August, and Our Fantastic Four Experience

 With us now entering August, we're in the final few weeks of what is typically defined as "summer." 

I have said that August and October (for some reasons unknown to me) have always been the worst months of the year for me. More bad things seem to happen in those two months than any other months of the year, and I've never been able to put my finger on it, but yeah -- historically, it's been true. 

All of this has waned, greatly in fact, since I've been married to Daisy. I'm not sure if there's some sort of protective aura she exudes or what, but it is what it is. But I will also remind you that we have two vacations this year -- one of which is later this month, and the other...in October. So, we shall see, I suppose.

I talked to my mother this morning, as in a few short weeks we'll be flying to NC to see my parents. I gave her the brief rundown of how that day we arrive is going to look -- we are wheels up in Omaha shortly after 6am, touch down in Charlotte around 11am, and have a couple hours' layover (barring any delays) before we get to Wilmington around 3 and pick up our rental car. From there we're going to get a meal at our favorite vegan place -- Sealevel City Vegan Diner -- and quickly stop by Walmart to get some baseline groceries, before we arrive at the house around 7 or 8. Again, barring any delays in travel or any problems encountered. She asked me to keep in contact with her throughout the day as we travel, but it's not like I wouldn't do that anyhow of course. I have packed and re-packed a few times at this point -- aside from swapping out my glasses and wristwatches I could grab my bag and be on that plane today if I wanted to. Daisy, of course, has not packed yet and likely won't even do so until the day/night before we leave. 

My mother is not going to be able to get her ablation surgery before we arrive; she isn't even scheduled to see the electrophysiologist (I think that's the right word) until sometime in September -- long after we've gone down there and come back home. However, upon release from the hospital, they put her on two new drugs that have seemed to stabilize her pretty well. 

She sounds old, though. She sounds old, and tired, and distracted. Distant, shaken by everything. Maybe that's just me projecting, though. I asked her about it on the phone this morning and she says she's "fine," and we all know when a woman says that she's either lying or doesn't want to talk about it -- rarely is she fine. I'd be scared if I were her. Hell, in twenty years I will likely be her in a manner of speaking -- this shit rarely skips a generation, and the reason I got my Fitbit in the first place a few years back is because I was having heart palpitations at the time. I have not had them since, but...it's coming. 

While I'm down there, I plan to basically conference my mother on the phone with Daisy's mother so she can tell her about the procedure from the perspective of someone who's actually gone through it and come out the other side. I think that will likely help. Maybe. 

Because of the trip, and because Daisy's parents are also old, we are planning to hire a catsitter to come over once a day and take care of the children during the time we're away. I mentioned this before, but did not really get the chance to go into further detail (as at the time, I didn't really have any details to share). Well, we have now selected -- hopefully -- the catsitter we'll hire. She is a kind older lady, I'm guessing mid-50s to mid-60s, who comes highly recommended from multiple people at the humane society and has watched pets for many other volunteers there. 

She came to visit us last weekend and get a feel for the house, meet the cats, etc, and she immediately put me at ease. She honestly reminds me of Elizabeth Warren -- kind, soft-spoken, and well-versed in the job. She does it as a hobby, a side-hustle of sorts, and mostly does it for dogs, not cats. However, all of our cats were, in amazement to us, enthralled. 

Pete was Pete -- he likes everyone, and nobody new in the house ever fazes him. He's old and does not care, he likes people. He doesn't run, he doesn't hide, he's just like "hi, here I am, I'm on the couch and I'm not moving, so...welcome, I guess."

Hank and Emmy always hide, always, when someone new comes in the house. But, sometimes, they'll come out and take a peek here and there. When we have friends over, depending on the friends (and, mind you, this is a rarity anyway) they'll come out of hiding and at least halfway interact, because they can judge from Daisy and myself that there's no threat present. Well, when this lady came to visit, they ran behind the couch. I manually pulled them both out so they could see her, and while they were at first wary, they almost immediately softened. Hank even let this lady pet him, and Hank doesn't let anyone touch him but us. I was stunned. Emmy also stayed in the room the whole time and flopped out on the floor, which she only does when she's relaxed.

The boys, of course, were very social. Gary and Charlie are amazingly playful, social cats who are not afraid of anyone and want to be in the middle of everything. So, while she was there, they were goblining about and not really caring about a visitor being there amongst them. But they were, of course, both curious and made sure to say hi and get some attention. 

Mable spent 90% of the time she was here lounging in her giant cat bed in the front window, and was not opposed at all to pets and rubs from this lady. It's Mable, Mable is a sweet girl, even if she's unhinged and likes to scream-meow in our faces in the middle of the night for attention. 

I was, overall, very stunned. Our cats aren't like this with anyone. Hell, even when it's just us in the house I can go many hours without seeing some of them because they've wandered off somewhere to sleep or have occupied themselves with cuddling in the bedroom or something. This lady immediately put them, and by extension, us, at ease.

"I like her a lot," I told Daisy after she left. "I trust her with the job, as well as with our kids."

After all, it is a very simple job -- these cats aren't dogs, they don't need daily walks or a lot of interaction; they need clean water, fresh food, and their pans cleaned once a day. And Pete needs his pills. They're fine, they manage themselves, they're good -- when we're gone they mostly just sleep. Hell, when we're here, they mostly just sleep. 

This lady is going to come back once or twice over the next couple of weeks so they get used to her some more. Her rates are pretty reasonable, too. We haven't gotten exact figures yet but from her estimates, it's well below what we were expecting to pay, and I'm good with that. If she does an outstanding job we'll likely use her again when we're in Canada in October, especially as at that point the cats will know her. It is very uncharacteristic of me to be so comfortable with someone almost immediately, let alone someone in my house, with my children, when I'm not going to be there. I think that's a very good sign, honestly. 

In other news, I finally broke down this morning and ordered my new computer and monitor.

Yes, it's the one I was considering before. Yes, I did it because I expect all the new tariffs, when they kick in next week, to add hundreds of dollars to the price of any new electronics. It is what it is.

But, I weighed my options and finances -- Daisy's doing pretty well in her job and is pulling in good, substantial monthly bonuses. I'm pretty comfortable in my own job, and don't expect that to change for a while. Aside from paying down Mable's surgery bill, we don't have any unplanned expenses that we haven't budgeted for at this point, or won't be budgeting for when we need to anyway. And the card that I put the purchase on I'm going to be using in North Carolina later this month for most every expense, so...I would be less inclined to put more on it after our return. Simply, the time was right to pull the trigger. 

The new 24-inch curved monitor arrives on Wednesday, and the computer itself arrives sometime between Wednesday and Friday. That means next weekend, my entire weekend will likely be spent reorganizing my desk, getting everything on this current machine onto my backup hard drive, and then setting up the new machine and monitor -- and moving all of my files onto the new machine. 

The new computer is top of the line, and I don't say that lightly. It has a 2TB solid state drive, 64GB of RAM, and Windows 11 Professional. This PC, which I bought at a deeply discounted refurbished rate during the pandemic, has 16GB of RAM and a 2TB spinning disk hard drive with the base edition of Windows 10. It cannot be updated to Windows 11 because the hardware doesn't support it. It's also slow as fuck these days and isn't much of a fan of doing taxing tasks such as opening a picture or text document, which it will take upwards of two minutes to do sometimes. Yeah, time is money, and I'm not doing that BS anymore.

This older machine will be relegated to a backup machine -- I'm not going to junk it, or anything -- but I only expect it to see use again only if absolutely necessary. Same goes for this monitor, which has served its purpose well for the past decade, but needs to get some well-deserved rest. I don't necessarily feel bad about it; it has been a good machine for the past several years, but I need something faster and more versatile to keep up with life these days.

The only drawback with the new computer is that it is much smaller, has less USB ports (I did purchase a USB hub in anticipation of this a few weeks ago) and doesn't have an optical drive. I have two different standalone plug-and-play optical drives, so that's not a huge concern, but I can see it being a nuisance here and there. I don't know though; we shall see. It is what it is.

I also wanted to talk about Fantastic Four: First Steps, which -- like we did with Superman, we went to see on the Thursday night preview showing before wide release.

Again, I will state that going to see any new movie, especially one that we know will be a hit, on the Thursday night before wide release is the best idea ever, at least here in Omaha. We were once more in a theater with maybe 15 or so other people -- slightly more than were there for Superman, but still a relative ghost town -- and I truly believe that's the best way to experience a movie in the theater.

What did we think?

Daisy liked it fine, but it is very much not her genre of movie, which she told me upon leaving the theater. It's easily understandable and it moves along at a good clip, but it's not her thing and that's okay. I think Superman is a much more universal character -- everyone knows who Superman is, everyone knows who he's supposed to be, but if you don't know anything about the Fantastic Four, then a lot of the nuance of this movie will be lost on you, and I very much get that -- you're not going to have the baseline appreciation for these characters, you're not going to know backstories or recognize easter eggs within the background or in dialogue, and again, that's perfectly fine. Can you enjoy the movie going in cold? Yes -- I'd emphatically say yes -- but it will be a different experience for you than it is or will be for a lifelong fan of the characters like myself.

It is, sadly, not a perfect film. It is, sadly, not incredibly well-organized or edited. I think it was made as a love letter to the 1960s and was specifically tailor-made and targeted to the fans of the comics, which was great for many things but is overall somewhat detrimental to the overall film.

Did I like it? Oh, I loved it. I think it's a great movie for what it is. But, the First Steps in the title is very on-point for what it is -- this is a fast-moving, two hour film that introduces these characters, this universe, and is mainly meant to set the stage for what's coming with them in the larger Marvel cinematic universe, no more and no less. It functions, almost cookie-cutter style, in being the jumping off point so that non-comics fans who just like movies aren't left in the dark when these characters somehow magically show up in other Marvel movies moving forward. 

And you know what? I'm mostly okay with that, for reasons I'll get to.

I should bring up now that I was quite skeptical of the casting of this film and was ever since the cast was announced. Having now seen the film, ehhhh...I've softened a little bit on that. I love Pedro Pascal, but I don't think he needs to be in everything -- we're very much as a society reaching a saturation point with him. That being said, he does put in a good performance as Reed Richards. It is "serviceable enough" to the character. You don't get the grand sense of him being the smartest man in the Marvel universe, but there's some of that there. We also don't get to see him use his powers a lot -- I mean, there are scenes, sure, but it's maybe two minutes of screen time at most. Is his performance the most comics-accurate version of the character we've seen on screen yet? Ehhhhh again, I am not sure. He does a nice job conveying who the character is, but after watching the film I think that portrayal may have been better on paper than in practice.

That's kind of how I feel about the other cast members too, with Joseph Quinn playing Johnny Storm and Ebon Moss-Bacharach playing Ben Grimm -- serviceable jobs, but none of them are quite comic-perfect. Moss-Bacharach doesn't have enough gruff, thick New Yorker in him in this film -- The Thing is supposed to be basically a good-hearted monster with a chip on his shoulder, quietly resentful of what he has become but is making the most of it and trying to be a hero as well as part of the larger family. There are small shades of that here and there, but you know who did that perfectly? Michael Chiklis, in the movies 20 years ago. To date, Chiklis was the most comic-accurate version of the character. Gone is most off the banter and pranks between him and Johnny, gone is his overall short-fuse temper that makes Grimm who he is, but still lovable. Is Moss-Bacharach fine in the film? Yeah, he's a decent fit for the role, and I liked him fine in it, I guess. It's hard to cast The Thing. 

Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm I had similar feelings about. There are parts of the comic Johnny there, but...not enough? I can't put my finger on the shortfalls in his character in this film aside from the fact that he did not seem to be Johnny enough to be Johnny for me personally -- and (I'm not really spoiling anything by saying this), this movie made him smart -- as in, he is working on a big science-y thing throughout the vast majority of the picture, which is not Johnny's character at all. Johnny Storm is an adrenaline junkie, he is a very lighthearted prankster, jokester, hothead (no puns intended there) and is supposed to be, kind of, the comic relief kid brother of the family. We don't see a lot of that here. Do you know who played the role almost perfectly (even though at the time, I thought he was horrendously miscast in the part)? Yes, Chris Evans, in the movies 20 years ago. That is who Johnny Storm is in the comics, almost to a tee. I still have an appreciation for Joseph Quinn in the role, but eh. There's just something missing.

Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm, however -- and many have said this -- carries this movie. She is a great Sue Storm. This is near perfect casting. She is, essentially, supermom in this film and plays that role very well. It's very clear that was the role she was meant to fulfill within the picture, and it's fortunate that is the role she also plays in the comics, especially in recent years. But, and this is not lost to the filmmakers here -- Sue is quietly the most powerful member of the Fantastic Four powers-wise, and that is absolutely played to the hilt. But this is also a younger Sue, a somewhat inexperienced Sue, and that nuance is shown off pretty well.

What is done very well, and done right, is the family aspect of this team. That's part of what makes the comics so wonderful and part of what has drawn me to the series my entire life -- these four live together and operate not only as a superpowered team, but as a very tight-knit family unit. This movie excels at that dynamic. Whatever shortcomings the cast has as individuals playing these roles is greatly overcome by how well they all mesh together. It is the exact on-screen portrayal we needed of Marvel's first family, and the filmmakers nailed it so hard. 

So, let's get into it. The timeline of events in the movie, from the time they get their powers to the final mid-credits scene, is approximately eight years -- in comics terms, from 1961 to 1969. The movie begins when they're 3-4 years into being the Fantastic Four (1965, roughly) and are well-established in their roles, having been the protectors of their universe's New York and their universe's Earth (it is implied, but not outright stated, that there are no other superheroes on the planet in this time period). It is established that this is Earth-828, not our normal Marvel universe (that's Earth-616, for those of you who didn't know). Setting the stage that yes, it's part of the multiverse immediately opens up all avenues and opportunities for this film -- this is a universe we haven't seen, so the possibilities are endless.

There's a short retrospective in the beginning of the film that works as a montage explaining how they got their powers and the several villains they'd defeated up to this point -- Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, Diablo, and Mole Man are all mentioned by name and in very quick, blink-and-you'll-miss-them scenes. This introduction to Marvel's first family was done very well and in a very novel way, and I actually really dug it. Could it have been longer and/or more detailed? Yes. Did I love that it very quickly established the setting and the characters for this film? Also yes. No drawn-out origin story needed, here's what happened and here's where we are now. If you've not yet seen it in the theater, you'll get what I mean when it inevitably premieres on Disney+ in two months or so. 

I am not spoiling anything here that's not in the trailers when I say that the movie is a somewhat-retooled retelling of the first Galactus story -- Galactus is set to consume the Earth as his next planet, and he sends his herald, the Silver Surfer, to warn the populace. The Fantastic Four is the planet's only hope of stopping him. Julia Garner plays a wonderful Silver Surfer -- this time, in this universe, a woman -- and her portrayal is a highlight of the film. For those very familiar with the comics -- more familiar than me -- this may not be surprising. Shalla-Bal is the Silver Surfer in this film; in the comics universe she was the second Silver Surfer and the lover of Norrin Radd, the original Silver Surfer. For me to go further into detail on this would ruin large aspects of the plot of the movie, so I won't. Throughout all of this, Sue Storm is pregnant with her son, Franklin Richards. When Galactus finds out the potential of Franklin Richards, well...let's just say that he is even more hell-bent on consuming the planet.

Look, there have to be changes to virtually every comic story to adapt it to the silver screen, and I get that. I think, however, a lot was glossed over in this story to make it shorter and more palatable to the average moviegoer. This could have been a three-or-four-hour movie if they'd wanted it to be, and honestly I think it would've made a great six-episode high-budget Disney+ series if they'd wanted to take it that route. But, because it's none of those things, it feels like it at times moves along at too fast a clip to the detriment of the story and the characters. No, we don't see Uatu the Watcher (or any of the other Watchers) in this film. No, we don't see the Ultimate Nullifier, the weapon so powerful that it scares Galactus himself. Etc.

Yes, as a longtime fan of the comics I realize to include a lot of stuff like this would've been extremely goofy and probably boring to the average moviegoer. Do I think it could have or should have been included despite that? Eh, yes and no. It would have been very difficult to do it correctly, to give it the gravitas and justice it would need for a big-screen appearance, and honestly the budget would have needed to be outlandish. Again, this is not the 616 universe, this is 828, and things are allowed to happen differently here.

I say all of this because the slight changes to the original story as depicted in the comics is fine. But, that also creates the biggest problem with the film, and it's one that's so obvious that Daisy -- not a comics fan in the least, ever, at all -- pointed out to me as soon as we left the theater: this movie is incredibly predictable from almost every possible angle, at all times. 

There's no suspense, no mystery, no major tension. You know exactly what's going to happen, the movie builds up to it, and then it happens and you're like "yeah, I saw that coming" for almost every single scene. You know as soon as the plot starts rolling that yes, the FF are going to find a way to defeat Galactus and save the Earth, and they do, and yes, you can see the tear-jerking "someone important is dead but really not" scene coming a mile away. There are so many tropes in this movie that just get beaten into the ground note by note. And obviously, I know some of that is very intentional and tongue-in-cheek as an homage to the comics the characters and stories here are based on, but damn, it did not have to be nearly every major beat in the film.

So, that being said, some pros and cons:

• Pro: the movie is gorgeous. It's one of the most beautiful comic book movies set to film. The retro-futuristic setting works so very well in this movie. It is a very space-race, jet-age aesthetic in everything down to the costuming to the cars on the street outside the Baxter Building to the Baxter Building itself. They spent money on this and it was absolutely money well spent. 
• Pro: the very fact that the movie includes this universe's version of not only the Fantasticar, but H.E.R.B.I.E. as well? Wonderful.
• Pro: Galactus is, finally, absolutely portrayed right on screen in a big-budget movie. This is something the fans have been waiting on for many years. He is comic-accurate. He is size-accurate. His colors and eye shape are accurate. It was a thrill to finally see him on screen.
• Pro: The Mole Man shows up briefly early in the film, but actually plays a very substantial role later in the film and I really enjoyed his portrayal here. It's fun.
• Pro: this movie begins to slowly unravel the Franklin Richards story, which -- if it comes to fruition in later movies -- is going to pay off with supreme dividends. 
• Pro: I do like a Marvel universe that isn't really set in the "present," a universe that has no other heroes. It is freeing, it allows a better structure overall to the film when it is utilized correctly. 
• Pro: there are three brief post-credits scenes -- one mid-credits, one end-credits, and one very cheeky, funny post-credits scene. All are worth sticking around for. 
  
  
  
• Con: Galactus is a top-tier villain in the Marvel Universe. I understand this is a good way to kick off the story, but I also think he could've been saved for a bigger, harder sequel. Maybe I'm just nitpicking.
• Con: The costuming, while somewhat period accurate, was needlessly complicated and looked slightly overwrought. I loved the designs, but....Just put them in spandex suits of unstable molecules. Make them look like the comics characters, please (this was my same gripe with Superman. Put him in the goddamn correct suit people want to see). And why is The Thing fully clothed? In the comics he wears a FF speedo or shorts most of the time. In the movies 20 years ago they put him in full pants, and I thought even then that was too much. 
• Con: The predictability. I mentioned this above and I'll expand on it a little below as I wrap up.
• Con: I mean, for as much as I do like them in their roles, I have to say the casting could have been better. I don't want this to be a downer here because I understand it has to be murderously hard to cast these four primary characters to everyone's satisfaction, and no, I am not claiming I could have done a better job, but..I don't know, something just feels "off" about the casting choices here for the most part.
• Con: No actual future is established for these characters, really -- everything returns to status quo at the end of the film.

I think that last one is my biggest problem with the film, honestly. Galactus is defeated (again, not a spoiler, this movie is again so predictable it hurts) and life goes on. And while most would consider that a happy ending, and it is...this is the Marvel cinematic universe and these people are off on their own in an alternate universe with no apparent connection to the 616. So...how do they get there? It's already been established that these particular Fantastic Four are going to be in Avengers: Doomsday and likely will be appearing in other Marvel films in the primary 616 universe (see the post-credits scene for Thunderbolts, please), but how do they get there? This movie gives no explanation on that. For a movie subtitled First Steps, how about it ends with some Next Steps?

I think that the writers of this film wasted a grand opportunity to do the unthinkable with this story, because I know how I would've written it -- let Galactus win. Galactus can't be stopped by the Fantastic Four of this world, and Reed Richards knows their only hope to survive, after a brave fight, is to escape into the multiverse via their ship and a quantum drive (or some shit, make it up) to find a realm where Galactus either does not exist, or will otherwise not set his sights on Earth for a long enough time to where proper defenses can be mounted to neutralize him before he arrives -- but their ship is damaged and can only traverse so much of the multiverse, and the FF slip out of the multiverse stream to arrive in the 616. Galactus eats Earth-828, there's no going home, their home is now the 616 -- and having watched their own world die, they will do everything they can to protect this one. 

Bonus: this also, essentially, lets them become the heralds of Galactus themselves for the 616, were he ever to arrive.

Now I came up with that very plausible, edge-of-your-seat, wildly satisfying end-of-movie scenario in five minutes. Why Marvel did not choose this route for a tentpole team movie with near-unlimited sequel potential in the main Marvel universe is beyond me. 

But, again, maybe I'm just nitpicking.

For what it is, Fantastic Four: First Steps is a great ride. I give it a solid, middle of the road B. But if you haven't seen it in the theater yet, it's perfectly fine to wait for on Disney+ in a couple months. It is fun, it's a good time, a great treatment of the characters, and it's beautiful -- but it's not an absolute theater must-see.