FANTASTIC FOUR: BEGINNINGS / The film that's causing yet another headache for Marvel
The film "Fantastic Four: First Class" does not seem capable of reviving the fortunes of Marvel Studios.
In this summer that should have marked the rebirth of comic book movies, Superman Warner/DC's Marvel responds with yet another attempt to give the Fantastic Four a worthy cinematic life after three more or less unsuccessful films (and a fourth that was removed, having become a cult due to its ugliness).
Box office figures show that, despite being more successful than their immediate predecessors, films of this genre, so canonical, are struggling with current audiences (who in fact decreed the resounding success of the jovial Deadpool & Wolverine ), despite the good critical reception.
In particular, Fantastic Four: First Class demonstrates the difficulty the House of Cinematic Ideas has in conceiving a new imagery on which to build its comeback (it's no coincidence that they're already playing the Avengers card). The idea behind this reboot, directed by Matt Shakman and written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, is to set it in a present that looks to the past, to the 1960s, to sitcoms like The Brady Bunch and cartoons like The Jetsons , to introduce the story of the Richards family, astro-scientists who, after a space trip gone awry, find themselves variously enhanced.
Having become idols on one of the Earths of the Marvel multiverse (namely Earth 828, from the birth date of Jack Kirby who invented the superhero quartet), the four find themselves in trouble when Galactus, one of the most fearsome enemies of all time, an omnipotent planet-eater, demands that they give up their unborn child, Franklin, one of the most powerful beings ever created, in exchange for the salvation of their planet.
Shakman and his writing team try to lower the narrative ambitions and references to contemporary times to focus on the characters, making them suitable for today's cinema while also giving a nod to the aesthetics of the past, starting from stereotypes and freeing themselves from them, especially when faced with the pain of family feelings, the yearning for regrets and remorse linked to intimacy and which also move into the description of the Silver Surfer, herald of Galactus and one of the most beautiful Marvel characters, who here takes on a new guise, more consistent with the context. As in Superman , fragilities and defeats count more than triumphs.
WandaVision, a Marvel series that played with the stylistic elements of sitcoms, particularly those of the 1950s and 1960s.
Fantastic Four: First Class seems to be stuck there, lacking the inventiveness of that product, and in fact lacking the ability to construct a show worthy of its ambitions. Words surpass images, and images—for example, the questionable CGI of The Thing—are rarely up to the task. It reduces gigantic themes to low-profile gimmicks, and also misdirects a super-cast (Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn, plus Julia Garner) that never finds the chemistry essential for such a group.
If this was supposed to be the start of a relaunch, we suspect that Marvel will now have more than one problem.
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