The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Four or Less

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is easily the best Fantastic Four movie yet made, but this is a very low bar. The previous four movies — including Roger Corman's never-intended-to-have-seen-the-light-of-day 1994 abomination — were all awful. This one is merely… OK. Hardly fantastic.

It makes one wonder if there's something about this specific comic book title — created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and debuting in 1961 — that resists adaptation. Maybe the characters are just more interesting on the page. Certainly Galactus, the villain of the new movie, was terrifying in the comic books. But here he's just a big digital glob. And when he speaks, he sounds pretty much like how you expect he's going to speak, with a low, mountainous rumble. Not very scary.

The focus here is largely on Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), and their drama stems from the fact that Sue finds herself pregnant after years of trying. The stress of wondering what pressure the baby will put on the supergroup, whether it will have any powers, and the parents' differing viewpoints, gives the characters something emotional to grapple with.

But that leaves Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) out in the cold. Johnny is usually depicted as a hothead womanizer, and the film tries to make him less egregious. So he has a tentative crush on the new sexy female Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), and actually spends some time helping the team by translating her language (which seems out of character for Johnny, but what do I know?).

Ben gets an even shorter end of the stick. He's usually the team's most dramatic character, its most tragic. He's the one who has mutated to the point that he can't hide it, physically. He can no longer be in the world as a "normal" person. There are many comic stories about him trying to reverse his condition, and he has a relationship with Alicia, a sight-impaired woman, who only underlines his self-esteem issues (he doesn't want anyone to "see" him).

Here, Ben seems… just fine. Every so often he wanders back to his home neighborhood of Yancy Street, where he meets Rachel (Natasha Lyonne). I guess she's sort of a romantic interest for him (she doesn't seem to mind his rockiness), but the only thing they really do is say "hello" to each other, and Lyonne is maybe in two or three scenes, total. No, Ben's major character arc in this film is that he grows a beard. (Don't ask.)

Additionally, Paul Walter Hauser co-stars as the Mole Man, and Sarah Niles co-stars as some kind of chief of staff, and, unsurprisingly, neither of them have very much to do. The cute robot sidekick H.E.R.B.I.E. — initially created for a Fantastic Four Saturday morning cartoon — is here, too, and, frankly, has more to do than most of the humans.

The plot, in which Galactus is coming to Earth to eat it, but decides he will spare the planet in exchange for Reed and Sue's child, is pretty clunky, and it involves the team setting a trap for the giant being. Galactus trudges all over New York, and his size seems to change all the time, slowly getting smaller and smaller so that he will actually fit into the trap.

On the plus side, The Fantastic Four: First Steps looks fantastic. Like WandaVision, it has a terrific "retro" look, evoking a kind of early 1960s aesthetic (although clearly set on an alternate earth). The sets, costumes, and gadgets, are all super-nifty, from the most high-tech gadgets to a tiny toy Johnny Storm finds in the bottom of a cereal box (he squeaks "flame on!" when squeezed).

Like the best Marvel films, it also leans into humor, using tropes like Ben's "It's clobberin' time!" catchphrase as a silly joke. And, unlike most Marvel films, this one is brightly-paced, clocking in at only 115 minutes. (Only this and nine other MCU movies run less than 2 hours.)

So, yeah, there are some good things in this new movie, but perhaps not enough to make it worth a trip to the theater and the price of a ticket. Many have probably noticed that the cast is almost exclusively known for television work, giving stellar performances in The Last of Us, Game of Thrones, Narcos, The Mandalorian, The Crown, The Bear, Stranger Things, Ozark, Ted Lasso, Poker Face, Cobra Kai, etc.

Likewise, director Matt Shakman comes from a long career in television (Game of Thrones, WandaVision, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), and this is only his second feature film. So the question, wisely posed by my partner and moviegoing companion, is: why couldn't this have been a TV show instead? Food for thought for the next time someone thinks about rebooting the F.F.