The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Although they've never been my personal favourite superheroes, The Fantastic Four certainly hold a special place in the hearts of many comic book fans. They are, after all, often referred to as the "first family" of Marvel, and many other characters made their first appearances in Fantastic Four adventures. They've been ill-served at the movies though. In fact, most people can agree that the best Fantastic Four movie to date is actually The Incredibles. The Fantastic Four: First Steps hopes to change that though. It wants to be a fun slice of retro sci-fi adventure, establishing the main characters as new key members of the MCU.

So it's a shame that I left the cinema feeling more like shrugging than rushing to tell others to get along and see it. 

It's quite a familiar set-up, behind the camera anyway. The writing team (Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer) has a mix of old hands and newcomers. Director Matt Shakman has no other movies under his belt, but he has been honing his skills in the land of TV, and has clearly shown something that made him seem to be a good fit for this property. Maybe his handling of the family relationships explored in WandaVision.

There's no need to give a plot summary, but I will nonetheless. Marvel tries to pretend that we're not getting any origin story here, with a lot of the background related by Ted Gilbert (Mark Gatiss) on his TV show, but it still very much feels like one, considering the standard structure about our heroes coming growing into their roles as they face a new and major threat. The threat this time is the planet-destroyer known as Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson), and his coming is heralded by the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). The timing of this encounter would never be good, but it couldn't be worse as Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) prepares to give birth to a baby. Not only is Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) worried about the fate of the world, he gets very anxious as he tries to baby-proof their home. That means smoke alarms that go off whenever Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) flies by and safety gates that are far too easily broken by Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).

There's nothing really wrong with this movie. The cast are generally good, and a good fit for their roles (although I suspect Joseph Quinn must say a prayer every single day for the Duffer brothers taking his career to a whole other level thanks to his Stranger Things character), the retro look and feel is appropriate and sweet, and the grand plan is played out well enough. It just doesn't ever really impress. Maybe it's a case of superhero fatigue, although I didn't have that feeling with the other big superhero movie released this month, or maybe the central quartet are just a bit too bland in comparison to so many other options we've had in recent decades.

Pascal, Kirby, and Moss-Bachrach are wonderful casting choices. Quinn does okay, but is arguably the weakest Johnny Storm onscreen yet (and, yes, I am including the Corman-produced film from 1994). Ineson and Garner are both brilliant, and there are also fine moments for Gatiss, Sarah Niles, Natasha Lyonne, and Paul Walter Hauser. Oh, and there's a cute little robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. Unfortunately, you get the usual tease during the credits, which is perhaps another reason for me leaving the cinema without the spring in my step that I have had after some other big movies from this year. 

There's a suitably fantastic score from Michael Giacchino, a smattering of humour that felt a step removed from the winking punchlines that became the MCU standard for a while, and some genuinely impressive spectacle in the second half, leading to a super-sized finale. There are no surprises though, and no risks. Marvel wants to recalibrate, to get fans back on board with their cinematic outings, and this feels like a very safe and tame way to do that. I have no major complaints, but nor do I have any major compliments. 

7/10

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No Hard Feelings (2023)

Walking a tightrope between raunchy fun and hard-to-overlook ickiness, No Hard Feelings is a disappointingly tame sec comedy that has not enough of either the sex or the comedy. If you have been put off by the central premise (Jennifer Lawrence plays a woman so desperate for money that she answers an ad placed by two parents who want her to give their son a full girlfriend experience) then I would simply say that the script, co-written by John Phillips and Gene Stupnitsky, works hard to make everything much sweeter and more palatable, arguably to the detriment of the comedic potential of the whole thing.

Lawrence is Maddie Barker, someone we first see panicking as her car gets taken away. She needs the cat to earn money as an Uber driver, allowing her to pay off an overdue amount of tax on the house that was left to her by her mother. Maddie is a bit of a mess, for a number of reasons, but she tries to put on a different persona when answering the aforementioned advert, placed by two parents who don’t want their son to know anything about the scheme. It has to seem natural and real, and Maddie believes she will easily present herself as a fine catch. Unfortunately, the young man (Percy Becker, played by Andrew Barth Feldman) is so painfully shy and awkward, and so unable to pick up on social cues, that a successful outcome seems far from guaranteed. Maddie soon learns that he’s also very sweet, which is a development/complication that she didn’t even consider.

The main strength here is Lawrence, who leans fully into any ridiculous moment her character is thrown into. Whether she’s insulting people who are delivering unwanted judgements, sharing the class-based chip on her shoulder, or delivering so many double entendres that quickly devolve into sledgehammering single entendres, Lawrence is a lot of fun, and it’s clear that she should try her hand at it more often. Feldman is also very good, perfectly embodying the kind of nervy and good-hearted nerd that would have been placed as the super-horny lead if this film has been made in the 1980s. The concerned/slightly creepy parents are well-played by Matthew Broderick and Laura Benanti, both seemingly oblivious to the oddness of their approach to dealing with, and trying to help, their son. Natalie Morales and Scott MacArthur are fairly enjoyable as friends of Maddie, sometimes offering advice and sometimes criticising her choices, and Ebon Moss-Bacharach has a very amusing turn as the man who tows away Maddie’s car while wondering aloud why she broke off their short relationship without giving him any explanation or second chance.

Stupnitsky directs the whole thing with a disappointing lack of energy, not helped by the script that he and Phillips should have taken apart and rebuilt once they realised it wasn’t really working. And they should have realised that it wasn’t really working when the entire third act became far too dull and depressing. There are positives, but they are too little too late when it comes to outweighing the negatives, almost as if the film-makers forgot what kind of film they started with. It isn’t as if this is uncommon, many films like this one decide to push the laughs aside as the scene is set for a grand finale of rehabilitation and renewed love (be it for a character or just for life itself), but they have usually taken viewers on a more enjoyable journey before getting to that point.

It’s not dire, and I smiled a number of times as predictable moments played out, but this is hugely disappointing, and it lacks even one memorable set-piece (aside from one scene notable for Lawrence playing it completely nude, which gets more sad the more I think about it . . . THAT is the best you could come up with for a set-piece idea?). Either make a sweet rom-com or make a ballsy sex comedy. This neutered end result will, I suspect, end up pleasing less people as it tries to please everyone.

4/10

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Prime Time: The Lake House (2006)

An American remake of a South Korean movie that was released in the year 2000, The Lake House makes good use of two stars being reunited after displaying such great chemistry in their previous movie (Speed, which was way back in 1994, so this was long overdue). The plotting is, frankly, ridiculous. The cheesiness often goes off the scale. And it's wonderful entertainment.

Things start off with Dr. Kate Forrester (Bullock) leaving a note in a mailbox for the next tenant of her lake house home to please forward her mail. She includes some details about the home that makes no sense to the apparent new tenant, Alex Wyler (Reeves). Quickly discovering the illogical detail that Kate is putting her notes in the mail box in 2006 and Alex is receiving them, and delivering his own notes, in 2004, so begins a quirky romance that leaves viewers hoping that the two leads will figure out a way to get together in the same time and space. Things keep getting in the way, however, and tension starts to build as things head towards a finale that could be uplifting or heartbreaking, depending on what decisions are made by the characters.

Although based on the original screenplay, the script here by David Auburn seems to work well because of the way it quickly sets up the main premise and then endeavours to keep viewers so firmly interested in the central couple, and invested in their plight, that less time is given over to considering how ridiculous and full of holes the whole thing is. The dialogue is sometimes awful, and when I say sometimes I mean most of the time, but it's improved by most of the exchanges involving either Bullock or Reeves. They talk in a way that doesn't ever feel realistic, yet it doesn't matter. This isn't a film about realism. It's a quirky romance tale with two beautiful people trying to do the best by one another.

Argentine director Alejandro Agresti shoots with an eye for the romance of it all. Whether that's scenes in which Reeves wanders around, looking handsome as he tries to set up something that will pay off in two years for the benefit of Bullock, or even just in the way the characters view their surroundings a little differently, the mundane being transformed by what they now consider the presence of someone they are falling in love with.

How much you like the movie will depend on how much you like the leads, but I personally find Bullock and Reeves two of the most likeable stars of the past few decades, which means I watch this movie with a smile on my face for most of the runtime. Support comes from Christopher Plummer (the father of Reeves' character, there are issues there that may or may not be resolved), Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Reeves' brother), Dylan Walsh (someone competing for the affection of Bullock), Shoreh Aghdashloo (Bullock's boss/mentor at her new hospital), and one or two more, but they're all there to simply help or hinder the central romance.

Although I had seen this before, maybe about ten years ago, I couldn't remember how things panned out. To say I was on the edge of my seat during the last scenes would be correct. Others may pretend to be unfazed, I was fully invested and considering the worst while hoping for the best. If you can overlook the massive plot holes, and if you can accept the standard of the dialogue throughout most of the film, you can enjoy this as much as I did. If you cannot put those things aside then, well, that's your loss.

7/10

There's a region-free disc available here.