Marvel brings their first family into the MCU with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It’s charming, and has some solid casting, but it never really has the impact that this iconic team deserves.

And that may be due to superhero fatigue. Marvel and Disney have upped the audience of dosage of superheroes that everything feels super-saturated. Instead of building up to event films, we have a couple of films a year, as well as streaming series, not to mention the ongoing comic series. It’s everywhere, so it’s tough to get excited about some of these things.

And that’s too bad, because the casting is top-notch, Pedro Pascal is the brilliant, and elastic Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby is the field-wielding, invisible-turning (and pregnant) Sue Storm, Joseph Quinn is her brother, the fiery Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is Ben Grimm, the rocky being known as The Thing.

Aided by Herbie the Robot, the film definitely leans into its source material and the entire production has a fun, neo-retro look.

We are introduced to the team after they already exist, and have saved Earth 828 a number of times. When a strange being, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives to herald the imminent approach of the planet-eating Galactus (Ralph Ineson), the team is faced with an impossible choice: give up their unborn child (who has his parent’s power cosmic) for the safety of Earth.

Can the FF find a way to save their family and their planet?

There’s some fun stuff here, the characters are almost complacent in their role as planet-savers. And that plays into their performance and the story’s narrative. They’ve never had a challenge like this. Are they ready for it?

It’s charming, and delightful enough, but it could have been something more, something iconic especially with this cast. I love the look of Earth 828 (and the FF’s uniforms), but these films have become so VFX heavy that you are also losing the human connection to the story. That means the cast has to work even harder to connect with the audience. And while they definitely seem like they are a family, it’s sometimes hard to find a way into that unit.

There’s a gorgeous score by Michael Giacchino which helps lift the film, but at times it feels like it’s hard for the story and characters to connect with the audience. And that’s a little bothersome, as I really wanted to embrace and love this one. Instead it just feels a little forgettable.

Matt Shakman is a solid director, his work with Marvel, he did nine episodes of WandaVision which are fabulous. His IMDB listings is full of critically acclaimed work.

Everything about this film says it should have connected with me. And I couldn’t find a way into it, no matter how I tried. Superhero fatigue is real, and I guess it needs to be truly exceptional now to break through that.

Maybe, just maybe, Marvel/Disney should slow down just a touch and build up excitement for these films instead of overfeeding us.