With a bucket of popcorn accompanied by a Diet Coke™, I marched into the movie theater, ready to recline my chair and battle my summertime boredom with a film. Even though I’m not a superhero fanatic, I made this trip twice this summer: Once to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and again to see Superman. One of the films was a successful use of my summer hours while the other left me longing for my first day in Honors Chemistry.
Produced by Marvel Studios and directed by Matt Shakman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps opened in July. The film began with Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) finding out his wife, Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), is pregnant. After introductions to the other two of the Fantastic Four, Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the group is visited by a herald, Shalla Bal (Julia Garner). She brings news of Earth’s demise by Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a space god who has destroyed many planets. The film follows the Fantastic Four racing to save Earth from impending doom.
Superman, produced by DC Studios and directed by James Gunn, kicked off with a more conventional start to a superhero movie: a fight scene against The Hammer of Boravia, which is controlled by Lex Luther (Nicholas Hoult). The film follows Superman (David Corenswet) as he juggles fitting in as his alias, Clark Kent; his girlfriend, Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan); and keeping Metropolis safe from Luther.
The acting in The Fantastic Four: First Steps felt forced at times but the film made up for it with its well-developed plot. Shakman created a tense tone, depicting fear across the people of Earth. Seeing the terror in people’s eyes after Bal’s message added to how real Earth’s destruction felt, and made even me feel scared for the people while in the comfort of the theater. Galactus’s appearance also added to my horror for everyone on screen. The CGI was very elaborate, creating a figure that was hundreds of feet tall with a menacing mechanical face. This enhanced how urgently the Fantastic Four needed to figure out a solution to save Earth and quickened the movie’s pace, keeping me on my toes the whole time.
Superman’s plot, however, was rushed, failing to show the intensity of the threat Luther posed against Metropolis, and how if he wanted to, could destroy the city by clicking some buttons. Though what was really the Kryptonite of the movie, were the poor music choices. Playful songs were thrown in at random points in hope they would work, which they didn’t. In a fight scene where Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi) was trying to protect Lane, “5 Years Time” by Noah And The Whale started playing, and while the song was trying to lighten the mood, I thought it completely failed at that and made the scene feel irrelevant.
One of the only bright spots in Superman was Corenswet’s acting. He made Superman more humane. Corenswet gave the impression that Superman actually wanted to save the world because he truly cared about the people in it. Many actors who play superheroes fail because their motivations for saving people are not clear, which is something Corenswet executed perfectly.
Corenswet was an ideal Superman, but his acting could not save the plot or the roughly placed music of his film, making it less than super. Though I don’t watch superhero movies regularly, The Fantastic Four: First Steps kept me both engaged and entertained throughout the film, making it an amazing movie and one that can satisfy boredom in a fantastic manner.