Speaker #0Well, hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network. I am your host Kevin Reed and this is the spoiler and I say it again, spoiler review of the 37th film. in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Yes, you heard me right. 37 movies in this soap opera reno as the MCU. And it's the first film in phase six of the MCU. This is the Fantastic Four First Steps starring Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm. Edmund Moss Batrock as the theme Ben Grimm and Joseph Quinn as Johnny storm. This is a film that is set in this 1960s style of a retro futuristic world completely different from the 1960s that we know but Similar in a way in this world the Fantastic Four must protect the planet from the world devouring cosmic being known as Galactus and I can't find the words to express how much I was anticipating this movie. I really not so much that I'm just this giant Fantastic Four fan you know I've read them in the comics saw all the movies unfortunately and watched the animated show when it came out years ago, but I'm not a like... oh man reed richards that's my guy i'm not that but i do enjoy this superhero team and the reason i was anticipating this because i wanted to see marvel's take on this team you know we got the tim story versions with uh jessica alba and chris evans and all them we got that but that was 20th century fox and that miles teller michael b jordan but that that i don't know what they were trying to do there but we got those versions but i wanted to see marvel the proper marvel marvel studios the mcu take on marvel's first family this is a big deal at marvel this this team here messed this up and marvel is in trouble man they are in serious trouble if they can't nail the fantastic for and so i was anticipating it for that reason and just to clarify not that i was cheering on to see their demise or anything like that i had confidence that they were going to get this right you know they messed up captain america you know with brave new world they messed up other properties that they did rushing them out in these last couple of phases and didn't give it a proper Beal. And it messed up the product, you know? People have kind of lost faith in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. So you needed something to jolt some life into this franchise. And especially that this is the last film that's going to lead us into Avengers Doomsday and Avengers Secret War. So we need something to get us excited for that film. Will it be the Fantastic Four? first steps once again this is a spoiler review i'm gonna touch in on spoilers not not full spoil i'm not gonna go beat by beat and uh drop every easter egg and every reference that was made in the film but i am going to talk about some plot points that will travel on to future films in the So that's why this is a spoiler review. Well, starting off with my... initial thoughts my overall thoughts of this film i liked it i really did i liked it a lot that didn't quite love it but i liked it a lot this is probably one of the best marvel films they've made in god knows how long it this felt like marvel this is marvel firing on all cylinders with the cast and the uh action in the special effects and the jokes and all that it all lands um for the most part in this movie it's not doom and gloom it's not a dark depiction of these characters we got that with the josh trank fantastic four film uh that just killed that reboot in his tracks but this is a clearly this is a upbeat fun bright film and it does have dark undertones you know story-wise that we're going to get into, but this is a very... fun movie. I felt that this movie really captured what we have grown to love in the MCU. You know, having a fun time, having, you know, not sitting there being depressed by superheroes. You know, our superheroes going through the same mess that we're going through in life. You know, I don't need to see my superheroes struggling to pay bills. That's not... that's not good i struggle myself i don't need to see my superheroes that i'm looking up to struggling with everyday life i need to i need some hope and we haven't we haven't received a lot of hope uh from our superheroes as of late and that's marvel dc whatever we just have not seen that as of late and it's good to see that there's a a brighter future ahead or something that we can look upon and feel excitement, get a sense of escape. um by watching it so that alone made this film super exciting to watch this film is directed by mac shackman and he gave us wandavision he is the he's the man behind that show the first disney plus mcu show that we got during the pandemic and i think that was universally received and loved for the most part i i haven't spoke to anybody who didn't like wandavision i wandavision was and still is in my humble opinion the best thing that marvel has done after endgame you know it's it's that good of a show and i'm not saying that's the only thing that was good after endgame it was just the best thing in my humble opinion to come out marvel has had some big swings and not all of them connected obviously but WandaVision, I believe did uh on a universal front and max shackman being the man behind this film really got me fueled up like okay if we're gonna get a fantastic four set in this alternate universe in this retro futuristic world where we saw similar tropes you know in wandavision and he can kind of expand on and have a bigger canvas to paint on with this film okay sign me up and man he directed the piss out of this movie he he did an awesome job with this film the film feels like a comic book coming to life especially in the action sequences and stuff like that it just felt like comic book panels put in motion like a flip book Good song. It was really, really good in that aspect. I loved it. Loved the look, the color scheme. Everything was great as far as the direction there. The screenplay, it was decent. You know, it wasn't the greatest thing. Nothing that's going to make you, no pun intended, scratch the brain, you know, like Reed Richards would. But this is pretty cookie color of a screenplay. but when you have a basic paint by numbers screenplay you have to rely on your performers and their performances and my god uh the performances here were amazing uh pedro pascal as reed richards aka mr fantastic no pun intended but he was fantastic i i loved him in his role and he i do this every time pedro pascal is cast in anything whether it was the last of us or the mandalorian whatever i always question it and i don't know why at this point you would think i would have learned my lesson but i haven't i'm i'm just that dumb i i questioned when he was cast as reed richards i just couldn't see it you know it just didn't compute in my mind him as reed richards even when the first trailer came out and it was good it was a good trailer all this year. He looked good as reed richards and all this it still didn't quite get there with me all the way up to me sitting in the theater and the movie is about to play and i was like uh this is gonna i'm kind of nervous i'm kind of nervous but the movie begins and voila you know he is reed richards there is no other reed richards that has uh nailed this character in live action form better than uh pedro pascal and i know that's not a high bar that he had to clear but i mean he just he just blew everybody out the water whoever had betrayed uh reed richards in the the past uh i thought he did an excellent job as the de facto leader of this family um and i say de facto because the real leader of this family at least the way this movie was set up is vanessa kirby sue storm she was the leader she this was her movie she is the uh anchor point of this movie and that is not a negative vanessa kirby from this performance from this role and she has been money and everything i mean she was in hobs and shaw she was in uh the mission impossible films and uh many other properties that she's been involved with but this is a star making world this is a superstar making role um vanessa kirby excellent as sue storm i mean excellent I don't blame them for shifting the focus on her character more than anybody else in this movie. Even though this is an ensemble film, she deserved to lead. She is the leader and man, she put the weight of the world on her shoulders and carried it like it was nothing. She was amazing in the role of Sue Storm. Edmund Moss Bobrak as Ben Grimm, the thing. i thought he was good out of all the characters uh at least our four are fantastic for you if you will he was the one that kind of got shortchanged you know uh johnny got a good role in here but ben grimm was kind of shoved to the side a little bit he had he had a part in his movie he had a good role in this movie and edmund moss batrach did excellent as ben grimm you can you can sense him underneath the cgi it was is not one of those oh he just did voice over for you know like for instance the his castmate pedro pascal in the mandalorian when you watch the mandalorian you know that's not pedro pascal under the helmet that's he's just doing the voice and you can you sense that from that show um even though i enjoyed the show i'm not knocking the show but I'm just saying, you know he's just doing the voice. Here, as Ben Grimm, you can tell that Edmund Moss Batwreck was on set. He was in the motion capture suit, and they just captured his performance. You know, I can see him underneath that CGI. You know, that's how good of a performance it was. He got lost in the sauce there, but it wasn't much there. I didn't like the fact that we don't get to see the struggle. that ben grimm goes through in the comics and in other adaptations of this team uh you know live action wise it he we didn't get to see him struggle you know the fact that he's this giant mock rock monster you know that everybody else yeah they're mutated but they're not physically deformed as he is and we got to see we saw it in the comics we saw it on the cartoon we saw it in the uh other fantastic four films but not here we didn't get to see it here he kind of accepted it i guess you know it was like whatever you know which is fine it's fine that they went that way but you know that character has a lot more depth to him and we didn't get to experience it here and i think that's that's why i feel he had gotten shortchanged uh in this film out of all the other characters. Johnny Storm outshined him or burnt him out, so to say. I'm trying to use these puns. Whatever. Anyway, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm. Once again, great job by Joseph Quinn. We all know him from Stranger Things and A Quiet Place Day One and so on and so forth. Really good actor. Awesome actor. Surprised when he got cast as well. In this role, I saw him as something bigger, you know, a different character. in a comic book film but he fit this role and the reason i say something bigger my wife said this when we was leaving the theater it's just like he looks like robert downey jr he looks like his younger brother or something he's really and i didn't notice it until she said it and when she said it immediately i'm like yeah he do he looks like a younger version of robert downey jr I don't know how they could use that or could have used that in the MCU. Like if they were going to recast or reboot Iron Man or something like that, hey, let's get Joseph Quinn. He looks like Tony Stark, a younger version, so let's use him. I think that would have worked, but whatever. Him as Johnny Storm, it was good. He was really good. I like the change that they made, and I say change, but it is a change from the... previous versions of this character on uh the big screen showing his intelligence showing that he isn't just a young hothead trying to uh get in some girl's uh pants you know he's just the comic relief or whatever like chris evans was in those movies no they they actually flushed him out a little bit more he used his intelligence to the point where He did something Reed Richards couldn't do. He deciphered the language of the Silver Surfer, was able to figure out what the message was that was being sent through the Cosmotes, and he figured it out. He even learned the language, was able to communicate with the Silver Surfer because he learned it and talked to her and ultimately helped save the day by doing that. But I'm like, man, Johnny, go ahead on, bro. He isn't just a flame guy that flies. He actually, actually used his brain. I enjoyed that so much. I was impressed by that and appreciated that turn for that character. Speaking of the Silver Surfer, Julia Garner, who I am a huge fan of ever since Ozark. Love her, man. Love her. her ass charlabelle as silver surfer great it was great and for all the people out there who still to still get mad talking about silver surfer is a man charlabelle is from the comics people pick up a comic book man please please uh it's so infuriating because i heard it i heard it when i went and saw the movie. I heard it would be... people oh man they changed it for oh man you know that that go woke go broke crowd oh they're going woke yeah making making silver surf for a woman he she's a woman there are multiple civil surfers in the comic books maybe if you read a comic book you would know that but anyways this is who we got and i think this was the right choice for this film uh charlotte bell was great man julia garner was great. uh the action sequences when she was chasing down this fantastic four uh uh after they met up with galactus the first time was was that was some that was some excitement man the mere fact that the fantastic four was going through this wormhole or whatever at at the speed of light and she was able to keep up on it and catch him multiple times it was like man she is a beast and uh they really showed her uh showed how powerful she is in this movie i i greatly appreciate it my knock on it we didn't get enough of her and i know this isn't the silver surfer movie but i wanted to see more of her character just a little bit just maybe just one scene i'm not talking about half the movie uh give an expedition on her backstory i mean just one little scene kind of get into uh her motivations but they did a good job they they did for the little time that they spent with her character you knew where she was coming from you knew what she was about so it wasn't like they left anything on the table or left something open-ended that we had to figure out on our own no they they did you know they did everything i guess you could say proper it's just a personal preference. I wish. we would have got a little bit more of because i was enjoying her character i was enjoying her performance and uh selfishly i wish i would have got a little bit more uh her boss in this movie galactus played by ralph uh uh how you pronounce his name uh innocent uh i was about to say he's the best depiction of galactus in in film but that's stupid because technically this is first i'm not counting that crap in rise of the silver sir that wasn't even a that was a cloud so that doesn't even count but man what what a job and it's weird because he wasn't in it long he wasn't in it uh for the majority of the movie he was there to pose a threat he was there to wreck have it at the end and he left that was it and that's all you can do with galactus go there's nothing more to galactus galactic he just devours planets that's him that's it you know there's nothing else he could do and so they used him just right there that was that was great and when he was on the stream, bro. especially when he arrived to earth loved it i loved him trampling through the city uh the showdown with him and sue uh once again showing how powerful she is able to push galactus into a wormhole or a black hole whatever it was uh that reed cooked up for him bro that was powerful that was a scene i was i was getting teary-eyed i'm like man I didn't realize Sue was that powerful. I know she's powerful, but I didn't know she was that powerful. And that was exciting to watch. But it came at a cost because she died. And it was heartbreaking. But me as a comic reader, I knew what was about to happen. There's no guessing here. Of course, this is a spoiler review, so it doesn't matter if I say it. but... we know that they have a child in this movie they being reed and sue and that child is franklin richards and if you read the comics you know how powerful franklin richards is or how important that character is in marvel comics he is the most powerful being in marvel comics of franklin richards the dude the dude can create universes did you he creates it so him being uh him being there at the end i knew that okay he's gonna resurrect sue that's what happened you know so it didn't really surprise me uh what had happened at the end but it was it was a powerful scene uh nonetheless um other characters in this film or other performers in this film they kind of got lost i i felt and Once again, I'm not trying to sit there and watch a four hour movie, but some of these characters I wish we could have got a little bit more from, you know, Paul Walter Hauser, who is amazing, man. That dude is I don't know what it is about that dude, but I love him in whatever he's in. I mean, from Richard Jewell to Cobra Kai to him popping up on wrestling. He's a wrestler. too but he's an actor uh that tv show was it a tv show or was it a movie i can't remember him and uh taryn eggerton i can't remember it was on apple tv plus but he was good in that he just pops up in things and he i don't know it's different he has range out of this world well he is mold man in this film and i wanted more i wanted more because paul walter hauser is So funny, you know, he's so good and everything that he does and we only got a scene and a half of him And I wanted to see much much more of him and mold man I'll touch in a little bit more on that character and How it plays in his film and how it plays with a lot of people who's gonna watch this film in a little while But yeah, I wish for the guy a little bit more of him, but he was great for the moments that we did get Natasha Lyonne She is in this film. I can't remember her character's name I thought she was gonna be Alicia Mad masters, but she's not but she is kind of a love interest for Ben Grimm I don't know if that character is from the comics or not really don't but it's fine is fine But in any event, I don't know why I don't I don't know why she was in this book and in the touch And Leon is once again awesome actress Love poker face love that show loved her since but I'm a cheerleader back in the day an American Pie and Oranges a new black and all that everything she's been a part of I loved her in and This was kind of different for her, you know, I almost didn't recognize her in this movie, but you know, she was good It was just that what what is she there for? You know it ultimately at the end She really served no purpose to the story. And so I don't understand why she was it, that character, not her. But that character was in this movie. If they were going to cut something, they could have cut her. They end up cutting John Malkovich. Yes, John Malkovich. He was the red ghost. I think that was his character's name who controlled the apes. Now, they had the apes in here, but they didn't have the... Dude. they didn't have john malkovich they cut him out of the movie how do you cut john malkovich man that dude's a national treasure but whatever it is what it is going back to the mole man of it all and my wife said this when we was on our way home and she was like yeah it just feels like they were ripping off they were ripping off the incredibles and i couldn't do nothing but laugh and i'm like i I can... I can understand that because God bless my wife, love her to death. But she had never read comics, you know. She didn't read the comics and watch the movies previously. So she doesn't know about Fantastic Four. And I had to explain to her, like, baby, The Incredibles ripped off the Fantastic Four. That's why that's like that. It wasn't the other way around. but That also plays a part into this film. It felt like they were trying their best not to be The Incredibles. They wanted to set their self apart from that. But it's hard to do that because The Incredibles is the greatest Fantastic Four film of all time. That's all The Incredibles is. It's the Fantastic Four. you even got a little baby jack jack in this movie everything is there uh this movie tried so hard not to do it i kind of felt that dad like okay we go this route no we can't do that the incredibles did that already so let's go another way it it just it reeked of that now i'm not saying the filmmakers uh uh uh had that in on their chalkboard or whatever but it just felt like that to me i guess me loving the incredibles and knowing that film so hard even the second one um and knowing that that film was basically the fantastic four i'm sitting there not comparing it you know trying to draw comparisons between the two it was just like see where i see what you did there see what you did there but regardless uh here's my thing here's here's the real spoiler part of this review that i wanted to talk about like i said i weren't gonna go bit by bit with the review uh it was just one part i wanted to talk about that was that is major spoilers for going forward in the mcu and that is the mid-credits scene um and by the way If you haven't seen it, and if you haven't seen it, I don't know why you're listening to the spoiler review, but that's your choice. If you haven't seen it, don't worry about the second post-credits scene. At the very end of the credits, you can leave after the first post-credits scene. It doesn't, that is, that makes, that has no bearing on nothing. And it, all it did, it kind of pissed me off when I, but that middle one, the first one, when, uh is four years later and sue storm is uh reading a book to franklin richards and they're in there uh they're in the back baxter building and whatnot she goes to get another book comes back and she hears a noise and looks behind the tv and there's dr doom with franklin and we don't see robert downey jr But all reports say even Robert Downey Jr. himself said that was him even though we don't see his face, but that was Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Doom his first appearance as Doctor Doom I guess they're saving the reveal of his face until the movie but Any who's uh, and that's it Franklin's holding the metal mask and that's it because all that was it in the rest of the credits rule Here's my problem, and this has nothing to do with the movie. I'm pretty much finished with my review of the movie. This has to do with the MCU going forward. I'm not excited for Doomsday. They have done nothing to boost my excitement for that film. They haven't set anything up. Throw in Doctor Doom. the mid credit scene of Fantastic Four where he links up with Franklin Richards does Absolutely nothing for me now for all of the geeks and nerds out there like myself Who are sitting there yelling at their phones or TVs or tablets or wherever you listening to this show? Oh Kevin you don't know comics you do Franklin Richards gonna play a big party now I know that. I know what it sets up. I get that part of it. My problem is it's just thrown at us. It's just thrown at nothing. There is no setup. And that was the problem with the DCEU. You know, Zack Snyder's Man of Steel and BBS and all this other stuff. They just threw stuff at us. That's why it crashed and burned. you know they didn't set up the character they didn't set up the films and led up to a justice league movie like the first three phases of marvel where you got iron man you got thor you got captain america and so on and so forth and it led to the avengers you know it's set up we haven't been led into this doomsday thing at no point i know we had to pivot and i say we like i work for marvel but I know we had Kane the Conqueror. That was the initial plan. It was going to be Kane. Who is connected to the Fantastic Four? Franklin Richards is the ancestor, if you will, to Kane the Conqueror. So there's a connection there. But they had to pivot, even though I felt they didn't have to pivot, but they pivoted from Kane. All right, fine. Now, we went into this Doom thing, and it just thrown at us. Nothing else set up Doom. Doom is not a threat. Do you realize in the comics that Doom is a Thanos-level villain? Probably bigger than Thanos in the comics. Doom is nothing to play with, and we're just going to get him for one movie, and that's that? There's no setup. There's no threat there. There's no reason why he is the way he is. I thought that the Fantastic Four first steps, we were going to be introduced, which we were, I guess, technically. But you know what I'm saying. We were going to get introduced to Victor Von Doom. We saw early on in the film at the Future Foundation when Sue Storm was talking to the leaders of other nations. We saw, what is it? uh whatever his country name is uh laveria or whatever um we saw that there was a reserved seat for him but he wasn't there it was an empty chair but it was a good little easter egg now the end credit we see the cloak the green cloak in the mass and that's that so we're gonna go right into doomsday and there's this big thing now it's like okay what's the thing The reason I'm kind of boo-boo kitty about it all is the fact that what kind of movie is this going to be? Is this going to be like a three and a half, four hour long movie? You know, because you got a lot of explaining to do. Why are the Fantastic Four there? That's another thing. We saw at the end of Thunderbolts or the New Avengers, whichever one you want to call it, in the end credit scene. We saw that the Fantastic Four were coming to... our universe the the main universe in the mcu and that was the big like oh my god You know, that was the big OMG moment that left us at the end of Thunderbolts. All right, we get to this movie and there's nothing. There's no leaving the world. There's no reason for him to leave. I mean, I don't know how to explain it. I don't know how we're going to get to this point in Doomsday where... everybody's coming together the old x-men coming into this unit uh uh coming into this movie and uh the other 50 other cast members they announced a few months back i mean how are we how are we arriving to this point that's my only problem and for that reason i'm not excited i'm not excited for doomsday i'm sorry uh but that's that's my rant that's that's i'm i'm done with my ted talk about that it is just a little concerning now is that gonna stop me from going to see that movie no will i be there opening night absolutely but it's just not on my bucket list i'm like okay now they can sway me leading up to the release of that film you know with the promotional material and whatnot But as it stands right now, I'm a little disappointed in that respect. But as far as the Fantastic Four first steps, I'm giving that a letter grade of a B+. I thought it was a very fun comic book movie that we desperately needed. And we just got one a couple of weeks ago in Superman. You know, for all of the detractors who were kind of poo-pooing on Superman, you can't poo-poo on Superman and poo-poo on this movie. uh and not poo-poo on this movie i should say because they're the same tone they they're the exact same tone it is fun it is uh hopeful and it's it's really good it's truly a family film in more ways than one and i completely enjoyed it i would love to know your thoughts about the fantastic four first steps did you like it did you did you think it was all right Did you like the other adaptations of the fantastic? I can't even say it with a straight face. Did you like the other ones more than this one? I would love to talk to you. Email the show, kbradiopodcasts at gmail.com. You can also search for the show on all social media platforms. Just search for the KB Radio Network. That goes for YouTube as well. Like this video. I mean, smash that like button if you don't mind. And share this video. After you subscribe to the KB Radio Network channel, don't forget about the five stars, the reviews, and sharing this show. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand here on the KB Radio Network. Everybody, thank you for joining me for this review of the Fantastic Four First Steps. I want you all to know that I love you. Continue to love everyone. Until we speak again, you all be blessed.
