Spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps are below!
Summary
After decades upon decades of waiting,Fantastic Fourfans have finally gotten a big-screen adaptation of Marvel’s First Family that doesn’t feel like a chore to set through. Marvel Studios took its time bringing the FF to theMarvel Cinematic Universe, most likely because if they didn’t get the supergroup right this time around, they never would. As a result of that carefulness,The Fantastic Four: First Stepssucceeds on many fronts.
That being said, let’s not act likeFirst Stepsbelongs inthe upper echelon of Marvel Cinematic Universe films. There is a great deal to enjoy inThe Fantastic Four: First Steps, but it fails to reach the heights ofIron Man,Captain America: The Winter Soldier, andGuardians of the Galaxy.So,The Fantastic Four: First Stepsisn’t a great movie… but it is a very good one. And it happens to be a great Fantastic Four story, which is arguably more important.
It Hasn’t Been Easy Going For Marvel’s First Family
Given that there would beno Marvel Comics without 1961’sFantastic Four#1, it should go without saying that the supergroup of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm is extremely important.Even though their popularity has waxed and waned throughout the decades, there is no doubting the team’s success.For example, they’ve had four cartoon adaptations. That’s as many as the X-Men and the Avengers and second only to Spider-Man.
They’ve also had numerous feature film adaptations come and go as well. The first movie about the team was 1994’sFantastic Four,a doomed projectthat was never meant to be released at all. The second adaptation came in the form of 2005’sFantastic Four, a moderate box office success with middling reviews. That film’s sequel, 2007’sFantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, was met with about the same fate and 20th Century Fox went back to the drawing board. Unfortunately, what they came up with was 2015’sFantastic Fourand the less said about that particular trainwreck, the better.
Put simply, 2025’sThe Fantastic Four: First Stepshad to be a hit.Each film incarnation of the FF had been either lackluster or a full-blown disaster. Thankfully,First Stepsis quite good andaudiences seem to be responding to it well. It has a few flaws that cause it to lose a bit of its luster, though.
The Fantastic Four: First StepsIs A Good Movie, But Not A Great One
At This Point, We’ll Take What We Can Get
There is a lot to like inThe Fantastic Four: First Steps.Theretro-futuristic production designis immaculate, the use of physical sets makes the film stand out in an increasingly mostly-digital MCU, and Michael Giacchino’s score is top-notch.As per usual, Marvel Studios casting director Sarah Halley Finn knocked the cast out of the park. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue and Joseph Quinn’s Johnny are the two standouts, but Pedro Pascal shines as the brainiac Reed, Ebon Moss-Bachrach nails Ben, Julia Garner brings the requisite muted sadness to Shalla-Bal, and Ralph Ineson is just about as Galactus as one can possibly be on film. Even Paul Walter Hauser kills it in limited screentime as the Mole Man.
Of course,The Fantastic Four: First Stepsis not a perfect film.If anything, it is far from it. Though Vanessa Kirby claims actual infants were always used on set as Franklin Richards, there is no doubt that there is some serious uncanny valley stuff going on withbaby-related CGIin the movie. To be fair, that can be overlooked as filming with babies is extremely difficult. What is harder to overlook are the film’s pacing problems.Many have noted that the movie’s scant 114-minute runtime works against it, and it’s hard to argue that. It truly feels as if 20–30 minutes were lopped off the final cut.
Natasha Lyonne’s Rachel Rozman, ostensibly Ben Grimm’s love interest, is hardly in the film at all andJohn Malkovich’s Red Ghost was cut entirely.While Reed, Sue, and Johnny are all given plenty to do throughout the film, Ben feels like he’s given short shrift.Perhaps the production team felt the 2000sFantastic Fourfilms—which, by and large, did right by the Thing—focused too much on Ben Grimm and that they needed to hold back.
Also, there isthe bizarrely simple planthat Reed Richards comes up with to trap Galactus at the end of the film. True, the plot to use Franklin as bait and teleport Galactus to the far edges of the universe via a specific spot in Times Square feels very Silver Age, which is appropriate for the FF.But Reed Richards is supposed to be the smartest man on the planet and that was the best he could come up with? Really?
Most Importantly,The Fantastic Four: First StepsFeels Like A Classic FF Story
That Is More Than You Can Say About The Other Films
Both the 2000sFantastic Fourmovies and the 2015 film never felt like true FF movies because the supergroup didn’t feel like a family.They were more concerned about modernizing the story than they were making the FF come across as a collection of people who actually care about each other. Sue Storm has longbeen the heart of the Fantastic Four, but you wouldn’t know that based on the Fox films. That’s no slight to Jessica Alba or Kate Mara, either. Both of them are capable actors who did the best with what they were given.
The Reed and Sue of the 2000s don’t even get married until the end of the second film.The 2015Fantastic Fourfilmis an origin story that has the group come across as a bunch of strangers. InFirst Steps, the FF have been operating as heroes for years and have known each other for much longer than that. When they interact, it comes across as genuine affection.
First Stepsis bright, peppy, and comics-accurate.you may feel theJack Kirby influencesjumping off the screen. It feels optimistic in the way that FF stories are supposed to feel, and it is a tale about the end of the world! No,The Fantastic Four: First Stepsisn’t a great movie, but it is a greatFantastic Fourstory and, at the end of the day, that is all it really needed to be.
