The Fantastic Four: First Steps makes a case that goopy, comic book looking superhero movies are back. In Superman, it felt like a conscious choice from James Gunn to lean into cartoons and pulp. Here it reads more like a limitation. The visual effects often look unfinished, and the soundstage lighting keeps scenes flat. As a soft reset for Marvel Studios, that is a frustrating place to start, even if the core family arrives with potential.
Dr. Reed Richards, played by Pedro Pascal, leads a team that already has victories under its belt. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm is expecting the couple’s first child, which turns their latest crisis into a moral test as much as a cosmic one. Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm brings cocky spark, and Ben Grimm’s transformation into the Thing, voiced by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, gives the group its grounding. The set up is clean. Space travelers changed at the cellular level try to protect a retro futurist Earth they barely recognize.
The plot kicks when the Silver Surfer arrives. In this universe it is Shalla Bal, voiced by Julia Garner. She carries a warning from Galactus and a bargain that sours the stomach. Spare the planet if Reed and Sue give up their unborn child, Franklin Richards, whose potential power could shift the balance of the cosmos. The team refuses, and the movie points toward a showdown with a world eater who finally descends in the last stretch, voiced by Ralph Ineson.
On paper, that arc is exactly the kind of jolt the Marvel Cinematic Universe needs. New blood, a family dynamic, a villain that can anchor years of stories. Positioned ahead of the next Avengers films, including the much rumored Doomsday and Secret Wars, it sounds like the right move at the right time. In execution, the movie is lighter on personality than it should be.
Matt Shakman keeps the story moving and the tone approachable, yet the staging is often perfunctory. His work on WandaVision showed a sharper eye for how style can express character. Here the frames are busy without being expressive, and the actors often look marooned in separate layers of the same shot. The greenscreen seams distract, and the digital weightlessness turns big beats into floaty spectacle.
Even so, the intergalactic branch of the MCU is still an easier sell than the grittier corners. The film’s efficient 115 minute runtime helps. It packs in lore, sets up relationships, and gets to a couple of cleanly staged battle sequences that at least deliver scale. Galactus looms well in the imagination even if his late arrival and limited agency disappoint, not unlike Kang’s shadow in Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or Thanos in earlier phases when he was mostly a presence.
There are sparks among the team that hint at a better version. Pascal finds a paternal worry in Reed’s problem solving. Kirby gives Sue a steady intelligence that steadies the film whenever it slows down. Quinn lands the cocky charm without turning grating. Moss-Bachrach’s voice work gives Ben’s rock form a bruised warmth. The chemistry is not fully locked, yet you can see a path to something looser and funnier.
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I am iffy on The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but not out. The movie looks unfinished and the soundstage airless quality undercuts the adventure. The concept still works. The cast is capable. With expectations set to modest and without banking on a single film to revive a sprawling universe, this plays as serviceable setup with a few entertaining swings.
Score: 6/10
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)
- Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Sarah Niles
- Director: Matt Shakman
- Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction, Superhero
- Runtime: 115 minutes
- Rated: PG-13
- Release Date: July 25, 2025
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