Film Review – The Fantastic Four: First Steps

After this much practice, it’s about time Marvel got this one at least somewhat right. There have been four previous cinematic adventures for the comic book family The Fantastic Four, and none of them really clicked. A 1994 version was doomed from conception, though it worked extremely hard to pull off amazing things without a budget. Iterations in 2005 and 2007 weren’t nearly as fun as they could’ve been, held back by an unadventurous director. And a revival in 2015 was downright awful, killing off future interest in the brand name. The Marvel Cinematic Universe tries again with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” and the production is a lot more confident with its fantasy vision this time around, creating a screen space big enough to handle heroism and gigantic villainy, with director Matt Shakman (a television veteran) mostly in command of the material’s sense of threat. It’s a lumpy endeavor that doesn’t always connect the dramatic dots, but it’s periodically huge, capturing a significant comic book battle previous “Fantastic Four” offerings couldn’t manage without falling apart. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com