AJ 🎞️

Watched “Fantastic Four: First Steps.” From the fashion, color palette, design, cityscape, TV and cartoon shows, to the costumes, spacesuits, rockets, cars—not to mention company names, food items (cereal, soda), and storage media (magnetic tapes, discs)—everything is crafted with a thorough commitment to a 1960s aesthetic blended with a sense of futurism. It felt nostalgic, like watching “Bewitched” when I was a kid. Or at times, it felt like a live-action version of The Incredibles, with “family” as its central theme. Once I found out it was directed by the same person who did “WandaVision,” it all made sense. Post-COVID hero films seem to be shifting away from the dark and gritty tone toward a more retro-futuristic, colorful, and nostalgic direction. One thing the film does well is how it opens with a TV show that efficiently summarizes the Fantastic Four’s feats, role, and current standing. If it had taken the time to carefully depict how they became superhuman from the very start, it would’ve come off as overly explanatory and slow-paced. Superman skipped that part too. Here, the plot is designed so that viewers are drawn in from the point where “they” gain a new family—marking the beginning of turmoil and crisis. As a “first step” to reboot the series, it’s truly “fantastic.”