Fantastic Four: First Steps was an odd movie for me, good but odd.
It feels more like a summarised edit of the important scenes compiled for a ceo rather than a movie. There is absolutely no depth at all, character wise or emotional or relationship wise, the whole team has a communication problem within themselves and with the rest of the world who depend on then to save them, and the audience.
Who wrote the dialogues, especially for the speech Reed gives after returning to earth while everyone is eagerly and anxiously waiting to hear their fate, Reed just says that "Galactus asked for our child and so we said no, obviously, we obviously said no" and he leaves it at that, he doesn't communicate at all, doesn't provide any reassurance that he will work on finding another way, none, not a word and then people are left to assume the fantastic four just sealed their death.
And in some scenes, Sue does act like she only cares about her child, there is no indication on her face or words that she cares about the rest of the world and the other millions of children and babies that will die and she's acting like everything is sunshine and rainbows and complaining about sleep and attempting to joke or lighthearted banter about motherhood, (she should get to yes but that's the only thing she does for a while, she doesn't express concern where she should when it's needed.)
I'm not sure if it's the writing and direction or Vanessa Kirby's acting but it's bad, it makes Sue seem like she doesn't care about anything else as long as she doesn't have to give up her baby, she shouldn't have to, yes, but she never communicates the opposite until the moment she brings Franklin out to the crowd gathered around the Baxter building and lectures on how they should fight for something bigger than themselves and the whole speech is an attempt at guilttripping until she adds that last line as a footnote saying "and I will not give up my world for my child," that should've been the start of the speech, that should've been communicated when they first returned to earth, and there would have been no need for this scene at all, the people would have never questioned them had they just communicated.
The whole Fantastic Four family doesn't feel like one, they don't even feel like colleagues to me. Everyone's emotion is devoid, Vanessa's tone and body language and expression ruin any proof that she cares about the world in a lot of scenes and comes across as flippant.
Johnny feels so empty, so bland, so characterless (not in a demeaning way but in an empty devoid way) he's blank, an empty vessel that is so far removed from who he is and is only allowed to exist in glimpses of his personality, if we can call it that.
Pedro shows the most emotion out of all of them and even he falls so far short and everything feels obligatory, not in oh I don't wanna be here way but in a someone put them there and they're here now and that's it way
It's so disconnected, there is a banter scene between Johnny and Ben but it is forced and again, devoid, it's not natural, they have no rhythm, no playing off of each other but it clearly comes across as something the actors were told to do, there is no personality for any of them, there is no personal anything, there's no personal scenes where they're alone and just thinking or emoting and conveying things, where they feel and we feel with them.
Johnny listening Shalla's transmissions alone and deciphering them was him doing an action, determined to save his family and everyone yes, wanting to be heard and caring, yes but that is either told straight up in dialogue or inferred afterwards, not felt.
Everyone is always doing something, only Ben had that moment bringing cookies where he felt like an actual person but only in that scene and then when he's telling Reed that he can't be guilty forever but even that scene is only half as good but Pedro and him balance it out well between them. There was actual warmth in both those scenes.
The scene of Reed and Sue in bed doesn't fell romantic at all to me, not that bad but still not good, not enough, it was giving they don't fully know each other yet, but they do, they're married.
The scenes of Johnny talking to Sue and telling her about his findings, Sue's interactions with him fall so short in the emotional scale, especially for the given situation. It seems more like a boss hearing that maybe her employee had a breakthrough rather than a sister reacting to her younger brother finding out about a world ending danger that's especially coming for her son.
The way they've written Sue to be strong is undercut by them completely removing any scene of her showing any emotion that's required for the situation, she can be calm and collected and strong, and she is but she looks and acts too stoic and robotic other than the few scenes when and only when it's Franklin in the stakes does she show any emotion, at times she seems too inconvenienced and annoyed that the world won't just agree to die because she won't give up Franklin for them, and all that is because they never communicate, not to the people, not properly wthin the group and most definitely not to the audience, watching the film felt like a group of people trying to decide our fate without talking to us and making us watch from the outside as they go about it, if that's what they were going for, making us know what the people in the film felt, then they succeeded.
I prefer the 2005 and 2007 ones and Jessica Alba showed more emotion talking about her zit on her wedding day than I felt in this entire film. Jessica and Chris' Sue and Johnny felt like they had an actual relationship. So did the entire group. Those had a heart and soul. First Steps feel like just the outside skin and skeleton instead.
But, I loved Herbie, and I really liked it being Ben who first held Franklin, I liked seeing Ben and Johnny's interactions with baby Franklin.
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