July 25, 2025 · Watch the trailer
Director Matt Shakman's feature debut leans admirably and heavily into a vintage nostalgia of the 1960s Americana setting it finds itself in.
There's a classic feel that evokes both early space race as well as wholesome “Brady Bunch” family drama that should easily draw viewers in and maintain their interest over the course of two hours.
Or at least until the massive computer-generated robot engulfs the screen in overly shadowed darkness.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is the 37th entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and first installment for one of the comic book company’s most iconic teams.
Yet it feels as though Shakman, under the direction of studio head Kevin Feige, has used all the aces in “Fantastic Four” canon in its first film and it's hard to see where exactly Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny go from here.
Much like James Gunn’s recent foray into “Superman,” this iteration of the Fantastic Four largely glosses over an origin story and sets the team several years into their journey as planet saving heroes in an alternate universe separate from one that the MCU has spent the vast majority of its previous 36 films in. This gives Feige and Shakman all the opportunity in the world to start from scratch and mold a new direction for the franchise.
Pedro Pascal has been all over the summer box office with roles in “Eddington” and “Materialists,” though his turn as Reed Richards here is far less demanding on his acting talents and the bland, one-note performance he sleepwalks his way through in “First Steps” doesn’t really give the talented actor much to work with.
Vanessa Kirby, on the other hand, elevates every scene with her unique blend of charisma and deep emotional connection to first-time motherhood and among the titular four characters, her Sue Storm is the most complex, yet relatable character of the group.
While Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm and Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm are solid in relatively secondary roles in the team, the focus is so far from either character that any real work these relative newcomers provide is shrouded or left on the cutting room floor.
“Ozark” and “Inventing Anna” star Julia Garner is totally wasted behind CGI and liquid silver shading as the antagonist Silver Surfer and though there’s plenty to be mined from a character development perspective in the narrative that diverts from traditional comic book lore, neither Silver Surfer nor the over-arching villain Galactus have deep motivations that make for compelling characters. As a result, like most Marvel films, the stakes are artificially high though loss never seems plausible.
It's clear that significant storylines were trimmed or outright deleted from the final cut of first steps as Natasha Lyonne’s Rachel has been whittled down to four or five minutes of screen time as a potential love interest for Ben Grimm, while a minor villain arc for acclaimed character actor John Malkovich was cut entirely from the film.
Paul Walter Hauser delivers what could easily be considered the most comic book authentic performance in the entire film, wryly twisting a blandly written antagonist named Mole Man into a subversive supporting character that helps showcase that the world of this Fantastic Four universe is far more layered and textured than one might consider at first glance.
The highlights of “First Steps” come from the film's technical categories with the vintage 1960s aesthetic combining with a slightly futuristic almost “Jetsons”-like color palette to truly set the tone aesthetically for framing the story around.
The world building that the production design team led by Kasra Farahani and cinematography from Jess Hall builds a strong foundation to layer this origin story of sorts from.
If the film were more grounded in its 1960s New York City setting and less ambitious in its rush to incorporate intergalactic space travel into its narrative, its overall success would be comparable to the debut of the famed web-crawler Spider-Man in “Spider-Man: Homecoming.”
“First Steps” is a middle of the road entry into the MCU despite its cinematic promise from a visual and production design standpoint.
While it is nice to have some fresh blood and a self-contained story within the Marvel canon, this initial foray for the Fantastic Four doesn't rise to the level of the much more well-rounded “Thunderbolts” from earlier this summer, although it is leaps and bounds better than February’s “Captain America: Brave New World.”
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