumps in, pushing galactus back into the portal.

A parent will always be ready to die for their child.

Except when the child is a reality warper of cosmic proportions who just decides to bring his mother back

For the first time in the post endgame era I felt the magic I haven't felt since wandavision and I mean, like I said, it is Matt Shackman.

this film marks the first steps for both Marvel and Franklin.

And of course since this is marvel there is a post credit stinger teasing Doctor Doom