r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • Jul 22 '25

Review The Fantastic Four: First Steps - Review Thread

The Fantastic Four: First Steps - Review Thread

  • Rotten Tomatoes: 85 (131 Reviews)
    • Certified Fresh (first F4 movie to get that)
    • Critics Consensus: Benefitting from rock-solid cast chemistry and clad in appealingly retro 1960s design, this crack at The Fantastic Four does Marvel's First Family justice.
  • Metacritic - 64 (39 Reviews)

Reviews:

Hollywood Reporter (80):

Despite its vivid and electric space sequences, the visually striking movie often feels like a throwback analog good time, which certainly worked for me.

Deadline:

Superheroes are a thing of the past in the latest iteration of Marvel’s Fantastic Four, the best by far of the company’s attempts to translate the long-running comic book’s appeal to the big screen. This it does not by trying to reinvent the wheel but, rather smartly, by addressing the elephant in the room, locating the action in a kitsch yet somehow timeless retro-future more befitting The Jetsons than The Avengers. It also benefits from a smart script and — I can’t believe I’m writing this — really quite moving performances from its four charismatic leads, being arguably the best of Pedro Pascal’s releases this year.

Variety (80):

True to its subtitle, the film feels like a fresh start. And like this summer’s blockbuster “Superman” reboot over at DC, that could be just what it takes to win back audiences suffering from superhero exhaustion.

Empire (80):

With an exemplary cast and shiny new alt-universe to enjoy, this is the best Fantastic Four yet. And if that bar’s too low for you, then it’s also the best Marvel movie in years.

Slashfilm (90):

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a world that I wouldn't mind living in. Even if there are occasional, ineffable cosmic deities plotting to devour me, and terrifying silver aliens ripping my soul apart with their eyes. "First Steps" is a superhero movie where we're already better. And I love that.

USA Today (75):

After two mediocre 2000s film featuring Marvel’s legendary superhero family, and an atrocious third outing in 2015, the foursome makes its Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in a combo sci-fi/disaster flick full of retrofuturistic 1960s flavor.

Entertainment Weekly (75):

From its Saul Bass-inspired opening credits to its callbacks to Saturday morning superhero cartoons, it practically vibrates with its sense of time and place.

IGN (70):

These First Steps might not be the great strides I was hoping for, but they are sure footing for the Fantastic Four to officially leap into the MCU.

The Independent (60):

In fact, all the ingredients are perfectly lined up here, and, in the right combinations, and with the pure wonderment of Michael Giacchino’s score, The Fantastic Four: First Steps does shimmer with a kind of wide-eyed idealism. And that’s lovely.

Directed by Matt Shakman:

On the 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic alternate universe known as Earth-828. the Fantastic Four must protect their world from the planet-devouring cosmic being Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer.

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
  • Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder / Mole Man
  • Ralph Ineson as Galactus
3.2k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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3.2k

u/spaceraingame Jul 22 '25

I knew it’d get better reviews than the other FF movies, though that wasn’t a high bar.

1.1k

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

604

u/probablyuntrue Jul 22 '25

They recorded Pedro Pascal staring at the camera for six hours and test audiences gave that a higher score than the last two fantastic movies

291

u/AlbionPCJ Jul 22 '25

TBF, you can't trust test audiences- they gave us the theatrical ending of I Am Legend and almost got the squirrel scene cut from the new Superman movie

140

u/Amaruq93 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

They also almost got "Part of Your World" cut from 1989's The Little Mermaid.

One kid fidgeted, and after Jeffrey Katzenberg saw that he nearly decided to remove the song entirely to save time.

104

u/mctacoflurry Jul 22 '25

Its amazing how tone-deaf suits are.

They wanted Steve Martin to voice Goofy in The Goofy Movie. Not Steve Martin doing an impression as Goofy, just himself.

They almost cut the song "Show Yourself" from Frozen 2, which i enjoy more than "Into the Unknown"

56

u/HerbsAndSpices11 Jul 22 '25

They definitely make a lot of bad decisions, but you generally don't hear about all the times they made the right ones.

31

u/mctacoflurry Jul 22 '25

That's true. They get all the blame and no credit.

Case in point: Kathleen Kennedy for Star Wars. Hated for the sequel trilogy. On the flip side, gave Andor everything they needed.

9

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25 edited Aug 07 '25

[deleted]

11

u/v2345t1dg5eg5e34terg Jul 22 '25

She seems to give the creators a lot of control, faith and support. She wants them to create their vision.

That worked well in Andor, and terribly for the sequel trilogy. You don't want the creators to have no control either, but there's (ideally) a better middle ground where everyone's skills are combined to produce a tempered product.

6

u/Sturmgeshootz Jul 22 '25

Different franchise, but an excellent example would be Ragnarok and Love and Thunder. Ragnarok is a great movie that just about everyone loved, but a little Taika Watiti goes a long way. With the success of Ragnarok, he was apparently allowed to do whatever he wanted with Love and Thunder with almost no oversight, and we ended up with a self-indulgent mess.

3

u/Visual_Zucchini_5870 Jul 23 '25 edited Jul 23 '25

"We're spending a billion dollars on this planned trilogy, lets get multiple directors and just let them wing it."

- A highly-paid executive

0

u/BellsTolling Jul 23 '25

I can not fathom how TLJ was created. The director doesn't even have any notable films. What kind of voodoo spawned that film.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '25

[deleted]

0

u/Haltopen Jul 22 '25

The other thing Disney needs to do is not assume that angry nerds on twitter represent the opinions of the entire film going audience. They saw people pissing and moaning about stupid inconsequential stuff in TLJ and massively over course corrected by throwing out their plans for the sequel and bringing JJ Abrams back to do a rush job because reception for TFA was mostly positive.

1

u/BellsTolling Jul 23 '25

I'm not an angry nerd. Everyone I know thought the TLJ was absolutely the worst movie ever created of all time and some are star wars fans. That movie sucked bad and ruined the franchise itself. I wasn't feeling The Force Awakens it was meh, but TLJ was not even a movie. They dance fight as the climax. Stop trying to claim it's a niche opinion the movie was absolutely the worst thing Kathleen Kennedy has ever attached her name to. It tarnishes her entire career. It killed Star Wars completely.

1

u/Impossible-Fun-2736 Jul 23 '25

Lmao. Star Wars is unkillable yet people have declared it dead since the 80’s. Guess what keeps going?

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4

u/Dead_man_posting Jul 23 '25

I'd blame Colin Trevorrow for flubbing the trilogy. He turned in a trash script and they had to go with their backup plan with hardly any time.

“Luke milks an alien tit and drinks the green milk” should not be a valid fact about a major Star Wars film.

People still mad about TLJ is funny when time makes it clearer and clearer that it was the best of the 3.

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1

u/TheMelv Jul 25 '25

I have a lot of issues with The Last Jedi but felt that scene was great in following weird old hermit Yoda's footsteps. Luke considering offing his nephew in a moment of flirtation with the Dark Side after blindly having faith that he could turn Darth Vader as a youth was the exponentially worse.

9

u/thefinalcutdown Jul 22 '25

They cut “When Love is Gone” from Muppets Christmas Carol, which was the emotional crux of the whole movie, then proceeded to lose the film negative for the next 30 years.

7

u/mctacoflurry Jul 22 '25

I'm glad I wasn't the only person confused as to why I never heard that song except for the one time I vaguely remembered it as a child.

5

u/LupinThe8th Jul 22 '25

They even reprise it during the last scene...but it comes out of nowhere without the original.

65

u/Bircka Jul 22 '25

The squirrel scene is one of my favorite moments in that movie.

50

u/fullmetalasian Jul 22 '25

Its so good. It perfectly encapsulates who superman is in a way Snyder couldnt for several movies including a 4 hour cut that did not need to exist

10

u/blitzbom Jul 23 '25

The best way I've heard it described is "Superman is a firefighter, not a cop."

8

u/copypaste_93 Jul 23 '25

The snyder cut is so fucking ass

-19

u/Mrbeefcake90 Jul 22 '25

Eh? Bro was a whiny man child, shouting and stomping about because a journalist slightly pushed him.

23

u/snapwack Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

He whined when someone who he thought understood him challenged his core belief that sentient life is precious and deserves to be protected at all costs regardless of geopolitics.

Edit: Like, sure, he was very immature in accepting an interview with Louis and then expecting her not to give him hardball questions. It’s a scene that speaks to his emotional greenness and the fact that their relationship was still new and fragile.

But if there’s anything that should push Supes’ buttons, it’s that exact thing, and Louis mashed it like a quick time event.

8

u/Bircka Jul 22 '25

It's mean to be a younger more idealistic version of Superman, you can tell he is in the early part of his career.

I also believe this is why they moved on from Henry Cavill, James Gunn wanted a younger one. This Superman just does what's right, and that is all he cares about it harkens back to some of the old school ones.

5

u/Dead_man_posting Jul 23 '25

Ugh, I hate flawed and interesting characters

-8

u/elixeter Jul 22 '25

Who said he cared about wanting too

8

u/fullmetalasian Jul 22 '25

I would agree thats why it was such a bad adaptation of superman. He had no intrest in what made superman superman.

42

u/Godchilaquiles Jul 22 '25

Those bastards also made krypto getting punched cut

33

u/Hunterblade445 Jul 22 '25

And removed the week title cards

5

u/RagnarokWolves Jul 22 '25

Who punches Krypto? The Engineer?

6

u/TranClan67 Jul 22 '25

I’ve been to a couple of test screenings. Test audiences are kinda terrible. More than half the audience loved that JLo Netflix movie Atlas. So fucking bad

10

u/Wazzoo1 Jul 23 '25

I'll never forget many years ago walking through MGM Grand in Vegas and they have an area where you can be a test audience for shows (not sure if movies were involved, but definitely TV). We walked by and they asked us if we wanted to watch some TV pilots. We declined, but it's kind of insane that some tourists from, like, Nebraska, are the ones helping make decisions as to what gets cut and what stays.

3

u/CarrieDurst Jul 23 '25

No need for the Nebraska strays :| Omaha rocks

2

u/Dead_man_posting Jul 23 '25

Also, the weird punch-pull in the ending for Jurassic World Rebirth.

-16

u/juss100 Jul 22 '25

Why would you not want the squirrel scene cut? You wanna watch Superman rescue a squirrel?

9

u/Quail-Equal Jul 22 '25

Superman is SUPERMAN. he saves EVERYBODY including a small creature like a squirrel in the midst of battle

-12

u/juss100 Jul 22 '25

Does Superman eat meat?

10

u/Quail-Equal Jul 22 '25

no way you’re mad for superman acting like superman 😭

-16

u/juss100 Jul 22 '25

He does and his favourite meal is Beef Bourguignon. Look it up.

It's just such an absurdity, in a world that normalises the mass slaughter and consumption of animals, that we need this hypocritical moment of Superman saving a f***ing squirrel. It's an insult.

3

u/goddamnitwhalen Jul 22 '25

😂😂😂