Hiya!

Fantastic Four: First Steps is coming out in a few days all over the world and I am going to see it once it’s released in the Philippines on Day One. I’m actually on leave for the entire week right now so I plan to go see it on opening day, something I haven’t done since essentially Marvel‘s Phase 1 and Phase 2. I remember there was a time when I used to intentionally take a day of leave just to see them but, as Marvel’s movies’ quality started to decline, I stopped doing it. It’s just happenstance how I decided to use up some of my vacation time during this week so I might as well make the most of it.

As you can tell by my rather laissez faire way of putting it, I’m not exactly excited to see Fantastic Four: First Steps. The trailers do make it look like it’ll be a fine movie. No official reviews for the film have been released but initial reactions have been more than just positive. So, I’m still expecting to have a good time at the movie theater seeing Marvel’s First Family finally done right after so many misfires.

It does seem like Marvel will have a huge hit on their hands with Fantastic Four: First Steps. It does sound like it’ll be a crowd pleaser and make them a ton of money at the box office. I’m just not that all excited for it.

Scratch that last part out.

I am excited to see Fantastic Four: First Steps. The thing is, I’m just not excited comparatively to another superhero movie which just came out recently. As someone who basically was weaned on Marvel superheroes movies, this shouldn’t be the case… but it is. I was simply more excited for the most recent Superman movie than Marvel’s next cinematic experience.

Honestly, this shouldn’t be the case but there it is. I was super giddy (pun intended) to see a live-action DC superhero film more than something from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This wasn’t the case a few years ago so I was rather taken aback with this revelation. So, I took some time to do a little introspection to see what happened and why my attitude had changed.

Like I mentioned before, I practically grew up watching Marvel superheroes on the big screen. I was around 8 years old when I saw the start of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the first Iron Man movie. Since then, I watched every Phase 1 and Phase 2 movie on opening day because I fell in love with the characters and the tone of each and every movie Marvel put out. On the flip side, DC realized they were losing out, which was weird since, objectively, they had the more popular superheroes. I mean, no one really cared for Iron Man until the movie and that was a big hit! What more if it were the likes of Superman and Batman, two superheroes who have already proven themselves to make cinematic blockbusters in the past?

I will say I was initially excited for DC’s first DC Extended Universe film, Man of Steel. The trailers made it look good but, even as someone who wasn’t all that familiar with Superman, I just knew there was something wrong with this version of DC’s greatest hero. Why was he so reluctant to help people? Why didn’t he seem like one of us but more like the alien he is? I always saw Superman as a beacon of light and hope. The one in Man of Steel wasn’t it. So, that already planted the seed of what my impression of all other future DC Extended Universe entries were going to be like.

As the years passed, Marvel movies thrived… until Avengers: Endgame. Avengers: Endgame was the culmination of literally a decade of Marvel telling a very long story and, like the title suggests, came off like the end for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in a good way. We got closure for most of the heroes we gotten to know over the years. The Avengers faced off against someone who felt like the biggest and baddest of final bosses ever. There were no more mountains to climb.

This is where Marvel started to stumble as they didn’t really know what to do next. Everything was building up to Avengers: Endgame. Now that that’s done, they didn’t know what to do next. Since then, Marvel movies (and television shows) just seemed to flounder, wandering aimlessly and firing around blindly without a target to aim at. That’s not to say they didn’t put out some good stuff now and then. I loved WandaVision and Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, these still seemed directionless. After being told how the Marvel Cinematic Universe will all eventually intersect into one bombastic and climactic story, we were getting these standalone entries? It just seemed weird!

On DC’s side of things, they started to get their act together. They supposedly got a huge “comic book nerd” in the form of Zack Snyder to build the foundations for DC’s new film outings. However, as my colleague pointed out on this site points out, they realized too late how he was the wrong kind of “comic book nerd” to do these kinds of superhero movies. DC got rid of him and they actually got the right kind of comic book nerd: James Gunn.

I was totally unfamiliar with James Gunn until Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Like most casual comic book fans, I had no knowledge of this gang of spacefaring misfits but James Gunn made it feel like we were all missing out. While the movie was fun and funny, there were some touching moments which made you really root for them. So, of course Marvel fired James Gunn. This was because of some jokes he made in the past, not because of the quality of his films.

Still, this was the opening DC needed as they swooped in and got him to direct a movie about another bunch of superhero misfits: The Suicide Squad. Like with Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad was fun and funny but had the touching moments, which made us root for them. With that, DC had their new head of DC movies in James Gunn.

Then the trailers and sneak peaks for the latest Superman started to slowly trickle out. This was a Superman who showed kindness and unabashedly good in a world where cynics such as myself are everywhere. I will point out one particular point in the trailer which cemented my excitement for this. It wasn’t seeing Krypto the Superdog. It wasn’t seeing the cool action scenes for a split second. It wasn’t any of that.

It’s the scene where Lois Lane is interviewing Clark Kent’s Superman persona.

So, Lois Lane is in Clark Kent’s apartment and she manages to finagle an interview with his Superman identity. She goes straight to the jugular, asking him how he intervened in a war of two other countries and how it makes the United States look bad, the politics of it all and how he’s interfering in foreign relations. After being pressed continuously, Superman exclaims how, if he didn’t step in, people were going to die.

This was Superman. It may not have been the exact idea of what he was in my mind but it was definitely Superman. He really didn’t think of the ramifications of his actions but, simply put, innocent lives were going to be lost if he didn’t intervene. I mean, isn’t this what Superman is all about? Doing as much good as you can because you have the power to do so? Public image be damned? James Gunn got him right… and I was pumped!

I do believe this is the reason for my general reversal between Marvel movies and DC movies. Marvel has just lost its mojo and became more corporate, which is the direct opposite of what they were when they started out. They were doing something daring by putting together his intertwined story told over years and, once that story was done, they just didn’t have it in them to tell another great story. DC, on the other hand, got someone who enjoys comics and also knows how to make an entertaining comic book movie. Basically, Marvel forgot how to make comic book movies while DC found someone who does… and it’s the same person who helped Marvel in the past! This is how I think of the two brands now.

This did bleed into their products as a result. So, while I am hopeful Fantastic Four: First Steps can recapture that Marvel magic, I’m simply not all that excited to see it as I have been burned Marvel so many times. On the other side of things, Superman had James Gunn and he managed to make me feel like this was the Superman I knew or, at the very least, the Superman that I wanted. I still hope Fantastic Four: First Steps will be good. I just wish I were more excited for it.

Byee!

Which film were you more excited for? Superman or Fantastic Four: First Steps? Let me know in the comments section below!