Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ralph Ineson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner Director: Matt Shakman Year: 2025 Runtime: 1h 54m Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the latest MCU movie starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn as the original Marvel super team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

The movie also stars Ralph Ineson as the villainous Galactus, while his herald, The Silver Surfer, is played by Julia Garner.

The movie, directed by Matt Shakman, is the third MCU movie of the year, following on from Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts.

Tentative Steps

The Fantastic 4 is the most important movie in MCU history for a number of key reasons.

Firstly, the Fantastic 4 are easily the most important characters in all of Marvel, yes, even more than Spider-Man.

Sure, Spidey sells more merchandise, but the Fantastic 4 are the fulcrum on which the entirety of the Marvel universe pivots.

Unfortunately, despite multiple movie appearances, audiences have yet to see a proper depiction of Marvel’s “First Family” on the silver screen.

Licensing agreements also prevented them from appearing in the MCU until Disney finally acquired the rights when it purchased 20th Century Fox in 2019.

And for the next five years since then, the MCU graduated from being a hot property to a hot mess and eventually a large bubbling cauldron of molten smegma.

In my Thunderbolts review, I hinted at the possibility that perhaps Marvel is finally starting to turn things around.

I also said that, if Marvel succeeds where others have failed and delivers an entertaining movie which captures the true spirit of the Fantastic Four, it will send a clear signal to audiences that the MCU is back.

So, have they managed to pull it off?

The Floptastic Four (1994 – 2015)

Before discussing the movie, it’s important to mention the stakes.

The Fantastic Four are the OGs of Marvel, predating Spider-Man and The Hulk by a year.

Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, they’re also Marvel’s first superhero team, creating the template for other iconic teams such as the X-Men and The Avengers.

I mean, we all know the story, right?

Not the one about cosmic radiation giving them superpowers to fight bad guys.

But how Marvel Comics flogged the movie rights of various characters to keep the company afloat.

That’s how New Line Cinema got the rights to Blade, the first proper Marvel action movie, followed soon after by Fox’s X-Men franchise.

As of the time of writing, Sony still owns Spider-Man and, as far as I’m aware, Universal still owns the rights to the Incredible Hulk.

As for the Fantastic Four, the German company Constantin Films originally purchased the movie rights back in the 80s and did nothing with them until the early 90s.

Realising they would soon lose those rights if they didn’t make a movie, the studio opted to make the cheapest Fantastic Four movie they could – enter the legendary Roger Corman.

Unbeknownst to the production team, however, Constantin had no intention of ever releasing the movie, and it was all just a cynical ploy to hold on to the movie rights (this would become a recurring theme with the Fantastic Four and Marvel IP in general).

The movie nonetheless found its way onto the convention circuit via video bootlegs and developed a cult following. Despite the low production values and lack of finished ADR, there’s an earnest naivety to it which, in many ways, better captures the spirit of the Fantastic Four than the three movies which succeeded it.

Constantin eventually sold the rights on to 20th Century Fox, who made the first official Fantastic Four movie back in 2005.

While far from perfect, it’s a passable adaptation, and I still place this one in the upper tier of Fantastic Four adaptations. (Such as they are.)

First, the bad; Doctor Doom is terrible, and Reed Richards isn’t far behind; his character doesn’t match the comics, and the only thing less convincing is the awful stretchy CGI.

Chris Evans’ Human Torch is a jerk, but I do love Michael Chiklis as The Thing, slightly more brooding in this one, but charismatic, nonetheless.

Also, Jessica Alba is in it, and who didn’t have a crush on her back in the day?

This was followed up by 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. This one didn’t quite resonate with audiences and similarly irritated fans by demoting Galactus from an alpha-tier Marvel badass to a lame black CGI cloud.

FFS!

Roll on another year, and Marvel’s Iron Man would herald the birth of the MCU, changing superhero movies forever.

It’s worth remembering, though, that the MCU was initially built on leftovers the studios didn’t want.

Iron Man was always a cool concept, but as a character, he was never cool, at least not until Downey donned the suit in 2008.

Thor is an even better example. That cheesy blonde dude with the silly wings on his helmet? Why would anybody want to watch a movie about him?

The answer was because Chris Hemsworth was in it.

2012’s The Avengers changed everything.

It swiftly became one of the top-grossing movies of all time, prompting other studios to doggedly defend their own Marvel IP.

Sony remains the worst offender here, but equally egregious is 20th Century Fox’s 2015 atrocity, nicknamed Fant4stick, the dark and gritty Fantastic Four reboot no one asked for.

The decision to turn Marvel’s upbeat familial superhero team into an insufferable quartet of nihilists and narcissists once again enraged fans.

Critics were equally scathing and rightly so. This movie is fucking miserable. Sure, Chiklis’ Thing had his moody moments too, but at least he wasn’t a suicidal military assassin.

Keep in mind, this is the post-Dark Knight, peak Snyder era, so everything and everyone in this movie is dark and moody. The one exception is Doctor Doom, who’s comically ridiculous. (Though he’s not meant to be.)

Fox was planning an X-Men / Fantastic Four movie crossover, but given Fant4stick’s poor performance and even poorer reception, those plans were scrapped.

Fast forward to 2019, when Disney acquired 20th Century Fox and, with it, the ability to incorporate their existing Marvel IP into the MCU.

Now, many decades and four failed attempts later, are fans finally about to get the Fantastic Four movie they deserve?

Four Play

The Fantastic Four: First Steps – the title of this movie alone gives us plenty to unpack.

For starters, it relates to the team’s MCU debut, as they take their first tentative steps into a cinematic universe that’s now 17 years old.

Secondly, it refers to the central plot of Reed and Sue’s newborn baby.

And thirdly, given the movie’s 1960s space age aesthetic, it’s surely a nod to the Apollo programme also, and the immortal words of Neil Armstrong.

Suffice to say, whoever came up with the title deserves a bonus, as it’s the cleverest and most apposite movie title I’ve heard in quite a while.

One cannot overstate the importance of Marvel’s first family getting off to a good start in the MCU. This would be true at any time, but it is especially crucial given that the franchise has been a shitshow for so long.

While every second movie these days loves to include the whole “we’re a family schtick” (including Marvel’s last movie, The Thunderbolts) the success of this movie largely depends on getting the familial dynamic of the Fantastic Four just right.

And while the script is far from perfect, much of the heavy lifting is done by a strong cast with palpable on-screen chemistry.

Leading the team is Pedro “I’m In Everything” Pascal, as ubiquitous this summer as Brian Dennehy was in my local video shop back in the day.

Pascal plays team leader and stretchy super-genius Reed Richards, aka Mr Fantastic.

At his side is his wife, Sue, played by Vanessa Kirby and her brother, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, played by Joseph Quinn.

And my personal favourite, Ben Grimm, better known as The Thing, played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach.

Pascal’s Richards is the most accurate portrayal to date, the eternal tinkerer, brilliant, yet neurotic, constantly calculating and pedantic.

Richards views every problem as an equation to be balanced and is incapable of just letting a thing go, always chasing perfection in a chaotic world.

And it’s precisely this behaviour which tends to have huge, cosmic consequences, often concurrent with his domestic issues.

Picking up the pieces is his wife, Sue Storm, aka The Invisible Woman. But Vanessa Kirby’s version is notably less invisible than her predecessors, and the emphasis this time around is on her force field powers.

This fits thematically also, since Sue’s the heart and soul of this movie, the one who holds the team together.

Her brother Johnny has traditionally been portrayed as a jackass, but in an interesting twist, they make him an actual scientist.

Maybe he’s not a “brilliant scientist” as Reed claims, but he’s competent enough to handle the B-plot investigation while Reed remains laser-focused on his plan to save the world.

My primary criterion for success when judging this movie, however, is whether or not they got The Thing right. And I’m delighted to say they have.

Within the opening seconds of the movie I knew, right away, this was the real deal, not the Grimm-dark abomination from Fant4stic, this is the real Ben Grimm, the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing of my childhood realised on screen for the first time.

And though I liked Chiklis’ portrayal, the script focused too much on the external and not enough on the internal, with The Thing feeling alienated and constantly staring at his reflection.

Moss-Bachrach’s version is farther along, character-wise, and has (mostly) come to terms with his radical change of appearance, learning to embrace (and in some cases relish) his new identity.

Altogether, the characters feel authentic, true to the source material and, more importantly, they feel like an actual family.

There’s tension, but no manufactured drama; there’s humour, but it’s the organic type, not the forced Marvel sass we’ve come to expect.

Once the family introductions are out of the way, the next thing we notice first is the world-building.

Again, this feels significantly closer to the spirit of the Fantastic Four than any previous efforts.

Put it all together and it’s a promising start, added to the fact that it’s the tightest Marvel script in years.

The entire first quarter of this movie is a masterclass in show-don’t-tell.

Sure, we get a huge exposition dump at the start, but it’s carefully crafted and feels less like an info dump and more like a loving homage to Marvel’s golden age.

So, unlike the new Superman movie, which throws the audience into the deep end of the DC nerd pool and expects them to swim, First Steps ensures that, even if you’ve never heard of the Fantastic Four or Marvel, for that matter, you’ll still find yourself fully immersed in the world in under 15 minutes.

There’s also plenty of nods to the great Jack Kirby, with blink-and-you’ll-miss-it recreations of iconic comic book covers. And then there’s Richard’s rocket ship, Excelsior, an obvious nod to the late Stan Lee.

We’re also treated to a cameo by villain Moleman, though alas, John Malkovich’s Red Ghost scene was ultimately cut from the movie. (Here’s hoping we get an extended version on streaming.)

Without getting too much into spoilers, the story involves The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) heralding the coming of Galactus, the devourer of worlds.

Unlike the crappy CGI cloud we got back in 2007, this time we get a fully comic-accurate Galactus, utterly bonkers though that may sound.

While it may be easy for such a character to look campy, First Steps’ Galactus is immense and imposing and granted extra gravitas by the voice of Ralph Ineson. (Now firmly on track to becoming the next James Earl Jones.)

When the Fantastic Four confront Galactus, hoping to find a way to prevent him from noshing on planet Earth, he learns of Sue and Reed’s unborn child, the future Franklin Richards.

This extremely powerful child (who grows up to be a big deal in the comics) would allow Galactus to finally be free of his cosmic burden and the insatiable hunger that goes with it.

Following Franklin’s birth, the Richards now face a dilemma: give up their child to Galactus, or refuse and watch as Galactus destroys the entire world.

So that’s the basic plot.

And it is a basic plot, which is so refreshing, especially after writing that Superman review, which almost broke my brain.

Of the two, Fantastic Four is the superior movie, less ambitious but way more contained and coherent.

It’s not the best Marvel movie by any measure, but it’s the best in quite a while.

Which, admittedly, is exactly what I said about the Thunderbolts.

(We’ll have to wait exactly one year to find out whether this trend continues with the release of Spider-Man Brand New Day.)

While I do feel like I need to rewatch this movie to judge it with greater accuracy, I can state with confidence that this is the best Fantastic Four depiction we’ve seen on screen so far.

I just hope that hasn’t coloured my opinion of the movie too much, especially since “they finally got The Thing right” is not a viable grading system for movies. 

But, since I’m still rollin’ on nacho cheese and feeling brazen, I’ll even go so far as to say that First Steps represents the most faithful on-screen depiction of classic Marvel characters we’ve seen to date (MCU or otherwise).

Shall we address the obligatory comparisons to Superman?

Two tentpole movies from competing studios, both hoping to inject some much-needed originality into their fading franchises.

Both flagship characters from their company’s respective golden ages.

Both from studios who realise how critical it is to portray these characters correctly, or risk blowing their chances at a new “phase” of planned releases.

Both released in the same month, going toe-to-toe at the box office.

Both have superb casting, high-quality visuals and rich world-building.

But, of the two, Fantastic Four was the only one to take the time to set that world up with care.  

So if you’re going to take a non-geek girl to one superhero movie this summer, for the love of Jor-El, make it this one!

As for Superman, I can picture all those hapless girlfriends whispering in the dark, “Who’s that?”

“Eeeh, I think that’s… Aah, no wait, it’s not. …I don’t know who that is, actually.”

“I thought you knew all this nerd stuff!”

Trouble in paradise.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps wins because it takes the time to get us oriented BEFORE the story begins.

And you can go in knowing nothing about the characters, nothing about all the other characters in the MCU, nothing about Marvel or comic books in general.

Even if this was your first ever superhero movie, there’s still a strong chance of you leaving satisfied, thinking, “I quite enjoyed that.”

And for those with so-called “superhero fatigue”, there’s enough originality in this one to make it palatable.

As for the growing number of viewers who are sick and tired of feeling like they have to catch up on endless movies and series just to follow the plot of the latest movie, I’m happy to say this one requires zero “Marvel homework.”

Which, given Marvel’s output over the past couple of years, may well be the best thing about First Steps.

The Good

A Standalone Adventure: Picture this, a superhero movie with no connected storylines or tie-in characters, but rather a completely self-contained movie which doesn’t require you to watch other movies and series to know who’s who and what’s what.

Everything you need to know is explained to you at the beginning and all the plot elements are resolved at the end. Y’know? Like how movies used to be!

The Core Characters: For the first time, this movie gets the core characters right.

Reed Richards, brilliant yet neurotic, calculating every variable, whether it’s a cosmic equation or child safety, with the same over-scrupulous intensity.

His wife, Sue, her conflicting feelings of love and frustration, the tenable bond she has with her brother Johnny, and the similarly fraternal bond shared with The Thing.

Comic Accurate Galactus: And then there’s Galactus; lovingly realised on screen for the first time, and it perfectly encapsulates why this movie works.

Past comic book adaptations (especially the earlier ones) deliberately shied away from the visual excesses of the source material, the bright colours, the silly costumes, etc.

But Marvel deliberately leaned into the crazy, the cosmic and the outlandish with this one, since to do otherwise would not be true to the spirit of the Fantastic Four.

So, when Galactus lands in New York for the final battle, despite decades of conditioning trying to tell me otherwise, the scene works.

HERBIE: I also got to give a shout-out to HERBIE the robot. His retro cassette tape face is ingenious. I also love the little touches, for example, when Reed swaps out the control tapes before going into space, taking out the “Home” cassette and slotting in “Space”.

That made me chuckle. As did the robot’s voice, which uses a bit-crushing technique reminiscent of an old Texas Instruments Speak and Spell.

At one point in the movie, I found myself the only person laughing in the cinema when the robot clearly says, “What the fuck?!”

Though nobody else seems to have picked it up.

That said, I do listen to a lot of quirky electro music, so I’m probably more attuned to this than most.

World-building: The phrase you’ll keep hearing over and over is “retro future”, along with inevitable comparisons to The Jetsons, though this hardly does the movie justice.

The world of First Steps is rich and detailed, with space-age elements, retro 60s fashions and garish interiors, but it never looks too exotic or outlandish.

Yes, this movie is meant to be set in a parallel universe, yet, despite the exotic technologies and cosmic forces, the genius of this movie is that it somehow feels familiar.

Similarly the lead cast grounds us in reality, focusing on the four, while merely absorbing the fantastical.

The Bad

Technology: Ok, so I’m kinda nit-picking here, but I do find it hard to believe that in a world with faster-than-light travel, people are still watching space launches on grainy, 12″ TVs.

Yeah, in a movie where a giant planet-eating space god attacks New York, that’s the bit I’m flagging as pushing the boundaries of credibility.

Space: And yeah, speaking of space travel – I’ve watched a few online reviews, and they all loved the outer space portion of the movie and the Silver Surfer chase sequence.

For me though it the only part where I felt the movie drag. Sure, the stakes are high, yet you never really feel there’s any true peril.

The Cheesy

I mean, it’s the Fantastic Four, so you should expect – nay DEMAND – that it’s cheesy!

But it’s that original optimistic space age 60s gee-wizz cheez we want, not the current brand of overpowering Hollywood gorgonzola.

First Steps benefits from a generous helping of the former, and, given that it’s 2025, cannot escape the latter, but thankfully, there isn’t as much of it.

Sure, we get the obligatory “we’re a family” shit, which seems to be a mandatory clause in every Hollywood writer’s contract so they can include the line in the trailer.

And Sue also gives a speech appealing to the good nature of the planet as a whole, calling for understanding and cooperation, which I guess is to remind us that we are watching a movie set in a parallel universe.

Still, comparing it again to Superman, which, midway through the movie, attempted to inject Snyder-esque cynicism into an otherwise cheery movie, the scene with Sue’s speech works. Or at least in the context of the movie.

Besides, if there ever was a movie where Marvel can hit us over the head with the family hammer, it’s The Fantastic Four.

Highlights

The Thing Twigs It: The one scene which won me over, completely disarming me and reassuring me at the same time, happens right at the beginning of the movie.

Sue discovers she’s pregnant and tells Reed. They then proceed to try to tell Johnny and The Thing at the dinner table. But before they can manage it, The Thing twigs it.

We see his knowing smile, the genuine love he has for them both, the happiness in his eyes, the slightly mischievous expression – all this displayed on a mug like orange-peel coloured granite.

Nailed it!

From that moment on, I knew I was going to enjoy this movie, because if they got The Thing right, then they’d get the rest of the team right. And with absolutely no idea of what to expect story-wise, I was able to just sit back and enjoy the experience.

Introductions: So that’s our first introduction to the Four, at the dinner table, as a family.

Secondary to that is the fact that they’re also superheroes. And this introduction, told through the lens of a recap montage shown on a late-night interview show, is a masterclass in showing not telling.

We’re introduced to the world, we get all the backstory and context we need in a few short minutes, and it’s all done in a way that pays homage to those classic comic books from the ’60s.

Happy Thing: The Thing is somewhat of a tragic character in the comics, ever wary of his radically altered appearance. Alas, past film adaptations have tended to focus solely on this to the exclusion of all else.

It done my soul well to look up at the screen and see a happy, sociable Ben Grimm, not hiding from the world but embracing it.

We see him walking through the old neighbourhood, getting ribbed by locals asking him to say his famous catchphrase and doing bicep curls with a VW Beetle as wide-eyed school kids cheer him on.

I almost felt like doing likewise right there in the cinema, seeing The Thing of my childhood up on the big screen for the first time – yay!  

Baby Steps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is an an MCU unicorn; a simple, self-contained adventure with a solid script, minimal exposition, a linear storyline and relatable characters.

Even if you’ve never seen a Marvel movie before, you can walk into this movie and enjoy it for what it is, unbridled popcorn escapism.

First Steps is bright and optimistic, without being overly cheesy. It has heart and authenticity, and is respectful of the source material while also indulging its more outlandish elements.

The cast has great chemistry together, convincing us that we’re watching a real family, with all the tension and drama that entails.

There’s also lots of humour, but it’s organic and situational, rather than the forced one-liners and clunky Marvel sass which have plagued the MCU in recent years.

Following on from Thunderbolts, it’s certainly another step upward in terms of quality and coherence and bodes well for future releases.

It’s not the best Marvel movie. But a single viewing is all it took to convince me that, Marvel or otherwise, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the most comic-accurate superhero movie I’ve seen to date.

So not quite fantastic, but certainly a step in the right direction.

Fantastical Viewing

The Incredibles (2004): Brad Bird’s love letter to the Fantastic Four is set in a world where superheroes have been made illegal, forcing them to get regular jobs.

Starring Craig T. Nelson as Mr Incredible and his wife, Elastigirl, played by Holly Hunter, The Incredibles tells the story of a super-powered family teaming up to take down the supervillain Syndrome. It also stars Samuel L Jackson as their superhero buddy, Frozone.

It’s over 20 years old now, but still looks, well, incredible. It also sounds amazing thanks to an outlandish soundtrack from Michael Giacchino channelling the works of John Barry, Henry Mancini and the original 60s Batman composer, Nelson Riddle.

Incredibles 2 (2018): Despite a 14-year absence from our screens, Incredibles 2 picks up almost exactly where the last movie left off (though with a palpable leap forward in the quality of animation).

While not as well-paced as its predecessor, it’s still an entertaining adventure. The standout scene for me has to be the motorbike chase sequence, which is flawlessly storyboarded and has nothing whatsoever to do with me checking out Elastigirl’s booty.

Doomed! (2015): Finally, a must-watch for movie nerds and Fantastic Four aficionados, this 2015 documentary tells the story of the doomed Roger Corman adaptation from 1994.

It features interviews with those involved, providing a fascinating insight into the murky world of Hollywood double-dealing.

Incidentally, if you are looking to watch the original, it’s currently located on Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/the-fantastic-four-unreleased-roger-corman-movie

It’s only really recommended viewing for the truly curious, or if you want to get the full value of the movie’s Honest Trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw1ZdQ2XIYQ  honest trailer