- calendar_today August 17, 2025
The Fantastic Four Try to Save the World (and Change a Diaper)
Marvel 2019s The Fantastic Four: First Steps is pretty to look at, warmly nostalgic, and chock-full of good performances (especially from Pedro Pascal and Ebon Moss-Bachrach). There are gorgeous spaceships, swooshing through a gleaming, well-stocked pantry with ease. Fantastic Four: First Steps is its own delightful thing. But it 2019s never particularly suspenseful, even when the fate of the planet hangs in the balance.
Marvel producer Kevin Feige described the film as 22a no-homework-required 22 experience, and he was right. In a crowded cinematic landscape filled with movie continuities more complicated than Dune, it 2019s a relief to get a Marvel movie that doesn 2019t depend on pre-existing knowledge of multiverses, fan service cameos, or transmedia tie-ins. (The Netflix show? Marvel only has room for one Fantastic Four.) This is the Fantastic Four all over again, re-introducing Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm in a story that begins with a clean slate. First Steps doesn 2019t require the viewer to remember any other Marvel movies, and it doesn 2019t connect to any other Marvel movies. It even coasted on the lack of drama in its setup, because it doesn 2019t much matter where the Fantastic Four were before the film begins. Sometimes it 2019s a relief to see a superhero origin story that doesn 2019t care about continuity.
The film opens on a talk show hosted by Mark Gatiss. Gatiss 27s cartoonish talk show persona narrates how the Fantastic Four got the powers and abilities that make them so fantastic. The exposition is a little heavy-handed for an origin story that starts in medias res, but it works because of Gatiss. Four years ago, a space mission went awry and gave the four explorers 22radiation exposure 22 that changed their DNA. Reed (played with considerable thoughtfulness and humor by Pedro Pascal) can stretch his body out like a length of elastic. Vanessa Kirby 27s Sue can render herself invisible and fire blasts from her hands. Joseph Quinn 27s Johnny becomes the Human Torch, able to set himself on fire and fly through the air. Ebon Moss-Bachrach 27s Ben Grimm is exposed to cosmic rays during the trip, too, only for his body to mutate into The Thing: a giant ball of rock with super-strength.
The Fantastic Four now live together in a house that looks like a mid-century modern take on a space compound. They have flying cars and drones, and a toddler-sized robot named H.E.R.B.I.E. is running the vacuum in the kitchen. First Steps is an exercise in retro-futurism. Square television screens in every room; no cell phones. A jukebox in every waiting room! The set design evokes an old-fashioned cartoon optimism. It 27s The Jetsons and Lost in Space with a Marvel Comics filter overlaid.
It 27s a nice look, but the story has no stakes. It takes the theme of family to heart. The four leads have a warm closeness, and the film dwells on the bond that 27s developed between them. Sue learns early in the film that she is pregnant. Reed is properly anxious about the pregnancy, but also refreshingly goofy in the way that Pascal plays him. He has H.E.R.B.I.E. baby-proof both their house and their science lab, admonishing the miniature robot, 22Safety first. 22 Johnny and Ben have bickering sibling banter and good-natured comic sidekick schtick, but they are both very much into their roles as future uncles.
The family time is soon interrupted by a galactic cataclysm. A giant armored creature with glowing red eyes, Galactus is on his way to Earth. He plans to feed on the planet, transforming it into nothing but gray dust. Before Galactus arrives, he sends his herald to Earth to do his work for him. The Silver Surfer, a skintight-silver alien with flowing blond hair (motion captured by Julia Garner), swoops down from the sky to spread the bad news. A familiar Marvel foe, the Surfer has an arcing flight path as she slices through space and cuts through the air like a knife. A little too knife-like, because the silver-skinned gal finds herself an object of dashing-hero-worship for the romantic young Johnny.
The action is striking, but it 27s mostly mild. The heroes are chasing Galactus through space in a variety of cool-looking vehicles. Hitting and getting hit by the Silver Surfer is generally a 2-minute inconvenience. Bright flashes of light, tractor beams, fire trails, and a smoke bomb. None of the damage is too hard or lasting, or vivid. A lot of explosions that look like blowtorches. Galactus appears midway through the film, a character with almost no personality aside from ominous mysticism. Sue goes into labor during a climactic space mission, which is a surreal image: wide-eyed birth contractions! Right next to planetary annihilation!
It 27s a dynamic typical of the film: sincerity married to silliness. Emotional beats that get lost in fluff. There 27s a good cast delivering good performances, but they 27re delivering them in softly pastel-colored interiors and paint-by-numbers superhero drama. The stakes are never high, even when an intergalactic god is about to gobble up the Earth. It 27s more Sunday adventure story than smashy-smashy caper.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is pleasant, well-acted, but also oddly unserious. Marvel Studios has had several hits and a few whiffs in the eight years since First Steps 27 predecessor came out. But Marvel movies tend to follow a template: a rising and sustained sense of stakes and tension that give the special effects some narrative weight. Fantastic Four: First Steps is the rare Marvel entry that lacks dramatic power. It 27s something to check off the list if you 27re in the mood for something lighter than apocalyptic. But for the completist or the curious, you could do worse than to check out The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
