Set on a pastel painted Earth, parallel to our own and, thus far, unburdened by the weight of the cumbersome perplexities of the MCU, The Fantastic Four: First Steps serves up a breezy continuation of Marvel’s recent revival in legitimate entertainment. It’s ‘no homework required’ – in the words of Kevin Feige himself – fun and so game for good times that it squeezes the titular quartet’s entire origins story into a five minute montage. Wise move. Those in the know, know already that the Four are to join the main fray in next year’s hotly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday. Those who couldn’t care less can sit back, relax, and switch off – assuming they haven’t already, in a different sense of the phrase. Never mind first step, it’s a stride back in the right direction.
It’s hard not to feel for Henry Cavill on watching James Gunn’s revitalised Superman, freshly rendered, as it is, in the sort of bright hues that have proven anathema to the character since 2013. As other turns attest, Cavill has charisma and charm aplenty but sprawled terribly across a decade of moribund self-indulgence. His last turn, a bum note cameo in Dwayne Johnson puff project Black Adam, was meant to herald production on a long-gestated Man of Steel sequel. Alas, it was but ill conceived clickbait and soon followed by Cavill’s unceremonious shelving. His replacement is the younger, less seasoned but more baby-faced David Corenswet. On this debut alone, we might hope for a more dignified run. Gunn’s Superman is quite notably flawed but at least knows its raison d’etre: to entertain.
The ingredients for a dynamite entry into the Jurassic Park canon are no great secret. They’ve been in the public domain since 1993, after all. Quite why it’s taken thirty years and six attempts to remix them into a genuinely thrilling, and legitimately original is less clear. To be clear, 2015’s Jurassic World was good fun but a legacy remake if ever one were. No matter. Not content with gifting LucasFilm the best Star Wars film of the twenty-first century, Gareth Edwards has done it again for the Steven Spielberg’s Franchisousaurus Rex. Putting a new tranche of stars through hell, Jurassic World: Rebirth is nothing short of a hoot.
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