When the 2005 Fantastic Four came out, I remember all the marketing and toys, including the collectible puzzle pieces from Lunchables, getting me extremely hyped for the film. It was one of the first times I remember getting to see a movie the day it was released in the theaters. That was my first introduction to Marvel’s First Family, and as much as I love it, I can admit that it’s a corny, dated mess.
Fast forward 2025, 10 years after a failed relaunch, and we’re once again reintroducing the characters of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, this time played by Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, respectively, and directed by Matt Shakman who is dipping has toes back into the Marvel pool after directing the WandaVision series. Hey, third time’s the charm, right?
This time around, The Fantastic Four: First Steps sees the heroes living in alternative universe 828 during the 1960s, where after four years of having their powers, Mr. Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and The Thing have brought world peace and near utopia to Earth. Sue and Reed have just discovered that they’re about to become first-time parents and all is right in the world. A little too right.
Cue the Silver Surfer, Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner) who comes to Earth to inform its population that the planet has been marked for consumption by the cosmic entity Galactus (Ralph Ineson). However Galactus makes an offer: give him their child and he will spare the planet. Between juggling the pressures of an expanding family and trying to stave off the imminent destruction of the world, the Fantastic Four have got their work cut out for them.
So how’d Disney-Marvel do with this new attempt at bringing the Fantastic Four to the big screen? Well in terms of acting and world-building, I’d say the creative team certainly stuck the landing.
The cast, simply put, did a fantastic job. Complaints about the comic book accuracy of a mustachioed Mr. Fantastic aside, Pedro Pascal is charmingly grumpy as ever. While he’s certainly much sunnier than his recent roles as Din Djarin in The Mandalorian or Joel Miller in The Last of Us, his Reed Richards is the pragmatist and worrywart of the team, which I suppose comes with the territory of being the smartest man on the planet.
There is still a sense of optimism to him, the sense that things can and will be better and there is always another solution if he can just think hard enough, but it’s tempered by the weight of his responsibility to protect his family and the rest of the planet.
Though he’s clearly a loving family man, there’s also a sort of brusqueness and a slightly abrasive manner that is often associated with highly practical or intellectual people, but there is a gradual hint of softening as he becomes a father. In short, Pascal does an excellent job portraying Reed as a complex man trying to do the most good for the most people, but caught in the crossfire of having to solve an impossible problem.
I may also be biased, but I will never say no to having Papi Pedro playing a frazzled, unprepared father having to protect a magical MacGuffin baby.
Where Reed is the brains of the team, his wife Sue is definitely the charming strategist. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm is warm and inviting, but with the cunning to weaponize that charm and use it to achieve her goals and protect her family. That is the public-facing Sue, in private, she is a woman who has given her entire life to the people of Earth and is now being asked to give up her only child.
The love, rage, pain, sadness, desperation and resignation Kirby carries in this side of Sue stands in stark contrast to the polished hero she displays in public and it’s impressive to see how well Kirby balances her performance between them.
There’s a single moment that sticks in my head where an overwhelmed and blindsided Sue screams the words “I know” with all the raw maternal instinct of an angry mother bear that was so heartbreaking and encapsulated her emotional journey. Kirby may be playing the Invisible Woman, but she’s a powerful force to watch in the cast.
One topic that has been a subject of online debate around the movie was the decision not to modify Ebon Moss-Bachrach’s voice to be deeper, rougher and more gravelly as the rock-man Ben Grimm as was done with Michael Chiklis and Jamie Bell before him. Here’s the thing about this The Thing: he is so much better without that. Allowing Moss-Bachrach’s natural voice to carry the performance not only makes it less corny and easier to understand, but it grounds the character in his humanity. It’s a reminder that he wasn’t always a walking boulder, but a human being whose life was forever altered in an accident.
And as another distinct change from the goofy, cornball meathead he’s portrayed as in the 2005 film (because let’s be real, nobody remembers 2015’s Fant4stic), he’s a lot more subdued and subtle. It’s a change that absolutely works for the better. Just because he’s the muscle of the group doesn’t mean that Ben Grimm has to be dumb as a rock.
This version of The Thing emphasizes his skill as a pilot who is able to execute daring and delicate maneuvers and as the caring and devoted uncle to Franklin Richards who reads all the baby books and cares for the baby so his parents can rest or get some work done. It’s definitely unexpected from the character and from Moss-Bachrach, known for his brash and loudmouthed portrayal of Cousin Richie in The Bear, however the finesse and delicacy that he and the writers have brought to the role were expertly executed.
The character that surprised me the most was Johnny Storm. While I loved Chris Evans’ turn as the character in the early 2000s (and again in his recent Deadpool & Wolverine cameo), he was a fairly basic hotheaded womanizing himbo. Similar to The Thing, actor Joseph Quinn as well as the creative team of writers and directors have worked to expand this characterization and give Johnny more depth.
Where, as far as I can remember, the 2005 film (because again, who even saw the 2015 film?) justified Johnny’s inclusion on the team through the sheer nepotism of being Sue’s brother, writers Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer make sure to emphasize Johnny’s intelligence and practical viability to the team who more than earns his keep.
Though he’s still the boldest member of the group and the “take action” guy, he’s not the rash hothead whose mind is only on his playboy lifestyle. To be fair, though I’m not a big reader of the comics I know that Johnny is canonically has a thing for dating aliens. That does come across in the film so all the angsty fanboys can lower your hackles slightly.
Overall, I do think that the portrayal of Johnny Storm could have done with a bit more edginess, I appreciated the more nuanced and mature version of the character. He’s much more heroic this way. After all, he’s gonna be the world’s best uncle, so he’s got to set a good example.
The Fantastic Four are a team, and like any team even if all the individual players are great, that means nothing if they can’t work together. Fortunately, the cast works together like a well-oiled machine. Pascal and Kirby share intimate moments of tenderness, anger and annoyed amusement like any real couple. The banter between Johnny and Ben is fun and fresh. The connection between the characters feels authentic, like they really have known each other all their lives and have learned not only how to work with each other but how to live with each other.
By far my favorite aspect of The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the world-building. The retrofuturism is such a unique and gorgeous aesthetic, blending the nostalgia, simplicity and kitsch of the 60s with mind blowing technology we in the 2020s can still only aspire to: flying cars, teleportation, robots that do our chores and faster-than-light space travel. The delightfully old school costumes pop on the screen with their blue and white color scheme.
The whole world just shines with a physical and emotional brightness that truly makes you feel like the team and humanity can achieve anything. The story clips along at a quick, yet enjoyable pace that doesn’t waste any time, however I would have liked a few scenes to just experience what life is like on Earth-828 and to further marvel at the utopia the team built.
It’s also a world that feels authentic and real. We enter the Fantastic Four’s story after four years of them discovering their powers and using them to help humanity, so their presence feels very ingrained and natural in everyday life and culture for the people of Earth-828. They have done so much for the planet and haven’t failed the Earth yet, so it’s natural for the people to trust them and to go along with whatever plan they think up. I know this is an alternate world than the one typically featured in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but I do hope we come back to Earth-828 and hopefully see what new technology is incorporated into their society.
And as much as I enjoyed The Fantastic Four, the team’s first steps do unfortunately feature some missteps.
As imposing and intimidating as the Silver Surfer and Galactus are in the trailers and comics, that reputation seem to be doing all the heavy lifting. We’ve seen the Earth threatened with complete destruction time and time again, and Galactus’ world-eating ship seems less imposing than a giant Celestial breaking through the planet like an egg. For being the big bad in the film, Galactus is barely in the film and once he arrives on Earth, he does little more than clomp around in his giant boots.
Though I am not generally a fan of Ralph Ineson’s deep, guttural, barely discernible line readings, this is the clearest I have heard his voice in a film and his performance is overall fine. It just seems like a huge waste of a villain fans have been waiting a long time to see debut in the MCU.
Julia Garner does a good job in her role as the Silver Surfer Shalla-Bal, but similarly she has such little screen time to really make as big an impact as she could. In spite of that, Garner makes the most of the brief scenes that she is in, playing the Surfer with a cold detachment that barely hides the guilt she carries for all the worlds she has doomed. She’s a dark mirror for Sue and Reed and the choices they’re faced with. Towards the end, she kind of just disappears then pops back in when it’s convenient to wrap up the story.
Speaking of not enough screen time, I felt there was a lack of superhero action. There were really on three scenes (four if you count the initial opening montage) of the heroes using their powers, one of which was really just Johnny flying around with the Surfer chasing him. Mr. Fantastic has the fewest scenes of using his powers. Many of the coolest shots in the film are already featured in the trailers, which further undercuts any surprise and excitement from seeing the scenes in the movie.
I enjoy how First Steps places the depth of the team’s relationships and dynamics front and center, however in a time where movie tickets are very expensive and other films can provide plenty of big, bombastic action sequences, it all felt underwhelming. I have to wonder if maybe the team just ran out of budget from having to use constant CGI on The Thing, Human Torch and Silver Surfer.
SPOILER ALERT: IGNORE THIS PART IF YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE ENDING
For all its build up to the final showdown with Galactus, I don’t think you could really call it a showdown. I loved seeing the team work together and use their powers, especially Mr. Fantastic who again has barely used them until this point. However in the end, what we got was a shell game that turned into a pushing match. There was no fight and we really are never rewarded with any reason to fear Galactus except for his immense size and even bigger space ship.
Couple that with not one but two fake-outs regarding potential deaths/sacrifices of the heroes, and at feels too convenient, anticlimactic and undercuts the emotional investment the audience has built up in the film, especially since the fake-outs happen right after the other. It feels disingenuous, if not a bit disrespectful to the audience. I understand that it’s an attempt at emotional gravitas and an opportunity to demonstrate Franklin’s incredible power, but there it just comes off as lazy.
SPOILERS OVER, YOU MAY RESUME READING!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is not so much an action movie as it is a family drama with some superhero flair incorporated into the story for fun. Though the film does stumble on executing the superhero part of this purported superhero movie, the gorgeously conceived world of the alternate 1960s with its analogue yet advanced technology and funky retro clothing and architecture are immediately captivating, while the fleshed out and complex characters and performances draw you in even further.
Fans of the characters have waited a long time for the First Family to join the MCU. Now that they’re here, I’d say their first steps are quite fantastic.
Rating: 8/10
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Lands in Theaters Friday, July 25.