Movie Review - Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps

Welcome to the family.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a 2025 science fiction superhero film directed by Matt Shakman, written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, produced by Marvel Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is based off of various Fantastic Four comics by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It stars Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby. This is the thirty-seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well as the fifth in the Fantastic Four franchise. It was preceded by Fant4stic and Thunderbolts* and will be followed by Avengers: Doomsday.

"I herald his beginning. I herald your end. I herald Galactus." - Shalla-Bal

Plot

When Sue Storm becomes pregnant, the Fantastic Four must decide between saving their family and saving their world from the imminent threat of Galactus.

The Sweet

The Fantastic Four: First Steps has been my most anticipated Marvel project post-Endgame. People forget that, before the MCU, the X-Men and Fantastic Four were Marvel's top two teams and the Avengers were a relatively distant third. Ever since Endgame, I've been waiting for the MCU to pivot towards mutants and Marvel's first family, and we finally have the Fantastic Four in this universe.

And, I gotta say, it's fantastic.

I honestly think that First Steps might be the best-looking movie in the MCU. Matt Shakman, who directed many of the episodes of WandaVision, did a great job with giving this movie style. Up until now, many people have credited The Incredibles with being the best Fantastic Four movie, because the two teams are very similar, and that's interesting, because this movie is a bit like live-action Incredibles. Now, the story is completely different, but the aesthetic and vibes of this retro-futuristic 60s world is tonally consistent with The Incredibles, and I think that works in the movie's favor.

Beyond just the incredible production design of the 60s retro-futuristic world, First Steps has some of the coolest visual effects in the entire franchise. The Fantastic Four have some iconic looks, and this movie brings them to life in the best way possible. I love the way the Thing looks. I think he doesn't look as cheesy as he did in the 2000s movies and he doesn't look like the CGI abomination from Fant4stic. This is a comic-accurate, beautifully animated mo-cap version that looks absolutely immaculate. Speaking of immaculate...Silver Surfer looks fantastic as well. To be fair, Norrin Radd looked great in Rise of the Silver Surfer twenty years ago, but Shalla-Ball looks great as well. But most importantly and most impressively...Galactus looks stunning. He's a bit cartoonish looking in the comics, but the way that he's portrayed in this film just makes him look so cool and so, so frickin' scary. Supposedly they implemented some practical elements to his design, and that makes sense, because he just looks so perfect. I cannot believe how well they brought him to the big screen. Thank God he's not a fart cloud in this movie.

Whoever decided to set this movie on a separate Earth deserves a pay raise, because that was one of the smartest and most restrained decisions the MCU has ever made. Simply put, it'd be very difficult to introduce the Fantastic Four in the current Earth-616 MCU. They are too significant of characters and Galactus is too big of a threat that it would not work in a universe populated by heroes. By allowing this to be a standalone story about the Fantastic Four that isn't connected to the main universe, it gives the family the spotlight, and that's what's needed. It isn't worried about connecting to the Avengers or setting up the next big event. Sure, there are teases towards Avengers: Doomsday, but nothing that feels unnatural or distracts from the main plot. The focus of this movie is on the story and the characters, and that is what's most important.

This movie also hammers home that the Fantastic Four are meant to be a family. Like, they're called Marvel's first family for a reason, and no previous cinematic adaptation has focused on that aspect. Not only does this movie make sure you know that they are a family...that's basically the whole plot of the film. It's themes and story are based around the fact that this is a family of superheroes, and it makes that front and center.

What also helps is that the cast is absolutely incredible. They all have great chemistry with each other and their banter feels truly organic. Each of the members get their time to shine. The main two characters are clearly Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman, but Human Torch and the Thing get their moments in the spotlight. They all have this lovability to them that just gets you immediately invested in them as both individual characters and as a unit.

One thing that made First Steps feel like such a breath of fresh air was it's ability to have both massive and very personal stakes. Galactus is one of Marvel's coolest villains, because he presents a terrible, world-destroying threat while not being inherently evil. The guy is just hungry...he just needs to eat planets to quench that hunger. The stakes feel real because you buy into Galactus being a threat to both the Earth and to the family. The choice he offers the Fantastic Four make for some real moral qualms that allow for a more thought-provoking movie than most Marvel films.

I know I talked about the team as a whole and the performances of the cast, but I really want to single out one character in specific: Sue Storm. Invisible Woman has always been the weakest member of the Fantastic Four. She's not as iconic as Human Torch or the Thing and she isn't the leader of the team like Mr. Fantastic. Due to that, she's just always felt like the least consequential member. Likewise, both Jessica Alba and Kate Mara have pretty bland, bad versions of the character. Vanessa Kirby does the complete opposite and gives us possibly the best portrayal of Sue Storm across any medium: comics, film, and TV. She is the emotional anchor of this movie. She is the beating heart of the family. Kirby does a great job of giving us layered, rich emotions to deal with through her performance, and the character is written to carry many of those heart-wrenching beats because of the nature of the story and Galactus's mission. If you had told me last week that she'd be my favorite member of the team walking out of the theater, I would not believe you. But I am so glad that she is.

Michael Giacchino's score here is also, like the rest of the movie, fantastic. We've gotten teases of it throughout the trailers and marketing, but when you see it in the movie, it just hits differently. It has this Spielberg-esc feel to it...a cosmic, sci-fi score that illuminates both the wonder and the terror of the things that lay outside of our world and universe. It really elevates the big, slam-bang moments that the film is going for, and that's when you know you have a good soundtrack.

Finally, the movie feels like Jack Kirby's comic books brought to life. This was a common talking point with Superman: many people felt as though that was a movie that embraced the weirdness of the comic books. First Steps embraces the weird and the zany, but does it with grounded characters and a serious, mature story. It is able to feel like a comic book brought to life but does it in a way that feels respectful and serious instead of just outright goofy like Superman was.

The Sour

To be honest, I don't have a ton to say here. This was about as good as I could've hoped for it to be.

The main thing I will say is that the pacing is a bit quick for me. I felt like we could've used a few more moments to breathe and let the story and emotional moments live a bit more. The movie has an efficient runtime of just under two hours, and I felt like it could've really been about ten-fifteen minutes longer just to pad out some of the story and let the plot have time to sink in before moving on to the next beat.

I will say, while I enjoyed their portrayals a ton, I was the tiniest bit underwhelmed by Human Torch and the Thing's usage in this movie. The main arcs of the story go to Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman, and, while Johnny and Ben are tons of fun, they don't really get big character arcs. I felt like we could've used some extra runtime to give us fully fleshed out versions of those characters in the way that Reed and Sue were. This could also easily be retconned because it could very likely happen in the future.

Finally, I think that the science-jargon dialogue was a bit too much at times. Anytime you have a character like Reed Richards, he's difficult to write, because you have to make him seem ridiculously intelligent. Oftentimes, the way to do that is to make him say a bunch of fancy sounding words that make him sound smart, and that's exactly what this movie does, but I don't find that to be an interesting way to write smart characters. Anytime they are talking about science-y stuff or coming up with a plan to defeat Galactus, there's, like, a paragraph-long monologue from Reed that is just nonsensical science words that not even the characters understand. It's fine once in a while, but it just got annoying when it was present throughout the whole film.

But most of those are really nitpicks. This was a great, great movie.

Final Thoughts and Score

If you thought Thunderbolts* was great, wait until you see First Steps. Marvel's first family finally gets a good adaptation to the big screen, and it is well worth the wait.

I am going Sweet. Age range is 13+.

SWEET N' SOUR SCALE

Sweet (Great)

Savory (Good) Sour (Bad) Moldy (Terrible)

"The Fantastic Four: First Steps"

Fun Factor: 9.5/10

Acting: 8/10

Story: 8.5/10

Characters: 9/10

Quality: 8.5/10

Directed by Matt Shakman

Rated PG-13 for moderate violence and action, language, disturbing themes and images

Released on July 25, 2025

1 hour and 55 minutes

Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic

Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm-Richards / Invisible Woman

Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / Human Torch

Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / The Thing

Ralph Ineson as Galactus

Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer

Mark Gatiss as Ted Gilbert

Natasha Lyonne as Rachel Rozman

Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder / Mole Man

Sarah Niles as Lynne Nichols

Matthew Wood as H.E.R.B.I.E.

Ada Scott as Franklin Richards