The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review

With this summer’s Superman, and now The Fantastic Four: First Steps, comic book movies have made something of a course correction, and I’m curious to see if it will hold – no longer do these movies seem interested in maintaining a semblance of reality. Perhaps they have their fingers on the pulse of what audiences want – to escape their lives, to find joy and adventure in these stories, and not to be reminded of ordinary things.

For a long time, these movies felt less like a fun diversion and more like a chore. It’s not just Marvel that was guilty of this – DC, especially with the Snyderverse movies, felt like it was all wheel spinning and no movement.

Time will tell if those days are gone, but right now, this summer’s crop of superhero movies has been wonderful and has tackled the genre in interesting and unexpected ways. Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps, feels, much like Superman, unapologetically straight ripped from the comic books, and thank goodness for that.

This insistence on having one foot in the real world has made these movies grounded in a way that has held them back from truly giving us that feeling of sitting down and reading a comic book on a summer day, transported to a world of adventure and giant monsters and spaceships and superheroes. They don’t feel like homework anymore, at least for now.

The Fantastic Four have been done before, but they never got the characters right, and never captured the joy of storytelling that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had in creating them. Kirby drew like a man possessed, and you could feel the love in every drawn line and page.

It’s taken a while for Marvel Studios to recognize Kirby’s genius, for various reasons. But they embrace him here, and we’re all better for it. There’s a nice tribute to Jack Kirby in the credits, and worth staying to see.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn’t take place in the Marvel Cinematic universe proper – this is a world that feels like a futuristic 1960s, like Tomorrowland or those cartoons that used to show us what the world would be like in the future, with retro designs and beautiful cityscapes. Like Superman, First Steps doesn’t spend a lot of time telling an origin story – although it spends a bit more time than Superman did – trusting that the audience is already familiar with how Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Reed’s best friend and pilot Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) became Earth’s protectors.

It does help establish the world, a world of super-science, and mole men, and evil ape wranglers, and monsters, and it all feels silly in the best ways and done in a way that doesn’t feel burdensome or dark for the sake of dark. The Fantastic Four have always been Marvel’s First Family – these four fight together because of their love for each other.

But when Sue learns she is pregnant, Reed, who at his best is distant and aloof, must adjust his life to be a good father and a better husband. But they may have run out of time – when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives as a herald of planet-eater Galactus (Ralph Ineson). Soon, the Fantastic Four must choose between the life of their newborn child and the life of the planet Earth itself.

The most important aspect of a Fantastic Four movie is the four main characters, which have never been done correctly in the preceding films. There’s a dynamic between them that in films past has been jokey, or with no real weight, and that’s just not who the Fantastic Four are. They’re a true family, and their relationship onscreen has never been portrayed the way that the comics have done. But they get it right here, and director Matt Shakman sets the tone between all of them perfectly.

It’s important to note the distinction between Richards and someone like Tony Stark. Richards isn’t a quippy man – he’s introverted and awkward to the point of frustration from his loved ones. Reed has always been the most difficult character to get right, but I’m happy to say that Pedro Pascal nails Reed Richards. Brilliant to the point that he can’t see the forest for the trees, Reed Richards is a man who could come across as arrogant or humorless, but Pascal sees the unsure but loving man within. He IS Reed Richards, more so than any of the other actors who have played him so far.

Sue Storm has always been the anchor of the family, and Vanessa Kirby gives her agency even as she is the one supporting everyone else. She also gets some stellar moments. Ebon Moss-Bachrach doesn’t play Ben Grimm as tortured or conflicted; Ben’s made peace with what has happened to him, even if Reed hasn’t. I love how Moss-Bachrach fully takes Ben Grimm to heart, and while there’s a sadness to the Thing, it doesn’t overwhelm his reason or his sense of duty.

Johnny Storm may be impetuous, but he’s not dumb, and Joseph Quinn gives Johnny real spirit and intelligence that make him deeper than previous portrayals did. First Steps is some of the best character work we’ve seen in the MCU so far, and when those emotions hit, we feel them at a level that, as much as we love these movies, is still all too rare.

The scale of First Steps is off the charts – first, Galactus feels like a genuine threat; so much so, it becomes apparent quickly that our heroes may not be able to defeat him. Previous versions of the character have been, shall we say, underwhelming, but not this one. Ralph Ineson gives Galactus a real sense of menace, and in the film’s climactic sequence, gets to have all kinds of fun making Earth his literal stomping ground. Julia Garner plays her Silver Surfer as enigmatic and tragic, and I really enjoyed her relationship with Johnny Storm.

Second, this is the first Marvel movie in a while that gives us a sense of epic storytelling, at a level that we haven’t seen since Avengers: Endgame. There’s a wild sequence in space that is unlike anything we’ve seen in the MCU before, and it left me wondering why we didn’t get this kind of action previously.

It felt very reminiscent of Star Wars in that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and of all the parts of the film, it made me remember what it was like as a kid again, reading these books and looking up at the stars to wonder if it was all possible. Marvel has been grounded for so long that it seemed to forget how wonderfully weird all this stuff is, and First Steps embraces its goofy, comic book origins.

Matt Shakman directs this material with a zip that reminded me of many of our beloved 1980s films by Robert Zemeckis, Joe Dante, or even Steven Spielberg – he directs it like he’s being chased, and that’s a compliment. His direction is bolstered by an all-time score from Michael Giacchino; this is John Williams-level stuff, and this is a soundtrack that will go right next to my beloved Speed Racer and Rogue One on the shelf. It really is that good.

Perhaps that was the problem – these movies tried so hard to emulate and reflect the world around them, but that’s not why we go to these movies. We go to them to see things we’ve never seen before, to dream while awake, to be inspired to heroism, and to have a rollicking good time at the movies.

Both Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps remember what it was like to read these comic books and to imagine us living in these worlds, and they remember the joys of childhood when we would sit down to these movies and pretend to be a part of them, strapping on a blanket as a cape and running around in our backyards, dreaming of adventure.

I hate to keep comparing the two movies, but both successfully touch those emotions and make us feel alive in the best ways. Superhero cinema has never had it so good. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the best MCU film since Avengers: Endgame, and with a bit of reflection and time, may even be better. Let’s celebrate the pilots, the scientists, the mothers, the fathers, the brothers, the best friends, the heroes of our dreams. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is outstanding superhero cinema, and I can’t wait to see it again.

THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS REVIEW RATING: 9 OUT OF 10

Marvel Studios will release the film in theaters on Friday, July 25, 2025. It is rated PG-13 for action/violence and some language.