After watching Superman last week, Hideo Kojima is continuing to catch up on this summer’s superhero blockbusters – and he’s a big fan of Fantastic Four.
“Watched ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps,'” Kojima wrote on Twitter. “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.”
He went on to comment on the “nostalgic” quality of the movie and compared it to watching Bewitched as a kid and “a live-action version of The Incredibles”, before noting that post-COVID superhero movies are moving away from dark and gritty tones.
“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,” Kojima continued. “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.'”
This rather lengthy review trumps Kojima’s Superman verdict: although it still seems like he enjoyed the new DCU Chapter One movie, he had considerably less to say about it. “It was neither dark nor stylish, cool or even ‘super.’ The perspective of the audience – the distance and elevation – is different from the ‘Superman’ we used to LOOK UP (into the sky) to,” he wrote.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps brings Marvel’s First Family into the MCU and stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Superman, meanwhile, stars David Corenswet as the Man of Steel and kicks off James Gunn’s new DC Studios era on the big screen.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is out now in theaters. For more on the movie, check out our guide to the Fantastic Four: First Steps post-credits scenes, or our spoiler-free Fantastic Four: First Steps review.
