Publication Date: 07-27-2025

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) review

Dir. Matt Shakman

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★½

The Fantastic Four have been one of Marvel’s flagship properties since their introduction in 1961. To this day, multiple different comic series involving the quartet are ongoing and their popularity in print has carried on even long after the passing of its creators and collaborators, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. More impressive, however, might be the fact that despite multiple valiant attempts, a quality movie about the foursome of Reed “Mr. Fantastic” Richards, Sue “Invisible Woman” Storm, Johnny “Human Torch” Storm, and Ben “The Thing” Grimm remains elusive.

There was a 1990s film that never saw its theatrical release fulfilled. A 2005 origins story, and a sequel, that was unfairly maligned but still merely decent, and a 2015 miscalculation that only succeeded in killing the filmmaking career of Josh Trank just as he was getting started. The clunkily titled The Fantastic Four: First Steps is Marvel’s third attempt at getting this series off the ground, and while it’s the most visually attractive, and starts yet another phase of the ceaseless MCU on a sturdier foundation, it still finds itself with shortcomings that stall the extent of its success.

Director Matt Shakman and cinematographer Jess Hall (Transcendence) at least have an aesthetic vision for the project. Shakman gifts the film a retro-futuristic look ala his WandaVision miniseries. The story takes place on Earth-828, which is contrary to Earth-616, where almost every previous MCU film has taken place. The (fantastic) four screenwriters don’t bother giving us an origins story, blessed so; we get a brief recap of how Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny (Joseph Quinn), and Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) went from astronauts to superheroes and now receive celebrity treatment amongst the masses in this tech-driven version of the 1960s.

First Steps finds the quartet in the middle of coming to terms with Sue’s pregnancy, which was a longtime coming for both her and her husband, Reed. Unfortunately for them, her child is about to be due just as the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) comes to Earth. She is the herald of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a planet-devouring cosmic. News to me, this is the first time Galactus has been portrayed as a live-action entity, having controversially been reworked as a gas cloud in the 2007 film Rise of the Silver Surfer. His rendering here is terrific. He’s gigantic, intimidating, and capably portrayed by Ineson.

First Steps lives up to its subtitle by allowing the interpersonal relationships between the four heroes breathe, on top of showing Reed and Sue strive to get their parental priorities in order. It’s an interesting diversion for a Marvel movie. For the first time in a blue moon, this is a movie that doesn’t require someone to have participated in innumerable extra curriculars in the form of viewing the previous six movies, five TV series, and a partridge in a pear tree. This is a laudably self-contained work, which was the right move for a plethora of reasons, but especially given this troupe’s difficultly with making the leap to the silver screen.

These “first steps” still come with some stumbles, however. Don’t let the retrofuturism fool you. This is not a Guardians of the Galaxy-level laugh riot set to a surplus of bangers. It’s more brooding and serious than I would’ve guessed. It’s almost fun, but it also feels sort of automated, even during the action sequences that have the Fantastic Four hurling through space and time and eventually come to grips with appearing powerless when faced with Galactus’ wrath.

I think casting Pedro Pascal, one of the busiest men in Hollywood at this moment in time, as Mr. Fantastic might be part of the problem. Pascal is a gifted actor with a lot of personality, but as of late, he hasn’t been utilized in roles that show off his unflappable charisma. He feels miscast as Mr. Fantastic, who is both a genius and the host of a science-driven TV program for kids. The role of Mr. Fantastic needed someone with a lot more personality. Glen Powell would’ve been my first choice. Pascal, on the other hand, gets undercut by Sue’s challenge of balancing motherhood with world-saving, Johnny’s connection to Silver Surfer, and Ben’s laidback sensibilities that include entertaining local kids by picking up a vehicle and rocking a random but fitting Brooklyn Dodgers hat.

At under two hours, First Steps doesn’t overstay its welcome at least, most likely because it’s not beholden to contextualizing the Fantastic Four and instead trusts us to go with the flow as the narrative gets going. Its 60s aesthetics is very pleasant to look at, even if the film does skimp on doubling down on personality. That said, it’s all a means to another couple Avengers movies. At least this iteration of the Fantastic Four will be able to stand on its own in a few years when the hype train for those eventually arrives and subsequently departs from the station.

My review of Fantastic Four (2005)
My review of Fantastic Four (2015)

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, and Paul Walter Hauser. Directed by: Matt Shakman.