The Fantastic Four: First Steps ★★★

Release: 24th July 2025

Director: Matt Shakman

Starring: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss & Matthew Wood

There’s a sense of irony when Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) says to her husband Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) that “nothing is going to change”. In a moment of rare domesticity within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it’s somewhat of a gentle foreshadowing for audiences. On the one hand, Reed and Sue’s baby revelation is a life-changing experience, coming into the foreground as they balance marriage and saving the world. It’s a moment which says a lot about their characters and sets the tone: Reed – the genius, anxiety-ridden overthinker looking for a bottle of iodine in the drawer, too distracted by the bigger picture, whilst Sue shares her joyful pregnancy news and hands him the bottle in a one measured and assuring swoop. On the other hand, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the start of Phase Six of the MCU, meaning we’re full steam ahead to Avengers: Doomsday and Secret Wars, and those changes will be vast for a saga we’ve collectively grown up with since 2008.

But let’s stick to the present, or Earth-828 to be specific – a 60s retro-futuristic New York filled with analogue buttons, bright vibrant colours and flying Fantasticars. Where science, explorers and peacekeepers are revered instead of mocked by governments and personality cults, and superheroes embody that good old-fashioned charm and optimism when saving the day. Space missions carry the same romanticisation of NASA’s Apollo missions, and who would have thought it would also serve as a low-key tribute to Disney/Pixar’s The Incredibles. A set piece featuring Paul Walter Hauser’s Mole Man stealing the Pan Am building is the type of goofy worldbuilding director Matt Shakman leans into. Despite the low-bar expectations in the Fantastic Four’s cinematic escapades, it’s safe to say that 5th time is a charm for Marvel’s first family. First Steps is easily the best version of these characters, but it is also far from perfect.

In paying homage to Jonathan Hickman’s comic book run, Shakman’s heart is in the right place. The sincerity evokes a ‘back to basics’ approach, a world away from the multiverse of Earth-616 (with all its complicated ties and unfulfilled end credits scenes) for something a little more singular. Like James Gunn’s Superman, First Steps throws its audience into the mixer, skipping the origin story motif for a televised montage of their beginnings and achievements. It makes for a refreshing change, playing on the audience’s prior history of the characters without repeating or divulging in the overused discourse narrative of “superhero fatigue”. It is, in fact, the opposite: for its opening 30 minutes, it’s very colourful, willing to do something different and return Marvel to its backbone, which has been sorely missed for the past few years – focused characters.

There are some interesting elements which writers Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer play with. Their screenplay makes note that family is prioritised above everything else with some charming interplay between Reed, Sue, an energetic Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and grumpy yet gentle soul Ben Grimm (The Bear’s Ebon Moss-Bachrach). Naturally, their fun dynamic contrasts against the backdrop of their rising popularity as celebrities. This is more fevered than Marvel’s previous flirtations, such as Tony Stark’s iconic line at a press conference in Iron Man or Scott Lang’s book in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. From cereal box figurines to animated cartoons, it’s a reality felt ‘lived in’ thanks to the production design of Kasra Farahani and Michael Giachhino’s emphatic score. The Fantastic Four are saviours to the planet, and the world is naturally receptive to their resources and their fame. It’s a stark contrast to the Sokovia Accords or the messy, real-world politics infused in Captain America: Brave New World, but what Shakman and his production team capture is fan adulation, the genuine kind that inspires and gives reason as to why we love our comic book characters. Because what can be more delightful and wholesome than a scene where Ben lifts a car to please eager school kids who are excited to see their hero and will undoubtedly treasure that memory forever? For the most part, First Steps nails that aspect to a tee, so that good-natured reality ends up challenged by the arrival of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), who has marked Earth-828 for death by heralding ‘the devourer of worlds’ Galactus (Ralph Ineson).

Occasionally, First Steps threatens to deeply explore its Galactus-sized connotations: how does Galactus’ imminent arrival impact the family? Can Reed and Sue’s relationship survive when Galactus’s true intention with their baby and his cosmic powers reveals itself? How would their popularity be affected if Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben don’t achieve the desired results in stopping Galactus? How does a world-ending threat change people who have believed in nothing but hope from their heroes? How does Reed, who wants to “babyproof” the world, wrestle with his madcap flaws? And how far will the Fantastic Four move “heaven and Earth” to protect their planet? These are questions which the script throws a hand to, but there’s a looseness in how it confronts them. The breezy 114-minute runtime presents these as loose ideas rather than adding substantial emotional weight to the characters’ decision-making. Too often, First Steps finds itself rushing towards the finish line and gradually undoes some of the good work that it worked so hard to establish.

In that desperation to arrive at Avengers: Doomsday’s door, First Steps frustratingly retreats to safety and formulaic creature comforts. Shakman’s light touch direction rarely allows for breathing room or depth, leaving its “fantastic” talent on screen with little material to manoeuvre through. Despite the negative online reaction towards his casting, Pascal’s expert sensitivity works for Reed, a man lost between the greatness of his mind and fear. That pressurised desire to make up for past mistakes often throws the team off-balance, and in one scene, the heated exchange between Reed and Sue threatens to peel back the layers of their marriage. But these moments fail to materialise in real consequences or are resolved quickly as the film ushers viewers through to the next scene.

You get the sense that a lot of ambition and intention were left on the cutting room floor. The truncation of Ben and Johnny’s dynamic (which the film could have benefited more from), the lack of Natasha Lyonne’s Rachel Rozman and the recently publicised cut of John Malkovich’s Red Ghost are victims of such creative tinkering behind the scenes. Even Galactus, who makes his presence known with some cool production effects which play around with scale, feels weightless alongside an underused Silver Surfer. But these are long-standing issues within the MCU, not limited to The Fantastic Four. Simply waiting for the next film to “fix” issues doesn’t quite cut it anymore, and certainly not at movie number 37 in the franchise. More specific downsides to Shakman’s film: some questionable VFX in places, the humour falling flat like a ton of bricks, and a third act which is too predictable and anti-climactic to feel satisfactory.

Instead of the inoffensive and simplistic path it opts for, First Steps really needed the same bravado spirit that Shakman utilised in the first half of his film, where there are thrilling interstellar chases involving wormholes, where Kirby’s MVP performance gives it her all, and H.E.R.B.I.E. provides some friendly robot levity. These character beats are what hold The Fantastic Four together, and when it remembers to have fun, the payoff is worth it. It’s not quite the ‘clobberin time’ it wishes to be, caught between charting something new and reverting back to the MCU’s old, familiar habits. Had it been a little braver, we would have had a film that would have been fantastic.