Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps comes at an interesting time for the comic book company.
Following a string of critical and commercial hits culminating in the epic Avengers: Endgame (2019), the Marvel Cinematic Universe has floundered, lacking a sense of cohesion. And no, that’s not because of the latter-”Phase” plotlines about alternate dimensions and collapsing realities. Rather, it’s a function of recent output of wildly varying quality, ranging from the stellar Loki and WandaVision TV series to the plodding Eternals and execrable Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.
If you didn’t know that First Steps represents the first entry in a new MCU Phase, you’d hardly be alone: I had to triple-check, but there have been not one but two separate Phases since Endgame, with Phase 4 culminating in the middling (if box office smash) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), before Phase 5 launched ignobly in 2023 with the aforementioned Quantumania, though that Phase at least ended on a decent note, with this year’s fitfully amusing Thunderbolts*.
The title First Steps is, in other words, no coincidence, Disney/Marvel clearly hoping that the Pedro Pascal-led sci-fi hero film can launch a bold new era for the brand – much as the original Fantastic Four comic did when it inaugurated the Golden Age of superheroes back in 1961.
Appropriately enough, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the fourth (not counting the rights-squatting Roger Corman Z-Movie of the 1990s) attempt to bring Marvel’s First Family to the big screen. Wisely, however, this film aims for a retro vibe not merely inspired by, but actually set during, the 1960s era during which Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the FF to comic readers.
Standing blissfully isolated from the rest of the MCU on its own parallel Earth (designation-826, a sly easter egg explained only to those paying attention during the end credits), First Steps is an efficient little film. One of the shortest MCU films to date, it wastes little time establishing its cosmically-powered heroes – in a get-up-to-speed montage introduced by Ed Sullivan stand-in Ted Gilbert (Mark Gatiss) – who gain their powers after exposure to cosmic radiation during a space voyage: Mr. Fantastic (the ubiquitous Pascal) can stretch his body; Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) does what you’d guess, Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) can fly and “flame on”, while The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) is a hulking, orange, rock-bodied monster (albeit a much-loved monster).
The film is also quick to reveal a plot detail already ruthlessly spoiled by the marketing: the fact our heroes are soon to welcome a fifth, adorably tiny member, team co-lead Susan Storm aka Invisible Woman (Kirby) pregnant with the child of Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic (Pascal).
Intriguingly, it’s Sue’s pregnancy – and attendant fears over the baby’s cosmic-irradiated parentage – which takes on increasing importance as the film progresses, dovetailing nicely with the grander cosmic threat represented by the enormous, planet-devouring Galactus (voiced by Ralph Ineson) and his herald the Silver Surfer (Julie Garner, here playing the comic’s second surfer after the more famous Norin Radd, who previously showed up in the awful Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)).
On that note, one thing F4 really gets right is casting.
Vanessa Kirby (Invisible Woman) is one of the finest actors of her generation, impressing audiences with intelligent, nuanced performances in films like Pieces of a Woman (2020) and on stage in the reimagined Strindberg Julie and award-winning A Streetcar Named Desire revival at the National Theatre. Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic), meanwhile, has quickly gone from Baby Yoda’s mask-clad babysitter, to his generation’s new It Man, with major roles in The Last of Us, Gladiator II, and, this year alone, in Celine Song’s romcom deconstruction Materialists, Ari Aster’s deranged COVID thriller Eddington, and, here, in the tentpole superhero film for a whole new MCU Phase.
Kirby and Pascal are joined by Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm, aka The Thing), who’s had a similarly compelling career arc, going from memorable supporting roles on TV’s Girls, The Punisher, and Andor (the latter two fellow Disney stablemates), to starring as television’s most beloved Front of House Manager on The Bear. (And yes, F4 finds time for a cooking joke, sadly already spoiled by the trailers.) Rounding out the quartet is Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm, Human Torch), who’s gone from a brief but memorable turn as Eddie in one of those terrible recent Stranger Things seasons, to supporting roles in Gladiator II and the recent Alex Garland Warfare.
(Let’s also pause here to acknowledge F4’s delightful house-droid H.E.R.B.I.E. (voice actor Matthew Wood), who debuted in the 1970s Fantastic Four cartoon, and looks and functions like a cross between BB-8, the Nintendo R.O.B., and R2-D2, even as he predates them all.)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s Kirby who acquits herself best, bringing a degree of pathos and emotional maturity to her role as über-protective supermom – not only to her MacGuffin newborn, but to the other members of the Fantastic family. As the likes of Hiddleston have shown, it takes a certain kind of actor to sell the inherent absurdity of these comic flicks, and Kirby does an impressive amount of dramatic heavy-lifting to keep this film buoyant.
F4’s obvious affection for its era is reflected not only in the copious deep-cut comic book references – Marvel Zombies will recognise a few images ripped straight from beloved comic book panels – but in its aesthetic, which pays loving homage to sci-fi (good and bad) of the 1960s. While fans hoping for a cameo-laden free-for-fall may be disappointed, F4 does its best with what it’s got going for it, including a formidable villain in the form of the enormous – and wonderfully realised – Galactus, and an amusing sub-subplot involving the Mole Man (a perfectly cast and criminally underused Paul Water Hauser).
Another one of F4’s strengths is its sense of scale. There’s its towering Big Bad, of course, but I was continually impressed by, say, the thrilling way the camera swoops through the skyscrapers of Manhattan alongside a flying Human Torch, or the (surprisingly extensive) outer space sequences which marvellously conjure the vast expanse beyond our planet. I regularly found myself in awe of F4‘s sweeping visuals, marking the rare film that completely deserves to be seen on the IMAX screen (for which it was shot). Any worries that director Matt Shakman – a TV veteran who previously helmed Marvel’s best miniseries WandaVision – wouldn’t handle the transition to the big screen are easily put to rest here.
That said, F4 is still saddled with some of the dubious CGI which has plagued these films for decades now. Most of the movie looks good, but there are moments – particularly when any of the fully computer-generated characters like The Thing, Galactus, or Silver Surfer are speaking – when it starts to come apart at the seams. There’s also some distracting CGI wonkiness surrounding the film’s infant character, who appears to sometimes be a real baby, sometimes a digital creation, and sometimes a hybrid of both.
The Fantastic Four-inspired The Incredibles aside, it’s safe to say this is also the first proper superhero Mom Movie. Not only is Kirby the emotional anchor of the film, the arrival of her and Reed’s child winds up being the centrepiece of the story. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say that a lot of moms – and their kids – may come out of this one teary-eyed.
Following on the heels of the recent Superman, it’s also nice to encounter a film so unabashedly earnest. Our heroes here are archetypal: fighting for good, believing in what’s best in people, ready and willing to sacrifice for a noble cause. The optimism in F4 is even more pronounced than in the Distinguished Competition’s new Superman: when a key plot point in F4 hinges on total global collaboration, nations coming together in a decidedly unironic show of solidarity, you know you’re well-removed from the quippy, sarcastic stylings of Marvel past. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just grown rather stale.)
If Marvel takes the right lessons from this, it’s that it’s possible to tell a deeply goofy story – multiple Shakespearean actors all forced to spout technobabble in the general direction of massive green screens – without needing to lampshade yourself all the time. It is, frankly, nice to just watch a film where a bunch of good, not particularly conflicted, people do the right thing and are rewarded for it.
It’s also nice that the film doesn’t waste time on the typical “grunt scrums”, largely avoiding the kind of filler fight scenes that tend to plague these films, saving the big display of the team’s powers for the grand finale. By the time that finale rolls around, it’s likely that you, too, will find yourself inescapably rooting for our heroes, alongside the team’s in-universe legions of fans. (If Marvel takes any other lessons, it’s that it’s time to ramp up production on H.E.R.B.I.E. and Galactus action figures.)
F4 ends, as it must, with a thoroughly predictable (and frankly extraneous) mid-credits scene, followed by a far more charming post-credits scene which once again leans into its retro-comic premise. We’ve been promised the Fantastic Four will next pop up in the ominously-titled Doomsday. Here’s hoping they bring some of that positive First Steps energy with them.
***
Final Score: Four (obviously) out of five reboots.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens in cinemas nationwide on July 25, 2025. IMAX showtimes here.
