“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” (2025) is the thirty-seventh film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the fifth live-action Fantastic Four movie and the third film reboot. No homework necessary. Set on Earth 828 four years after the titular team went into outer space and cosmic rays gave them super powers, they face a threat that they may not be able to beat: Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a planet devourer intent on making Earth into his next meal, and Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), his herald (defined as “an official messenger bringing news” and/or “a sign that something is about to happen”). Unfortunately, Galactus’ alternative solution is unacceptable. How will this family stay together and keep protecting Earth? It feels like a mashup of “Storm of the Century” (1999) and “The Wandering Earth” (2019) meets “The Jetsons” à la “Captain America: The First Avenger” (2011).
The ensemble acting is the strongest element of “The Fantastic Four: First Steps.” Coming in first place is Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm or the Invisible Woman, who probably keeps the other three guys around for company and is carrying the entire team on her back. She is a complete badass except regardless of whether it is faithful to the comic, it is weird that she has zero women in her life except for Lynne Nichols (Sarah Niles from “F1: The Movie”), who works for the Fantastic Four’s Future Foundation as their chief of staff. Also, for a bunch of genius scientists, Sue has a storyline that gets treated in the most medically unsafe way if you do not suspend disbelief and cling to her possessing superpowers, you will not get through it. I’m not going to do the think pieces on it, but I don’t think that the MCU did an innovative first in the way that they thought that they did.
Coming in second is Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm, Sue’s brother, or the Human Torch because his sheer enthusiasm at playing a two-dimensional character with dollar signs helping to fuel his motivation. Is there a family night for dying your hair blonde and having black roots or is that a sibling thing? No disrespect intended and all the love for committing to the bit in “A Quiet Place: Day One” (2024) and saving that perfect cat, Quinn’s eyes are so wide and unsettling in any role (they feel dark even when they are blue) that it feels as if any minute, there could be a misstep, and he would accidentally segue into the mad twin emperor from “Gladiator II” (2024). Johnny is the first womanizer without his own apartment and no revolving door of women.
Third is Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards, Sue’s husband, or Mister Fantastic, a brainiac anxious, overwhelmed and angst-filled at endangering his family because he knows that he is incapable of saving the world. Pascal is a great actor, but that only got Pascal so far in “Wonder Woman 1984” (2020), and the writing similarly fails him here. It is as if he is in a different movie, a better one with three dimensional characters. “Eddington” (2025) still stands as Pascal’s best performance in 2025.
Ebon Moss-Bachrach only comes in last, but not least, because playing Ben Grimm, Reed’s best friend, or The Thing is a thankless job. His role in the neighborhood and as a huge popular culture juggernaut goes nowhere. Sure, it is nice for the MCU to finally have a solid team that never splits up, but the family conceit already feels staged as it is, not genuinely warm or goals. It is the concept of a family dynamic that fits the television era style. They live and work together 24/7, which gives the short end of the stick to Ben. As much as “Supernatural” had an iconic fraternal dynamic, it is strange for grown people to have zero life outside of each other. Put a point on the board for devoting your life to work propaganda. It feels as if the four screenwriters and one additional person who helped to conceive the story planned to give him more to do (with New York treasure Natasha Lyonne nonetheless and completely wasted) then just scrapped it.
What did they scrap it for? A lot of telling with shaky CGI showing. If you complained about Krypto, you better complain here because there is a baby that looks so fake, it is impossible to feel anything for it. People clamoring for the retro style of the Sixties in Manhattan will be happy with the futuristic style when the space race was still an exciting concept complete with flying cars. God forbid you watch this quartet cook without a news broadcast, press conference or media appearance interrupting to tell moviegoers what they are watching and how they should feel about it. Allegedly there was not supposed to be an origin story, but first act clip show more than makes up for it, which is not a compliment. Take out all that fat and maybe the movie would not keep losing momentum. If it was a way to show the tough behind the scenes struggles of the heroes contrasted with their seemingly perfect image, it did not work.
Galactus and Silver Surfer are great villains especially when Galactus becomes a sentient, strategic kaiju. Garner’s voice acting is the most surprising because Ineson can be terrifying in a Mike Leigh movie, but seeing the curly haired, slight Garner does not invoke feelings of terror. Even in television series, Garner is usually an artsy fartsy actor, but since last year, she has started taking on more commercial projects like “Wolf Man” (2025), which is definitely a good deal for the movies and her bank account though not for her resume. It does make sense why Silver Surfer is a woman, but it would be a spoiler.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” comes up with a dilemma for the heroes that teased a more tenebrous movie than what the writers were probably going for. Basically, most of the film shows ordinary people as one huge mass of good will and adulation, but they turn on a dime. Of course, the Fantastic Four are heroes, but only Sue lashes out privately and humanely at a request that should have at least pissed them off a little bit, but there is zero tension or conflict. There is an ungrateful theme that gets completely dropped before they rush to the solution without hesitation. The cavalier tone makes the movie predictable instead of tense.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” feels like a comic book movie so zealous comic book readers will be thrilled with the result and geek out. The rest of the audience will likely be less generous. To sway me into finding this movie fresh, someone tried to explain how the MCU works to me. I may not read the comics, but I have been watching these movies since “Iron Man” (2008). When these movies feel special, no one has to tell you. When Nick Fury started to appear at the end of every film as he was assembling the Avengers, it was thrilling. I met this post credit scene with groans of obligation, not excitement. There is a been there, done that vibe with these post credit scenes lately, and I cannot believe these promises. All films are a mixture of capitalism and art, but the ratio is off, and the gears are loudly turning.
“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” does not feel as if it was made because the filmmakers had always dreamed of making this film and had a particular vision that they wanted to bring to life. It feels as if this film was another step on a ladder going nowhere hoping that cohesion will come together at some point, but instead of a patchwork becoming a single masterpiece, it is just another gambit to desperately recapture the magic as a transition to future stale stunt casting and draining the earlier impact of better storylines to cannibalize another hit. So in the end, even the Fantastic Four are not presented for the joy of being themselves, but filler.
