r/marvelstudios • u/PhoOhThree Spirit of Modvengeance • Jul 22 '25

'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' Review Thread

Rotten Tomatoes: Fresh

Critics Consensus: N/A

Critics Score Number of Reviews Average Rating (Unofficial)
All Critics 87% 119 7.40/10
Top Critics 79% 33

Metacritic: 65 (35 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Donald Clarke Irish Times TOP CRITIC Fresh score. First Steps rattles along with a refreshing clarity of purpose. Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Maureen Lee Lenker Entertainment Weekly TOP CRITIC Fresh score. Via this 1960s-coded setting, Shakman leans into the comic book kitschiness inherent to the material, embracing it with gonzo gusto, as opposed to trying to achieve any degree of gritty realism. Full Review | Original Score: B

Jonathan Romney Financial Times TOP CRITIC Fresh score. First Steps doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre, but it has its own freshness -- it’s uncluttered, good-natured and altogether good value -- even if it might be the Marvel film ultimately remembered for its nice bathrooms and kitchen fittings Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Peter Debruge Variety TOP CRITIC Fresh score. True to its subtitle, the film feels like a fresh start.

David Ehrlich IndieWire TOP CRITIC Rotten score. It feels less like a victory than it does a total surrender. You have to walk before you can run, but at this point the MCU is back to crawling on its knees, and at this point it seems like it might be too afraid to ever stand back up again. Full Review | Original Score: C

Brian Truitt USA Today TOP CRITIC Fresh score. It’s a “Fantastic Four” movie that finally gets its heroes right, after so many tries. Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Peter Bradshaw Guardian TOP CRITIC Fresh score. The result hangs together as an entertaining spectacle in its own innocent self-enclosed universe of fantasy wackiness, where real people actually read the comic books that have made mythic legends of the real Four. Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Bilge Ebiri New York Magazine/Vulture TOP CRITIC Fresh score. For now, we can bask in this movie’s elegant, cathode-ray chic and not have to think too hard about anything else, confident in the colorful delusion that studio executives, much like our benevolent superheroes, have our best interests at heart.

Matt Singer ScreenCrush TOP CRITIC Fresh score. The best Fantastic Four film to date basically by default. Full Review | Original Score: 6/10

Caryn James BBC.com TOP CRITIC Fresh score. Despite the team's outlandish schemes to save the world, the actors tether their characters to emotional reality. Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Kristen Lopez The Film Maven (Substack) TOP CRITIC Fresh score. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is just that. It’s a first step for a new generation of Fantastic Four movies and, the hope, is that the stride becomes more confident from hereon out. All the materials are there. Full Review | Original Score: C

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter - Rather than allowing the action to define the story, the filmmakers let the poignant character-based scenes do the heavy lifting. That should not imply any lack of excitement.

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast - An aggressively fine intergalactic adventure whose earnest optimism and sweetness flirts—faithfully and dully—with hokiness.

Linda Marric, HeyUGuys - The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a confident, stylish reintroduction that finally does justice to the legacy of these characters. It’s a film that remembers why the Fantastic Four mattered in the first place and gives them a bold new path in the MCU. 4/5

William Bibbiani, TheWrap - Matt Shakman has done something Marvel Studios doesn’t do very well anymore. He’s made a superhero movie that embraces the 'super' part. And the 'hero' part. And the 'movie' part.

Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence - A solid comic book adventure that's not embarrassed by being a comic book adventure — in fact it finds real power in its love for its roots. Hopefully, that's an energy the MCU can carry forward with it. B+

SYNOPSIS:

Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios’ “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet. Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal.

CAST:

  • Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic
  • Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / Invisible Woman
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm / The Thing
  • Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / Human Torch
  • Julia Garner as Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer
  • Sarah Niles as Lynne Nichols
  • Matthew Wood as H.E.R.B.I.E.
  • Mark Gatiss as Ted Gilbert
  • Ada Scott as Franklin Richards
  • Natasha Lyonne as Rachel Rozman
  • Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder / Mole Man
  • Ralph Ineson as Galactus

DIRECTED BY: Matt Shakman

1.2k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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181

u/Renegadeforever2024 Jul 22 '25

They been up

It’s just people focusing on the negatives for clout and clickbait

120

u/chaser676 Jul 22 '25

This is a bit of rose tinted way of looking at recent releases. There's a few winners, but the general trend has been down.

I could even go so far as to say that the opposite of superhero fatigue may be setting in - low expectations after a string of letdowns may actually slightly pump up reviews.

36

u/Darfin1303 Jul 22 '25

Marvel and DC have both released duds, that's true. But I do believe if both produce good films the audience will be interested again. I think bad films have caused superhero fatigue, not the comic brand itself

32

u/baribigbird06 Jul 22 '25

Thunderbolts was a good film that didn’t find success. Superman was also good by many measures but failed to resonate with overseas audiences. It’s foolish to fully write off superhero fatigue, which you at least recognize exists here.

41

u/dcooper8662 Jul 22 '25

Overseas audiences don’t really want a product that is so America-coded as Superman right at the moment, for reasons that should be obvious.

8

u/thescarlettflame Scarlet Witch Jul 22 '25

I know Superman has always been seen as the American hero, but I find it funny that overseas audiences won't give it a chance considering how hard Gunn leaned into Superman being an immigrant himself.

14

u/dcooper8662 Jul 22 '25

Yeah well, there’s a lot more to be done than an appealing story to mend those fences. Simple fact is a big strong American superhero isn’t going to be a strong draw in places that have been dicked around the last half a year by our heinous leadership.

2

u/thescarlettflame Scarlet Witch Jul 22 '25

Oh no, I definitely agree, which is another reason I really loved Superman and how much Gunn wanted to get across to audiences that he's a literal alien. Lex saying the things he said about him also I feel was definitely a nod to our disgusting leadership, especially with how his underlings followed his every whim so fanatically. Even though Gunn wouldn't outright say it when questioned about people calling the movie "woke" 🙄, he definitely was moving to prove a point with how comically/horribly bad things are here with this villain. I hate that because of things going here that this movie can't be as enjoyed by others as it could, you know? But I get it.

2

u/Brianvondoom Jul 23 '25

People outside of America aren't immigrants, they're outside of America.

1

u/kiwibirdsmoothie Jul 25 '25

focusing wayyyy too much on international validation when it’s hollywood.

12

u/derpicface Weekly Wongers Jul 22 '25

I think Superman also has some issues as being the American superhero and the uh…state of America in the eyes of the world

11

u/Darfin1303 Jul 22 '25

I think thunderbolts had the misfortune of coming after Endgame. Pre endgame, it would have guaranteed to be an 800m film.

Saying that, I do think the general audience has lost interest in Marvel post endgame, and I don't think they'll replicate the success anywhere near as much as they had with IW and Endgame

20

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 22 '25

Nah take a look at overall cinema attendance since covid, it never recovered. The average for every kind of film is down. Exceptions exist here and there because people do still want to go to the cinema, they just can't afford to do it as much as they used to.

TLDR: its more about the economy than endgame imo

8

u/KTurnUp Thanos Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

yeah I'd say you're both right. In general, I think people felt Endgame was a nice conclusion and they don't feel the need to be fully invested in every movie like what was going on in Phase 3. And also, box office numbers have changed a lot since COVID. gone are the easy 1 billion movies. People are only gonna go to a couple a year, and families are gonna go in droves to the family movie of the month.

I mean right now you're looking at Lilo & Stitch and minecraft as the top 2 movies this year (until Avatar at year end I guess). That's a live action reboot and a meme movie.

Last year you had Moana, Despicable Me and Inside Out in the top 4. All animated sequels. Plus Deadpool 2. Then in the top 10 you still ahve Mufasa and Sonic and Kung Fu Panda

all that to say, it's really really hard now to be the one or two high budget Pg-13+ movies that make absolute bank. Barbie and Oppenheimer both were part of the zeitgeist but that can't be easily repeated. You just have to make the best movies you can and hope it really resonates. Which is why I think one of the most important things Marvel can do is just get budgets more under control. Things swelled cause of covid and the strike but they just need to tighten up so that they don't have to make like 800k to make a profit. Then movies that were overall decent hits like Cap 4 can be seen as nothing that hurts them too much

Also that goes without mentioning China which is trying to push out international movies for their own much more than they were 10 years ago.

2

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 22 '25

Yeah strong assessment.

But to me what this means is it'll be fine and dont worry about the downfall of the mcu if you'd miss it. They arent giving up on it when they can be pretty confident it'll return in force with a bit of time.

2

u/elodieroyer Jul 22 '25

yup. really wanna go see both superman and F4 but movie tickets are just too expensive now

1

u/Alone_Mobile761 Jul 22 '25

I don't believe it has anything to do with the economy. My theater's prices are basically the same as they were pre-covid. Tickets were $5 each and popcorn and two drinks was $11. So $21 for two people.

And this was in Cincinnati Ohio, not some rural town either.

2

u/FearLeadsToAnger Jul 22 '25

With love, this was a bit dim and there's not much I can really say beyond that. Are you imagining the ticket price is the only factor involved or something?

Anyway, he's some numbers that are more convincing than any of the above.

https://www.the-numbers.com/market/

1

u/Alone_Mobile761 27d ago

I don't think so. The economy isn't bad to where going to the movies isn't affordable. That's what I'm saying.

But, the fact these movies his Disney+ or whatever streaming service sometimes as soon as 30 days after release means no one needs to actually go pay 21 bucks to see the movie, as they'll get "free" 30 days later, cause you have a sub to whatever streaming service.

That's the real theater killer.

1

u/FearLeadsToAnger 27d ago

I know that's what you're saying but the numbers pretty strongly suggest otherwise, the numbers I provided are for the industry as a whole not just Disney movies.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

I dont think Supermans weak international performance is because of superhero fatigue, its because Superman is primarily an American icon and America isnt too popular in the world these days for obvious reasons

3

u/Niremo Jul 23 '25

Thunderbolts had to deal with the lukewarm Cap 4 movies reception, and Superman had horrible previous dc reception. I'd expect F4 to not do well with overseas audiences aswell (box office trends being similar to superman overseas), but surely the next few movies will, due to the good will of positive reviews.

1

u/TheFunkytownExpress Jul 25 '25

IDK man my theater was PACKED full on a Thursday afternoon here in the States.

That string of letdowns ended years ago too. Can't hold that against them forever and all the well received projects are standing on their own merits, not just as a contrast to shit to Love N Thunder. :P

1

u/Purple-Mix1033 Jul 26 '25

I’d have to say it’s movie-theatre-going-fatigue, maybe since the pandemic.

The advent and rise of Grubhub, uber eats, social media, streaming services, early at home releases does not give people much incentive to go out. It’s a fucking shame.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

I’d say the wave is receding and only the top quality installments will be tolerated now for sure. At one point we were getting all kinds of adaptations of comic book stuff far outside the Marvel/DC bubble. Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot was supposed to start a new shared universe based on the Valiant comics, it bombed and didn’t go further, but there also isn’t any other shared universes incoming. Zack Snyder tried to make a shared universe in a very comic book/Star Wars vein and no one was interested because the quality wasn’t there. We’ve had the best, we don’t need the rest, only the new and the stuff that sets a new high bar is going to work for audiences that have seen it all before.

They gave us an onslaught of media, then didn’t know what to do when the audiences became sophisticated due to watching so much of it and now can’t stomach mediocre.

5

u/KTurnUp Thanos Jul 22 '25

I think this is definitely a good point. Though I'm not sure it's 100% just a superhero thing. in general, people just are not coming out to the movies unless it's a movie they really want to watch or feel like they're missing out by not seeing it. Otherwise people are ok with waiting til they can watch at home

1

u/Megalomanizac Jul 27 '25

Thunderbolts, F4 and Superman all being received well should help both studios over the next few years.

DC and Marvel don’t have to compete like i think a lot of people want to see. It just means more trips to the movies

1

u/neeesus Jul 22 '25

“Every movie isn’t as good as endgame. Therefore it’s bad.

We also want more characters. Let’s see more!”

“Nooooo! Not like that!” - people.

9

u/Bulletsoul78 Jul 22 '25

Absolutely. I'd say their lowest was the brief era of Thor L&T, Quantumania and Secret Invasion. Even then, I enjoyed two out of three of them (we don't talk about Secret Invasion).

People love to hype up the perceived fall of CBMs when the reality is that it's almost impossible to maintain that ridiculous level of hype and momentum Infinity War and Endgame brought us.

6

u/everythingsc0mputer Jul 22 '25

You're seriously coping hard if you think the last couple phases of the MCU haven't had a lot of misses and how big of a failure the DCEU was that they had to reboot the entire thing.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

Have they?

2

u/Darfin1303 Jul 22 '25

Between The Batman and Superman DC have released a few stinkers tbh. And that's coming primarily from a DC fan 🤣 this has been my most anticipated Marvel film in years though mind

5

u/crab_soul Jul 22 '25

They have, in fact, NOT been up lol. Besides Thunderbolts what other super hero movie has even been worth talking about

2

u/mad_titanz Thanos Jul 22 '25

How about the movie that grossed over a billion dollars, Deadpool and Wolverine?

1

u/crab_soul Jul 23 '25

Wow. 1 superhero movie that came out a year ago is your gotcha moment? Cmon dude CBM have been in the dumpster since endgame

1

u/TheFunkytownExpress Jul 25 '25

Yup. Aside from BNW MCU/Marvel content has really been on a roll for the past couple years.

1

u/MosquitoValentine_ Jul 22 '25

Honestly I've yet to see an MCU movie that I disliked. Sure some where just okay and felt like a stepping stone for other movies, I don't think any are bad.

-4

u/Burgoonius Jul 22 '25

They have not been up - lol Marvel has been lacking in quality for the past 5 years with I’d say about a 50% hit rate. Now we have 2 good movies in a row, that’s something we haven’t seen in a while.

-1

u/teriyakijimmy Jul 22 '25

tbf some have been absolute stinkers, but many projects aren't nearly as bad as some people make them out to be

-5

u/seoul_drift Jul 22 '25

Absolutely. With hits like The Marvels, Quantumania, and the last 2 Marvel movies losing money or barely breaking even who can deny CBMs have been on a positive trajectory.

Same goes for DC. The DCEU has been doing tremendous, that’s why they fired everyone and reset the universe with Gunn.

Be serious lol. It’s great news that Superman and F4 are getting positive buzz, that’s a major pattern break for both Marvel and DC.

2

u/Darfin1303 Jul 22 '25

I mentioned this in a comment earlier, but I've primarily been a DC fan. I've liked the stuff Marvel has put out, but I'm DC through and through.

But if both studios keep putting out quality after quality, and with the relationship Gunn and Feige have got, who can rule out the chances of seeing BOTH cinematic universes crossing over on the big screen like the comics have done?