The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Is it just me, or are the films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe starting to get good again? I remember leaving Thunderbolts* feeling I had seen the best comic book film in years, and I felt that way again leaving The Fantastic Four: First Steps. After attempts made in 2005 and 2015 – which, without the benefit of hindsight, I gave positive reviews to – this is hands down the best Fantastic Four film to date. It has the strongest cast and character development. It’s the most tonally balanced. Above all, it tells the most engaging story. It’s as if someone took a look at the Marvel films of the last decade and concluded that, while a few decent entries were released (Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame), most of them were mediocre at best, unwatchable at worst, and it was finally time to put serious effort into revitalizing the franchise. Since it seems it’s never going to end, we might as well enjoy it.

Similarly to 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, First Steps takes place in a heavily stylized version of the American past, in this case the mid 1960s. There’s a delightful retro-future aesthetic to the production designs and costumes, evoking the cartoonish high-conceptualism of TV shows like The Jetsons, Rod Rocket, and Space Angel. Television screens have colored bubble casings, store signs and show logos utilize fonts carried over from the Googie movement, and modern buildings are decorated with glass walls, white carpeting, and ceramic tiles. In real life, the early Space Age was an era of optimism in this country, and it was reflected in futurist art and architecture; for the film, production designer Kasra Farahani pays homage to that style, and gloriously so. Marvel Studios even went the extra step of releasing the film with a gimmick, what the posters call FantastiVision. It’s likely nothing more than its IMAX 3D presentation, but so what?

But there’s more to it than mere appearance. Like those cartoon series, the film’s plot relies heavily on wonderfully outlandish made-up technologies. Example: Even though it takes place before the 1969 Moon landing, there exist rockets capable of warp drive and escaping the event horizons of black holes. Gigantic non-LED television screens are recessed into the sides of New York City buildings, especially in the Times Square area. The Fantastic Four ride in flying cars, one of the most common as-yet-unrealized visions of the future. Their home office is filled with the kinds of keyboards and computer screens we still don’t have today. Best of all, there’s a beeping and booping robot servant, whose eyes are actually the reels of a cassette tape. Imagine a cross between R2-D2 and Rosey the Robot, and you’ve got it.

A recent trend in superhero reboots is to ignore the origins of the main character or characters. Such films simply begin on the assumption that audiences already know the origins, either from previous adaptations or the original comic books. That was certainly the case with Spider-Man: Homecoming and a non-Marvel film, James Gunn’s Superman. First Steps takes an approach of compromise; although it does begin with the title characters already known to the world and having their superpowers, their origins are explained in the form of exposition, specifically as the opening to a talk show in which they’re scheduled to be guests. It’s essentially a montage of news footage showing Reed Richards, his wife Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and their friend Ben Grimm prepping for their first space mission. After exposure to some kind of space radiation, they return as, respectively, Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and The Thing.

Right at the start, Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Storm (Vanessa Kirby) learn they’re expecting a baby. The parents-to-be, not to mention the media, wonders whether or not their child will be born with superpowers. It seems to worry Richards, who allows his scientific mind to imagine worst case scenarios so that he can formulate methods of either escaping them or avoiding them altogether. Such a scenario begins when the alien messenger known as the Silver Surfer, now a female character (a computer enhanced Julia Garner), flies in and announces Earth’s impending doom at the hands of Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson), a cosmic monstrosity with a Transformer-style helmet and an endless hunger for entire planets. For a price, he would be willing to spare Earth. A very high price. Defeating him will depend on teamwork, clever strategizing, and the power of a mother’s love.

There’s something to be said for allowing science fiction to be exactly that. There’s not a single scientific concept in this movie based in reality. When a woman gives birth on a rocket ship in zero gravity while the crew attempts to slingshot around a black hole, what other conclusion can I come to? But that’s exactly as it should be. After all, this was based on a comic book, and most comic books are intended to be fun. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is indeed a lot of fun, the most I’ve had at the movies in a while. We got two especially good Marvel films this year, first by Jake Shreier, now by Matt Shakman. Here’s hoping a new batch of filmmakers will continue emerging and once again make this long, interconnected franchise worth the price of admission.