Let’s face it. Marvel movies have been going downhill for a while now. The new Captain America: Brave New World was godawful. Thunderbolts was alright. Deadpool and Wolverine was actually pretty good. Quantumania was bad. The Marvels was so mediocre that I forgot it existed. But the latest Marvel movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, is awesome. If you’re here to find out whether or not to watch the movie, then I’ll save you some trouble: yes, watch it.

The setting was the first thing that caught my attention. The retrofuturistic world is unique among Marvel movies, and that novelty goes a very long way in setting First Steps apart from the rest of the pack. Moreover, it mimics the style of early Fantastic Four comics, with goofy designs galore. Especially the Fantasticar, it’s just so adorably retrofuturistic. Jack Kirby would be very proud. The little robot that lives in the Baxter Building is really dang cute. They did a great job with that little guy. The one exception to these design conventions is Galactus’ ship, with an almost Transformers-esque vibe to its interior. Galactus’ ship is actually the one area of production design that I disliked for this movie, because of how strong the rest of the aesthetics are. 

In the beginning of the movie, we get a bit of an exposition dump. While short and effective, it’s still exposition, something that I feel drags down the experience. That’s really the only bad part, with the rest of the film being near flawless in execution. The largest issue with this exposition dump is the actor, Mark Gatniss. He’s great! However, there is barely any distinction from his character Mycroft Holmes in the excellent BBC series Sherlock. His presence threw me off and took me out of the story. 

A character-driven story rather than one driven by the action is a new area for Marvel Studios. The characters are surprisingly good, not just Chris Pratt-esque quips and stereotypes. The characters have depth. There are jokes, but they aren’t overly emphasized. Except for the Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), who almost comes across like a less problematic Michael Bay character. What I mean by this is that he kinda just does things, and his motivations are simply waved off as him being interested in a girl. If anyone has watched the first few Transformers movies, you’ll get what I’m saying. However, the rest of the core cast is really good. Like really, really good. I especially liked The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) with his almost adorable portrayal. It’s a bit derivative with the “super tough looking softie” bit, but even so, he’s done very well. Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) is interesting because she’s the most politically active of the characters, challenging the gender norms of the time. 

Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) is who many people are watching this for, but he’s not exactly a standout in the movie. He’s great, especially for modern Marvel standards, but he doesn’t really steal the show. He’s above average, but in this movie, most of the characters are far above average, unfortunately making a strong performance seem weaker than it actually is. Even the villain is an interesting take on pure evil. Instead of insanity or revenge or love, Galactus is motivated by exhaustion, an understandable issue for a world-eating deity as old as time itself. 

I’m really enjoying the new wave of good superhero movies we seem to be on, with First Steps and the soft reboot of Superman. Another similarity to Superman is just how hopeful the whole event is, with both films making a strong case for the basic goodness of humanity, and in times like these, maybe we need that kind of optimism.