Why you can trust usWe independently evaluate the products we review. When you buy via links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read more about how we vet products and deals. Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Vanessa Kirby, Pedro Pascal and Joseph Quinn in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. (Courtesy of Disney/Everett Collection)Hello, Yahoo readers! My name is Brett Arnold, film critic and longtime Yahoo editor, and I'm back with another edition of Trust Me, I Watch Everything.
This week, there are a handful of movies coming to streaming services you're likely already paying for, including Wes Anderson's latest, an indie gem about baseball and a fun self-aware horror flick. The biggest new release is The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the latest attempt at making the Marvel characters pop onscreen with a buzzy new A-list cast, including Pedro Pascal. If you're looking for more Pascal, make it a double feature: his rom-dram Materialists is available to rent. Read on for more, because there's something here for everyone!What to watch in theatersMovies newly available to rent or buyMovies newly available on streaming services you may already haveš„What to watch in theatersMy recommendation: The Fantastic Four: First StepsWhy you should watch it: The Fantastic Four: First Steps proves that James Gunn's Superman wasn't a one-off and instead was the start of an emerging trend of superhero movies.
AdvertisementAdvertisementBoth are comic book flicks that are meant to be introduction films, as well as reboots featuring iconic characters we've already seen onscreen before. They both purposefully avoid harping much on the characters' origin story. The Fantastic Four: First Steps depicts it very quickly up top, whereas Superman throws you right into the action. Both rely on the audience knowing who these people are and what they do without getting bogged down by lore.
That being said, each movie is meant to emulate the experience of reading a comic book, picking up an issue and getting caught up in that one arc without having to worry about its place in the larger universe.
The best thing about The Fantastic Four: First Steps is that it doesn't adhere to the Marvel house style and has a unique look that's decidedly its own: a retro-futuristic take on the 1960s that feels as indebted to The Jetsons as it does the comic books its based on.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Benjamin Grimm in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)Superman opened with Clark Kent having already been Superman for three years, and First Steps similarly opens with our heroes celebrating four years as America's superhero protectors. The public knows who they are and appreciates their efforts to keep them safe.
AdvertisementAdvertisementBut Marvel's First Family is soon forced to balance their roles as heroes and the strength of their family bond while defending Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).
Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer in The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) is pregnant with Reed Richards's (Pedro Pascal) child, and the movie explores how Reed tries to "babyproof the world," as a character in the film puts it, and protect their kid from real and specific dangers - in this case, Galactus.
The film is at its best when its leaning into either the silliness or the scale of the sci-fi comic book world these characters inhabit, like when we get a glimpse of villain Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser, a highlight) and his underground world of Subterranea, or when the plot turns to the idea of teleporting entire planets in order to save lives.
The foreboding Galactus, who is the size of a skyscraper and more menacing than any villain I can think of in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is an undeniable selling point. Maybe it's just my love for science fiction showing, but a bad guy that's just the Death Star incarnate, destroying planets as if they were nothing, is scary and strong stuff.
Vanessa Kirby in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. (Marvel/Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)If I have a major complaint, it's that the Fantastic Four's powers are never really utilized in a way that feels specific to each character. It's all just generic superhero zipping around and shooting forceful beams out of their hands. The wildly specific skillsets all feel incidental here, rather than expertly written and weaved into the narrative or the action.
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe Bear's Ebon Moss-Bacharach is terrific as the voice of the Thing, but the character feels like he has little to do here, and the entirely-CGI creation of his being pales in comparison to the onscreen depiction 20 years ago, when Michael Chiklis was transformed into the character with extensive makeup. Joseph Quinn is fun as Johnny Storm, but he, too, just flies ar