Page 142 - Metropolis Megazine No.120 International

THE FANTASTIC
FOUR:
FIRST STEPS

DIRECTOR
Matt Shakman
STARS
Pedro Pascal
Vanessa Kirby
Ebon Moss-Bachrach
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN
United States
RUNTIME
115 min.
YEAR
2025

If it's not easy for anyone to lead their lives in this intergalactic adventures of Reed Richards and
world of polarisation, wars, and Trump, imagine his clan. His companion, Sue Storm (the Invisible
how difficult it is for superheroes at this time Woman), and his brother-in-law, Johnny, the
of conflict, inflation, AI, virtual lynching, and Human Torch, battled evil at their side, with the
the cancellation culture that seems to label the help of a friend, Ben Grimm, the Thing, made of
altruism of uniformed vigilantes as outdated. stone. Exposure to star waves called cosmic rays
It's no wonder that James Gunn's phenomenal during a cosmonaut expedition in favour of Earth
«Superman», with its unstoppable box office made them super-powered beings. Byrne's task
success, looks like a comic book from the 1980s, was to explore their fears and humanise them
the kind that graphic artist John Byrne drew beyond the Stan and Kirby matrix. Villains such
and wrote for DC Comics. Byrne also seems to be as the Mole, now played on the big screen by Paul
the conceptual reference for the stunning «The Walter Hauser, also gained new and empathetic
Fantastic Four: First Steps», the fourth live-action anguish that would make Freud light up a cigar
film on the characters created by Stan Lee (1922- and puff talking cure.
2018) and Jack Kirby (1917-1994) in 1961, and
which served as the foundation stone for Marvel The feature film, which hits cinemas this
Comics. weekend under the Disney umbrella, explores
these sentimental undergrounds in a delicate
Coming from the best-selling X-Men, which he dramaturgical approach by Matt Shakman, a
did in partnership with Chris Claremont, Byrne filmmaker who revisits an iconic comic book brand
helmed the Fantastic Four comics from July with a 1950s and 60s sitcom feel. It's «I Love Lucy»
1981 to October 1986, between issues 232 and mixed with «Father Knows Best», in a sci-fi vein
295 of the monthly editions of the earthly and along the lines of «The Jetsons». The director, who

142 METROPOLIS JULY 2025