The Fantastic Four: First Steps Movie Review – Marvel Finally Gets The First Family Right

Marvel, or specifically the MCU, has been tripping over itself in recent years. Since the end of Phase Three, which concluded with Spider-Man: Far From Home two months after Avengers: Endgame, Disney and Marvel have struggled to keep audiences entertained and as enthusiastic about each subsequent batch of movies in the following phases. With Phase Six having commenced in earnest with the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, things might be starting to look up once again.

Phase Four and Phase Five came and went without much in the way of truly blockbuster films. Yes, you could argue that quite a few achieved box office success, but their reviews and ratings painted a picture of diminishing views for the MCU. The latter completed with Captain America: Brave New World in February 2025 and Thunderbolts in May. While Thunderbolts achieved above-average ratings, Captain America failed to generate any interest after Chris Evans handed over the reins. With the MCU Phase Six now kick-started by the latest film, there’s a lot of hype around The Fantastic Four: First Steps, as well as hope among the fans.

The Multiverse Storyline Continues

The first, and most important, fact to note when you’re watching the film is that it takes place within another universe. Although many of the previous MCU films around the Multiverse have been a mixed bag, we return to Earth, more specifically, Earth-828. The MCU kick-started Phase One with the Iron Man film back in 2008, which took place on Earth-199999. As a result of the switch, this can be seen as a slight reboot of the MCU, albeit in a somewhat roundabout manner.

We meet up with the Fantastic 4, already well-established as a force of good on Earth. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) are well-known across the planet, having defeated many of the threats it has faced since their space expedition that gave them their powers four years prior.

While their established family life appears to be running its standard course, two significant events are set to change their lives drastically. The first of these is the announcement, by Reed and Sue to Ben and Johnny, that they’re expecting a baby. With their plans for the change underway, they’re visited by an unknown entity, the Silver Surfer, who delivers a grim announcement to Earth’s inhabitants about a planet-devouring cosmic being, Galactus (Ralph Ineson).

The team sets out on another space expedition, this time to address Galactus in an attempt to negotiate a means to save Earth. Surprisingly, Galactus agrees to an exchange, but not to the liking of the team, who return to Earth without good news for its inhabitants. Disgruntled by the outcomes, the world erupts in riots and panic, accompanied by protests outside the Fantastic Four headquarters. This leaves Reed and the team with little to work with, but after Sue’s outreach to the public, they stumble upon an idea that unites the entire globe, putting all their resources into this one-shot solution.

A Different Kind of MCU Movie

The Fantastic Four: First Steps signals a return to top flight for Marvel and Disney. It’s not the over-the-top action superhero film we’ve come to expect from the MCU. Instead, director Matt Shakman and the screenwriters (Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer) provide a more subdued approach, offering a much more conservative take on superhero storytelling.

There’s not a lot of action to write home about, but there’s still more than enough high-intensity moments to keep you engaged. Apart from the opening montage that illustrates the team’s capabilities in solving problems over the preceding four years, Ben doesn’t throw a single punch again until the final act.

Unlike most of the previous Fantastic Four films, where we get ample clobberings from Ben, there’s a lot more usage of superpowers from Sue. Johnny, too, gets plenty of flight time in an attempt to catch up to and communicate with the Silver Surfer/Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner).

While most of the team remains broadly in line with their characters from previous films, Johnny has a more developed character than the egotistical womaniser. It seems as though the writers attempted to remove much of that from his persona, only touching on it at times, as opposed to showcasing his actual exploits on screen. And with the current Hollywood climate, it makes sense to try to avoid some of those easy tropes. But Johnny is much more than that, taking time to explore the records from Reed’s research and partially learning an alien language to address Shalla-Bal for assistance. She has very little screen time across the film’s 114 minutes.

Despite the lack of action and fighting scenes, we do get good coverage of Galactus—more so than any previous film that I can recall—from the first engagement with the team on his planet-eating ship to him landing on Earth and taking a casual stroll through downtown Manhattan. I loved all the details in his character design, as well as his dialogue. I can’t imagine the team having spent so much time on this without finding his return to the MCU saga somewhere later in Phase Six, most likely in one of the two planned Avengers films.

The film also has a very retro feel about it, with the events set in the atomic-age 1960s. There are 60s references scattered throughout, along with its beautiful bright colours from the era. It didn’t quite incorporate many throwbacks to the music of the period but instead crafted its background track in a similar style to create a decent accompaniment.

Final Verdict

With a sub-two-hour film on the books for the MCU, we know that all the forces in the background aimed to deliver somewhat of a safe film—a return to the basics, so to speak. As shocking as the shorter run time is, along with the lack of action in a superhero film, there’s a lot to take away from the film, including how it establishes a new Fantastic Four and the rest of the universe, as well as the upcoming films within it.

We don’t get the chemistry from Reed and Sue as we got with the pairing of Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba from their 2005 film, but there’s a much better storyline (although still with some plot holes) in The Fantastic Four: First Steps. It’s easily the best FF film over the last 25 years, with an endearing portrayal of each character. However, its focus was clearly on the bigger picture, offering a basic introductory film to Earth-828 and its timelines.

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