Fantastic Four: First Steps, The Spoiler Edition:

STOP If you have not seen Fantastic Four: The First Steps yet and you are looking for the spoiler-free review, go here.

Heart Eyes

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is reinventing its own wheel, and as we enter Phase 6, we are brought back to the world-building of Phase 1. It's a tonal reset, and if you're a deep-seated Marvel fan after watching this film, you noticed the comic deep cuts, emotional adult storytelling and the MCU course-correction we get after the (thankfully) failed Kane storyline.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards is perfect casting. A genius with compassion, empathy, and love. Not the smug and arrogant "well, actually," know-it-all we have seen in cartoons and earlier comics, but a man marked with emotional depth and the burden of his intellect. He's not put together so much as he's keeping it together.

I got hints of Hickman's. Council of Reeds. He is a man who knows exactly how far his intellect can go, but in this version, we get a man who nearly battles with his intelligence to find a balance with his family and partnership with his wife, Sue. We see this when she says he should be building the crib. He argues at first, saying anyone can build a crib, only he can build that machine, but eventually, you see, he did build it. He took what his wife said he thought about it, and did something for her without letting his genius get in the way.

Pascal plays Reed not like a superhero, but like a man trying desperately not to become a villain.

Vanessa Kirby is my Sue Storm. While not to minimize the skill set of Mara and Alba, it's not Mara's fault that it was a poorly written movie, and it's not Alba's fault that they sexualized her. Kirby's Storm was written as not just the heart of the film, but the matriarchy in play. She is powerful, sensual, feminine, strong, intelligent and will not back down on her convictions. She, to me, felt like the Sue in Future Foundation. She is not just "Reed's wife, The Invisible Woman!" but a Universal protector.

I'm also incredibly thrilled that Johnny Storm was not written as a sarcastic frat-boy with womanizing capabilities, and Joseph Quinn plays him with such emotion that I was left thinking he was the only Johnny Storm we needed.. He gets to be elevated, receives agency and not only intelligence that he was not able to grasp in previous renditions, but compassion as well. He loves his family; they are everything to him, but you can also tell that he does not always feel heard, and he has something to prove as well.

Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm is like a sleeper cell of emotion. His heart has a heart, his eyes portray a man who desperately wants to be human again, not because he does not accept who he has transformed into, but because he genuinely feels like he would be unlovable in that form. His love for his team is huge. He plays the role of Reed's best friend, but it's an endearing brotherhood between the three main lead men, and Sue that sold me on his take on the character. He is not just the best friend in a family; he is quite literally part of it.

MCU COURSE CORRECTION: THE FF AS THE NEW CORE

The entire structure of the MCU has changed, and as I implied above, if Kane was the detour, then the Fantastic Four are the road to bridge the gap between the worlds. Franklin Richards isn’t just Reed and Sue’s son—he’s the most powerful being the MCU has ever introduced, capable of warping reality itself and holding a power we have only seen in the Scarlet Witch before. He's a child of the cosmos, and Galactus wants him - not to take in as his own, to raise to be all-powerful, but to replace him, to remove the burden of insatiable hunger and place it on this child. This is the fundamental core story behind Fantastic Four. It's not that Galactus is coming to devour that Earth; it's that he is attempting to make a deal with them to sacrifice their child so their planet may exist, a deal that shows that Galactus does not understand the intricacies of humanity. The arc of humanity comes out in Shalla-Bal, who's brilliantly played by Julia Garner.

I herald his beginning.

I herald your end.

I herald... Galactus.

This sparks the Fantastic Four to go into high gear. Reed finishes their suits, and they leave for space with a "faster than light" trajectory. FTL is the warp/hyperdrive of the FF universe. This is where we first meet Galactus, brilliantly played by Ralph Ineson, who uses his low and gravelly voice to portray a new rendition of terror. After failed negotiations, Galactus pushes Sue to labour, and now they are on an escape route out of there. This sequence is one of the most interesting, well-shot shot and highly visual scenes I've seen in the MCU. With Shalla-Bal riding the waves of the wormhole, phasing into the ship, to Reed working on calculations while taking care of Sue, right down to them approaching a black hole, something they use to pull Shalla-Bal in, causing a time dilation to keep her there for a month, giving the Fantastic Four enough time to go back home, warn the people and start working on a plan - how to defeat Galactus without giving their son to him.

How to defeat a being before the creation of their Universe.

How to defeat a god.

The tension is rising on Earth. Fear-mongering, pro-Galactus cults, and the people up in arms about Reed and Sue not giving them their baby to save the people - a small sacrifice for the greater good? Not something most parents would even think about. Sue cannot take this. The four cannot work without the world believing in them, so she takes baby Franklin to the angry and fearful mob and appeals to their hearts.

"I will not sacrifice my baby for this Earth. And I will not sacrifice this Earth for my baby."

She speaks of them moving heaven and Earth for the people, and with that, she has solved it. They cannot move heaven, but they can move Earth - using the prototype teleportation device Reed has built. If they construct them all over the Earth, in every major city, they will generate enough power to move the Earth out of their Galaxy, away from Galactus, and it only goes perfectly until Shalla-Bal comes in and starts destroying each machine, one by one, as she speeds around the globe until she gets to New York, where she is met by Johnny Storm who has cracked her language with one simple blessing:

Die with yours.

Johnny deciphers enough of the language to be able to understand the messages that they have been picking up across the Universe and learns that Galactus once went to her planet to devour it, and she, an astronomer, offers herself to Galactus to seek out planets suited for his hunger. Something she is only able to do if she compartmentalizes her emotions for the death of other planets. Something she was able to do until Johnny played the messages of her world, thanking her, and the messages of citizens of other worlds screaming and begging for mercy. Shalla-Bal can no longer hide her humanity, but it is too late; she has stopped them from being able to teleport out of there, and now they have no choice but to invite Galactus there with the only bait he would want.

Franklin.

To bring the cosmic god to New York. To have him step into the portal. To send him to the edge of the Universe. They must plan, and fight, and while it's teamwork, it's Sue's power that ultimately pushes Galactic over the barrier, and Shalla-Bal sacrifices herself to slam her surfboard into Galactus to ...slam her surfboard into Galactus to drive him through the collapsing portal. It’s a death that feels earned and tragic—Shalla-Bal, once a herald of death, becomes its final obstacle. The portal seals. The sky clears. And Franklin cries. The world is saved. All is well. The movie ends, and then the post-credit scene hits. It's a few years later. We're in the Baxter building. Franklin is a little older, 5ish. He's in the living room with Sue, who's reading him books. We see his intelligence and childlike wonder in the literature he enjoys; Sue has to leave the room to get one of his favourite books, but when she gets back, the air feels different and she senses something.

She activates her powers. Just a shimmer she holds in her hand. She moves towards the living room, and there he is. Kneeling on the floor, calm, speaking softly to his son. We don't know what he's saying. We don't even know if Franklin called to him, or if he found Franklin. We don't see his face. Only his cloak, but we know exactly who he is. Dr. Doom.

An entrance without drama, no full reveal circa Thanos. An invasion of privacy, of well-being. Victor Von Doom, with all the power he has, is talking to the most powerful person in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. This tells me the MCU knows exactly what kind of villain he is. Someone who thinks in strategy.