The Fantastic Four: First Steps

My nephew and I finally had a chance to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps last night and I really enjoyed it.  On Earth 828, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), his brother-in-law Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and his best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) travel to space in 1960 and experience a cosmic anomaly that gives them superhuman abilities.  They become Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing, respectively, and use their powers to protect Earth.  Four years later, Reed and Sue announce that they are expecting a much longed for child when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), a herald for a world-eating cosmic being known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), appears to announce that Earth has been targeted for destruction.  The Fantastic Four return to space to negotiate with Galactus and learn that he is willing to spare Earth if they give him the child Reed and Sue are expecting because he believes that the child will have immense abilities.  Reed and Sue consider it to be a price too high to pay but face backlash for choosing their child over the fate of Earth.  Will the Fantastic Four find another way to stop Galactus?  I liked that narrative foregoes the origin story and jumps right into the action and, as someone who does not know much about the Fantastic Four as characters (I haven't seen any of the previous movies), I found it very easy to understand each of their arcs and motivations without it.  I also liked that the story is a simple one about the importance of family and that it is very self-contained.  I absolutely loved the 1960s retro-futuristic aesthetic in the production design, especially with the technology and the spaceship, the costumes, and the score by Michael Giacchino.  The action sequences are great and I particularly liked all of the cool visuals in the space battle and the climactic battle.  Finally, the performances are both fun (a scene involving a car seat in the Fantasticar made me laugh out loud) and poignant with opportunities for every character to have a moment of reckoning.  My favorite was that of Kirby as a fierce mother willing to do whatever is necessary in order to protect her child and I loved her chemistry with Pascal.  I was also strangely moved by Moss-Bachrach's motion capture performance (he has some wonderful scenes with Natasha Lyonne who plays a teacher in his old neighborhood).  Admittedly, the bar is a bit low with recent MCU projects but, between this and Thunderbolts*, my interest has been reignited and I am actually looking forward to Avengers: Doomsday (there is a mid-credits scene teasing the appearance of Victor von Doom/ Doctor Doom).