The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review – Fourth Time’s the Charm

The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review

After a few rough years, it’s safe to say 2025’s output of superhero movies has landed well enough to stabilise things both at the DC and Marvel camps. Hot on the heels of Superman and riding the momentum mustered up by Thunderbolts* back in May, the fourth attempt at getting the First Family of Marvel right on the big screen doesn’t miss with The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Well, it’s technically the fifth attempt if we count the 1994 unreleased Roger Corman-produced flick. It’s also yet another take on the classical Silver Surfer & Galactus plot, even non-comic book readers are familiar with by now. Marvel Studios’ trick was quite simple: Making a goddamn Fantastic Four movie at last.

That means putting adventure and pure science fiction elements over the superheroic antics, of which there are plenty regardless. In addition to that mission statement, the recruitment of Matt Shakman – a TV veteran who had already cracked WandaVision for the House of M – was supposed to take care of the gripping family-centric drama that would hold everything together in Fantastic Four: First Steps.

Despite a tight post-production timeframe (the movie only wrapped production in late 2024), The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the second Marvel Studios big-screen release in a row to feel like an actual movie shot in real sets and with strong attention to detail. Much of the project’s ‘spunk’ can be attributed to the ‘retro-future’ aesthetic, which is delightfully executed through clean production and costume design. Such flavour also extends to the editing; while jumpy in places (entire actors vanished as the movie was trimmed down to 114 minutes), the breezy Saturday-morning cartoon energy sets this instalment apart from more lumbering comic book adaptations.

Fantastic Four: First Steps Stands on Its Own

Those coming in fresh should also know that, even though Avengers: Doomsday looms on the horizon as the First Family’s next stop, this could be considered Marvel’s leaner and most standalone movie since perhaps the first Doctor Strange (2016) if we choose not to take into account the fairly independent but bloated Eternals (2021). Though it’s almost instantly invalidated as a “standalone film” (we know a trip to a different reality is coming), Marvel honcho Kevin Feige wasn’t lying when he said “no homework” was required to understand and enjoy this one.

Earth-828 (a cheeky reference to Jack Kirby’s 8/28 birthday) is the one and only reality the Fantastic Four explore in their MCU debut, despite some interstellar trips, which do a mighty fine job of briefly turning the movie into an old-fashioned space adventure (and no, I’m not talking about their origin story).

In fact, even after limiting itself to a single universe and a straightforward premise, First Steps manages to dial things even further back to focus squarely on its central characters and the challenges they face as a baby arrives and planet Earth is threatened by the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal) and the one and only Galactus (Ralph Ineson), both of whom play their parts well enough. Of course, it’s Ineson’s booming voice that does the heavy lifting here. Still, the CGI work done on both characters in Fantastic Four: First Steps should please every longtime comic book fan as well as those who rightly criticised the dwindling quality of the digital effects in recent times.

As teased before, it’s an approach that feels, in its execution, very much like Shakman’s, despite the four-writer script, which had been bouncing around Marvel HQ for years. Ultimately, it’s also what makes the movie work. When you set aside the cool, retro-futuristic setting (think of an alternate 1960s America) and all the cosmic menaces (often truly imposing and scary), you still have a fully functioning family drama that happens to follow superpowered individuals. Even Michael Giacchino’s stellar score is adapted to the fluctuating scale and rhythm of the tale in Fantastic Four: First Steps and the lenses through which it’s told.

A Real Family of Heroes

Reed Richards won’t become, at least for now, Pedro Pascal’s most iconic big-IP role, but he brings his signature sense of vulnerability to the part; Mister Fantastic often drifts away from home and, more importantly, his wife and son as he grapples with a problem too big for one genius to solve. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm, meanwhile, steals the show every chance she gets; the actress gets a lot to work with as the Invisible Woman, but also brings a strength to the role, which leads to some stirring moments in Fantastic Four: First Steps.

As for Johnny Storm, aka Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm, aka The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), they unsurprisingly have charming but more secondary roles; it’s the former who ends up getting more script pages to chew on than our rocky friend.

Fortunately, as focused as the script is on the First Family and the cosmic threats (there really are no deviations to be found here), the movie doesn’t lose sight of who they’re fighting and cracking science for: the entirety of Earth-828. Too often in recent times, superhero movies have adopted ridiculously high stakes only to overlook the most basic task a superhero can perform.

Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn’t do that, and thanks to a beautiful opening that’s literally live-action Incredibles (the circle is complete) and a later section which bluntly states the importance of the entire world coming together with optimism to achieve a common goal – we could use some of that right now inside and outside the sciences – it conjures up on-screen communal fervour that feels refreshing.

Being the best Fantastic Four movie is a low bar that First Steps flies over. It’s also one of Marvel Studios’ best and most cohesive efforts since Phase 3 and yet another push in the right direction after Thunderbolts* and recent Disney Plus shows made us dare to dream of a bright future for the MCU again.

That’s why it’s frustrating to see this one fall short of actual greatness due to Disney and Marvel’s weird obsession with cutting non-event flicks down to the 2-hour-ish mark. With steadier pacing throughout the whole thing and extra time to give every leading player the time in the spotlight they deserved, Fantastic Four: First Steps could’ve truly lived up to its title.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now screening in theatres.