The Fantastic Four are bona fide Marvel A-listers. Debuting in 1961, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm pre-date fellow Stan Lee/Jack Kirby creations Ant-Man, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, and even the X-Men. They were also saving the world way before the Stan Lee/Steve Ditko collaboration Spider-Man started swinging around New York.
Yet, unlike the other superhero superstars to emerge from that spectacularly fertile period in comic-book history, the fantastic family have traditionally struggled with the transition to the big screen. It’s not for the want of trying, however, because their long-awaited Marvel Cinematic Universe debut “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is just the latest quest to turn the quartet into movie stars.
“First Steps” is already doing better than the 1994 vintage, simply by making it into multiplexes. Producer Bernd Eichinger rushed his adaptation into production so he could hang on to the rights he’d bought for a reported $250,000 a few years earlier. B-movie legend Roger Corman was brought on board to oversee the infamously low-budget production.
But when Avi Arad (the Marvel Entertainment boss responsible for kickstarting the company’s assault on Hollywood) got wind of the project, he was reportedly so worried about the damage a substandard film could do to his “Fantastic Four” IP that he bought the film off Eichinger to stop it ever seeing the light of the day. Then, the (unconfirmed) story goes, he destroyed every print to make his investment worthwhile — although it’s easy enough to find low-quality videos on YouTube, if you’re a glutton for punishment.
By the time the next iteration of Marvel’s first family came along in 2005, the superhero landscape had changed immeasurably. “Blade” (1998), “X-Men” (2000), “Spider-Man” (2002), and more had proved that Marvel properties could be extremely lucrative, and 20th Century Fox — by now the FF rights holders — decided to give the team another shot at big-screen glory.
While superhero films were making a sizeable impression at the box office — and Arad’s efforts to make the most of Marvel’s assets were profitable — Hollywood hadn’t quite cracked the formula for turning out good ones on a consistent basis. The genre was also caught in a tonal tussle between light and dark. In 2005, largely thanks to the success of “X-Men” and the just-released “Batman Begins,” the forces of darkness were winning.
So, when Tim Story’s “Fantastic Four” arrived later that year, its more frivolous tone seemed immediately out of step with the biggest hits of the era. Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” released the year prior, also did it few favors. It borrowed heavily from the “FF”‘s comic-book blueprint, but setting a bar for wit, invention, and humor that even Mr. Fantastic at full-stretch would struggle to meet.
Before Story took the helm, future “Ant-Man” director Peyton Reed (at the time best known for cheerleading comedy “Bring it On”) had been attached to the property. He’d envisioned the project as a ’60s-set period piece — an approach now taken by “First Steps” — and has since compared his version to The Beatles’ classic “A Hard Day’s Night.” In hindsight that might have worked better than what ultimately landed in theaters…
George Clooney had, for a long time, been linked to the role of Mr. Fantastic — presumably thanks to his graying temples rather than his work in infamous superhero stinker “Batman & Robin” — but Fox opted for a younger, supposedly cooler quartet of Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Evans. The latter was arguably the film’s breakout star, a Human Torch whose snowboarding exploits feel very mid-’00s. (Evans’ biggest superhero payday would, of course, come a few years later when he picked up Captain America’s shield.)
The familiar origin story of the gang gaining superpowers after being zapped by cosmic rays remained mostly intact. However, they weren’t alone on their infamous trip, as a certain Victor von Doom now hitched a ride.
Doctor Doom’s beef with the quartet — Reed Richards, in particular — dated back to the earliest issues of the comics, in which he was a skilled wielder of both science and magic. He was also the dictator of the fictional European country of Latveria, but in “FF05” (as nobody calls it), he was controversially reimagined as the successful businessman (played by the late Julian McMahon) who bankrolled the ill-fated mission.
“Since ‘Austin Powers’ you can’t have a character trying to take over the world,” Arad reasoned at the time, though Dr. Evil would have been no less plausible than the generic bad guy this Doom became. Post-cosmic ray exposure, he developed a metallic complexion and the ability to shoot electricity from his fingertips.
Unfortunately, the movie — and 2007 sequel “Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer” — stopped short of embracing the wonderful cosmic goofiness of Kirby and Lee’s original stories. In this supposedly more grounded reality, the planet-munching giant Galactus was deemed too preposterous for 21st century audiences and was subsequently realized in the less menacing form of a cloud; the only significant concession to the character’s comic-book origins was the malevolent vapor casting a shadow in the shape of the iconic Galactus helmet.
Both films were admirably brief but also raced to tick off as many elements of “Fantastic Four” lore as they could. The Silver Surfer? Check. Fantasticar? Yep. Ben’s girlfriend, Alicia Masters? She’s there too, played by a woefully underused Kerry Washington. “Fantastic Four” even included a reference to Alicia’s evil stepdad, aka the Puppet Master, who was allegedly in line for bad guy duties if a threequel had ever happened.
The superteam were instead rebooted in 2015, but remained out of touch with the prevailing winds of comic-book land. The multi-billion-dollar success of the Disney-owned Marvel Cinematic Universe had ensured that shared universe shenanigans and quippy superheroes were now the order of the day. Nonetheless, 20th Century Fox — the Four wouldn’t fall under MCU jurisdiction until Disney bought the studio in 2019 — for some reason decided to go dark. Very dark.
Director Josh Trank had made his name with superpowered found footage drama “Chronicle” (2012), and he brought a similarly revisionist perspective to the Fantastic Four property. He even ditched the usual outer space/cosmic ray origin story in favor of exposing the team (now played by Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B Jordan, and Jamie Bell) to a freaky parallel dimension.
In Trank’s vision, the Fantastic Four’s new-found abilities were less gifts and — in the words of co-writer Simon Kinberg — were rather “aggressively abnormal physical conditions.” This was the superhero movie as body horror, a David Cronenberg-esque reinvention in which the quartet’s new-found powers were afflictions to be overcome. It certainly wasn’t the place for bright blue Spandex suits — the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed, naked Thing didn’t even get any Speedos to cover his modesty!
The film did retain two innovations from the Story films: its notably younger cast and also having Victor von Doom accompany the gang on their fateful trip. This Doom (played by Toby Kebbell) strayed even further from the OG model, however, a brilliant but arrogant scientist turned into a vengeful, super-powerful monster by an extended stay on “Planet Zero.” He and “Stranger Things”‘ Vecna could almost be brothers.
But despite the largely negative reception, it wasn’t a total disaster. It only went properly off the rails in its final act, when it rushed to establish Victor as its chief villain, before bumping him off in the usual blur of CGI carnage. Its biggest sin was arguably straying so far from the source material that it no longer felt like the “Fantastic Four.” Had it been rebranded as something else, it may have been received better.
A sequel was in development before the film had even made it into theaters, but was abandoned after the first attempt failed to inspire either critics or audiences. Positive early reviews for “First Steps” suggest that Marvel Studios overlord Kevin Feige (coincidentally an executive producer on both the Tim Story “FF” films) has learned some lessons from previous mistakes.
Nonetheless, it must be a weight off the four lead actors’ minds to know that, however “First Steps” performs at the box office, they’re already guaranteed a return in “Avengers: Doomsday.”
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is out now in the U.K. and U.S.
The previous “Fantastic Four” films (except for the unreleased Roger Corman version) are available on Disney+.
