The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) Review

“It’s dinner time”

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Similar to how Captain Marvel was teased at the end of Avengers: Infinity War, the Fantastic Four was teased at the end of Thunderbolts*. And after years of waiting, the comic book brand’s first family is done right on the big screen.


PLOT


2025’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the first film for Phase 6, takes place in Earth 828, a universe separate from the MCU’s E616/199999. It has been four years since the titular team of Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic, Susan Storm/Invisible Woman, Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Ben Grimm/The Thing have gotten their powers from exposure of a cosmic ray during a space mission. In the years that have followed, the four have been so beloved of superheroes to the point of celebrity figures. Their world is close to feeling like a perfect utopia thanks to Reed’s inventions progressing technology and Sue’s non-governmental organization, Future Foundation, have secured demilitarization and peace for most of the world. The team would be joyful around the time Sue announces she is pregnant with her first child and Reed wonders whether or not their child will have any powers. As they prepare for the baby to be born as months progress, their world gets a visit from a silver skinned humanoid riding a flying surfboard, declaring that Earth is next to be devoured by her giant master, Galactus. Johnny chases her, but he doesn’t get far past the planet’s atmosphere and she speaks a native language before departing, “Die with yours”. Not wanting their planet to be destroyed, the Fantastic Four tracks her signature and catches up to her via FTL travel. They see firsthand Galactus uses his own ship to convert the planet’s atmosphere/minerals/organic matter into energy for him to sustain. When confronting the cosmic being, he explains his hunger to be insatiable to the point of his diet driving him for eons. He does however sense Sue’s unborn baby to have immense cosmic power and could compromise should he have it. When Reed refuses, they retreat and are able to escape the silver surfer’s clutches by briefly trapping her in a black hole. In the midst of their space chase, Sue gives birth to her son she would name Franklin. When returning to their planet, Reed admits to the world they refused to sacrifice his son, leaving him unsure if Earth will be safe from Galactus. The public would then ridicule the team for not making a greater good sacrifice, but Sue wins back their respect when clearing the air that protecting her son doesn’t mean she’ll sacrifice her home. As the team tries to figure out how to prepare for Galactus, Johnny starts deciphering the surfer’s message to narrow down which planet she came from. Simultaneously, Reed picks up on transmissions of other planets Galactus has consumed as he makes his way for Earth. Knowing he can’t be beaten, Reed considers creating a teleporting system so that the planet can be teleported so far that they’ll never be found. The creation of it goes well Sue organizes the world’s nations to build bridges and conserve energy needed for it to work. Using it doesn’t get to happen when the surfer returns to destroy it. Johnny however confronts the surfer revealing he’s deduced her to be Shalla-Bal of Zenn-La, who became Galactus’ herald to spare her planet. He begs to be the sacrifice instead of his nephew, but she replies it won’t be enough to end Galactus’ hunger nor is it his decision to make. Knowing that he’s getting closer, the team agrees to use Franklin as bait and sends the public to the underground city of Subterranea, ran by former rival Harvey Elder aka Mole Man. The intent is to push Galactus into the remaining portal from New York so that he’ll be too far to ever reach them again. On the day of his arrival, the team does distract him long enough for a decoy to be planted, but he quickly picks up on what they’re doing. Sue chases him down with the Fantasticar, but he causes her to crash. Reed tries intervening, but loses momentum when Galactus tries stretching him past his capabilities. Luckily, Johnny launches Ben like a cannonball to prevent him being ripped apart. Galactus does find Franklin alone in their home, penthouse floor of the Baxter Building, but Sue uses all of her will to push him back into position to be sent away. Ben even intentionally takes down some buildings to keep Galactus from having a grip that’ll keep him from being sent away. She sadly dies in exhaustion as a result and before Johnny could try sacrificing himself as well to do the final push, Shalla-Bal reappears to do it instead. The team almost accept Sue to have died for good until baby Franklin reveals to be as powerful as Galactus claimed when suddenly resurrecting his mom. The team later celebrates their fifth anniversary shortly after victory and continue going on missions together. In a mid credits epilogue however that takes place four years later, the film ends with Sue finding her son interacting with a cloaked man in a metal mask.


THOUGHTS


The Fantastic Four comics is one of the few from Marvel I read a lot in my childhood and while I cherish the 2005 film for setting the bar on how the material should be respected, it was annoying that its sequel and first reboot from 2015 were nowhere near respectful about it. Looking back, it’s kinda crazy it took 20th Century to be purchased by Disney for Feige to give me and all the fans exactly what we needed, a nostalgic blast of a superhero film. Having directed the entirety of the series Wandavision, Matt Shakman knew that it is the exact feeling of nostalgia that makes the team standout from other superheroes and their 1960s aesthetic was the key to encapsulated an amazing fantasy. The production design of E-828 by Kasra Farahani was on par to what you expected from Walt Disney’s Tomorrowland, a dystopia that becomes timeless in the same vein of Richard Donner’s Superman and Tim Burton’s Batman. Even the practicality on having the robo butler Herbie (Matthew Wood) on set was on point, looking almost exactly how the 60s cartoon first depicted him. Don’t even get me started with how super excited I felt with the epic score form Michael Giacchino. While the costume design by Alexandra Byrne goes hand in hand with its comic accuracy, the modern visual effects are a big bonus in making the whole experience so lifelike. One simple thing like showing off Giganto and one of Red Ghost’s super apes in the cold open was a neat easter egg, but the details in making the Silver Surfer Shalla Bal shinier than the preceding Norrin Radd from Rise of the Silver Surfer were superb to notice. I can go on and on with how authentic The Thing looked as well due to all the details for his rock skinned body or how authentic Johnny appeared when on fire, as well as giving Ben a rock themed mustache, but I was more pleased with the long awaited accurate depiction of Galactus. Making him a cloud in the 2007 film was quite upsetting since Fox didn’t want to make a risk in showing off his giant physique. With it paying off here, actor Ralph Ineson not only nails the larger than life aura but also embraces how he’s a character with self interest. It’s different from other villains ever written because he wants his cosmic hunger to conclude once and for all, believing Franklin can be that solution. The fact he’s still willing to target one child after all the planets he’s consumed proves how terrifyingly ruthless he’ll go for his own salvation. There’s no telling if he’d still target planets had there been other solutions, but it doesn’t change he’s a villain through and through for not thinking how his actions affect others. Eventually, that consequence came around in the form of his own herald. Julia Garner sure made the most of her time as Shalla Bal because she knew better than him how precious life is. As a mother herself, she knew it was wrong to pursue Franklin and being reminded of her past was the absolute necessary to go back from detached to stoic hence her sacrifice to go through the portal and push Galactus. Since neither of them officially died, I won’t rule out the idea of seeing them again. Moving on, it is the main cast that emphasizes how the primacy of family can be a focal point establishing perseverance and valuing life all the same. In a similar pacing to Spider-Man: Homecoming, we know their origin very well and skimming it was enough to jump in as if we never left, sparking fluent chemistry with all four in the process. Pedro Pascal & Vanessa Kirby were the most heavenly made match compared to preceding actors as Reed & Sue because they do a great job in establishing them as an opposites attract relationship. Reed has always been about thinking ahead like prepping for the worst, while Sue is all about taking things one step at a time. Before Galactus, having a kid was a lot for the former to prepare because being born with powers like a mutant would is not easy. Sue definitely wasn’t paranoid of that possibility because she was gonna love her son no matter what. When the darkest fear came true of a villain targeting them, it did cause a brief rift since they didn’t know how to cope with that obstacle until it played out. Before that solution however, both halves acted their asses off when it came to Sue pointing out he should’ve kept his thoughts to himself even though he swears he wouldn’t sacrifice their son. While I’m still on her side, you honestly still can’t blame Reed doing such because he makes it his duty to lay out the best possibilities before moving forward. While they remained on the same page on how to save both their son and planet, it was still important for him to hear it sooner than later because the last thing he needs is to repeat mistakes. Kirby even tops the moment when Sue clears the air that she refuses to be selfish since she always wanted to be a better parent than her dad got to be. It was also a breathtaking moment to see Sue put her life on the line to save Franklin in the same vein because his birth inspired her and her husband to be better people than they already were. Their boy was bringing out the best of them and in their case, it was where their strengths lied to protect them before he unknowingly returned the favor. With such a powerful blessing, there’s no denying they’ll continue their parental instincts for whatever the reason they face Doctor Doom (Robert Downey Jr.) in Avengers: Doomsday, the cloaked figure that appears in the end of the movie. Moving on, I was impressed that Joseph Quinn had the chance to express how smart Johnny really is because apart from being the heartthrob he’s known for, he’s more fiery than the others because he’s got so much to give and wants to take advantage of every opportunity to contribute. While it’s a given for him to fall for Shalla Bal because it’d be hard to focus after everything he’s seen, but he’s not over distracted because he remains self aware of the stakes to the point of getting through to her. We’re not even sure if his sacrifice would’ve paid off had she not intervened, but you still respect him for his efforts anyway because no one expected to go that far for his nephew until doing so. Next, I was so impressed how much heart & soul Ebon Moss-Bachrach outs as Ben in the same vein of Sue being the moral compass matriarch. Apart from how he does his part being a team player he proves when flying Excelsior during the black hole chase, his dilemma is more about being loved outside his family after being respected as a hero. He’s proud of his contributions, but he always wondered if he still can be loved intimately and happily, he does get this resolution in the given time he has with Natasha Lyonne’s character Rachel Rozman. Heck, I even thought it was funny that he wasn’t into the catchphrase ‘It’s Clobbering Time’ until Johnny teased him about it. It makes him all the more ironic he says it during the climactic battle, whereas we only see Johnny’s “Flame on” through an action figure. Lastly, it was smart for Doom to be shelved because it gives time to show off a villain I’ve been wanting to be seen done right as well. Paul Walter Hauser was indeed a fan cast come true as Mole Man because he’s a guy that prefers solitude and feels that he earns that in the underground since the comics have expressed being shunned by society led to his villainous actions of sinking cities. Since that of course wasn’t the most appropriate way to go about it, it’s a miracle Sue built a healthy communicative relationship for Subterranea became a good compromise while the guys only think about the past conflict he out them through. Similar to how M’Baku to chose to think ahead of protecting his people in Black Panther, Harvey chose to share the same method which worked since it led to zero casualties in the process of the climax. I’ve given enough credit to say this is the best adaptation of the iconic superteam where you see its influence on Pixar’s The Incredibles that ironically released before the 2005 adaptation, but there were still some things that confused me so much that I don’t think Doomsday will answer. Like whether or not the version of Doctor Doom of Doomsday is running Latveria, who’s really complying with the Future Foundation’s curfew to converge electricity? If their leader ain’t even showing up, it’s hard to know if that’s even happening to begin with. And if Reed is the smartest man in the world, it’s not cool of him to not tell Ben of baby proofing the house or the curfew. Even though they’re good laughs since he falls over the steps and doesn’t get to shave, he so could’ve made the time in the same manner of him making new space suits for the team like Johnny begged. While I scratch my head with nobody in the building noticing that Sue turned invisible while leaving, it felt so dumb that no one on the team heard Johnny fly to Shalla Bal. I know Johnny is pretty fast when flying, but it’s not like they couldn’t hear the fire coming from him as he left. Lastly, why doesn’t Galactus the rest of the solar system before Earth? If he’s so hungry, I’m surprised he didn’t deem it edible. Ignore these things however, then you can still appreciate The Fantastic Four: First Steps as the pinnacle of a nostalgic film this comic book team has always been about where you can feel sure writers Jack Kirby & Stan Lee would be most proud of this adaptation. If you’re still a Marvel fan at this point, see this now.