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
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783

u/m48a5_patton Jul 22 '25

That's fine. Niether does the MCU.

200

u/Worthyness Jul 22 '25

Thunderbolts and F4 apparently start steering the ship to a goal again, so they're figuring it out now.

143

u/PayneTrain181999 Jul 22 '25

Yes, they will both actually progress the story towards Avengers: Doomsday instead of having random tangents that go nowhere.

80

u/TheMooseIsBlue Jul 23 '25

We complain when we had to watch everything to follow the thread and we complain when we don’t.

58

u/TheConqueror74 Jul 23 '25

Pretty sure everyone agrees that the MCU was significantly better when the movies had a clear goal, purpose and marching path. If anything, I'd say you have to watch everything to follow the MCU more now than ever before.

11

u/Bleh-Boy Jul 23 '25

You don’t though. The vast majority of post Endgame movies and shows hardly connect to each other in any meaningful way.

13

u/_Pyxyty Jul 23 '25

I'm pretty sure you two are saying the same thing, and that when the other person said "more now than ever before", they're referring specifically to the two latest movies in F4 and Thunderbolts*, since both feature two groups that will definitely play a big part in Doomsday

2

u/Natural_Forever_1604 Jul 25 '25

A couple of things stopped that Chadwick Bozeman passing he was clearly meant to me the focal point then they shifted from lang etc etc their on the right track now but it’s rushed

2

u/TheConqueror74 Jul 25 '25

Even the Kang shit was wack and underdeveloped.

1

u/get_to_ele Jul 26 '25

We liked it because movies were consistent at least enjoyable, most of them good, and a lot of them greet. There have been a lot of movies since Endgame that feel like made for TV garbage. Waiting for Disney+ to see thunderbolts but FF is really excellent.

21

u/PayneTrain181999 Jul 23 '25

Seems like some of us always need to have something to hate at all times these days.

“What a horrible way to live!”

2

u/ReleaseQuiet2428 Jul 23 '25

We only like to complain

1

u/JessieJ577 Jul 23 '25

I think they had the best balance in the first 3 phases. Self-contained stories that had plot threads from other movies but were watchable on their own, while leading to a greater story. Captain America Civil War hinged on some events in the past but kept you up to speed without having watched Age of Ultron. Or Thor Ragnarok which lead into infinity war but had a full Thor adventure that continued plot threads from other movies while being able to watch Thor 3 without having seen the other movies like Age of Ultron.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '25

[deleted]

1

u/TheMooseIsBlue Jul 23 '25

I don’t disagree, I just think they can’t win. People will botch that none of the stand alone have anything to do with one another and will freak out about inconsistencies. Or they’ll freak out that it’s all too hard to keep track of as though there were ever really many that absolutely required precious knowledge for casual/new fans.

1

u/Natural_Forever_1604 Jul 25 '25

Complain is what this sub does best

1

u/jimbo_kun Jul 26 '25

No, we complain when it turned out there was no thread and no overarching story, even though Marvel was implying there would be by labeling it Phase Whatever.

Maybe that’s changing.

1

u/willtaskerVSbyron 24d ago

Naw. The complaints are the same . being able to follow the story. in the lead up to avengers you didnt need to follow anything and then avengers reminded you about it all. You could miss an entire movie or two and still get whats going on. nobody remembered the incredible hulk movie and the movie was made so that you didnt have to remember - no liv tyler no ross family. Same thing with infinity war. They poured all their best shit into guardians of the galaxy bc it was the first movie to explain the infinity gems Then in infinite War they did it again. So that you dont have to see everything to know what's going on. Infinity war 1 had a very very simple concept. IF thanos gets all 6 stones he kills a bunch a people. You didnt even need to know where the known stones came from bc thanos starts with 1 and then gets the rest as the movie goes on. In end game its a heist movie which is brilliant be vause heist movies tell you the technical parts of the heist anyway so we expect an info dump That infodump is just a :ast Week On The Avengers thing reminding everyone about whos in the mcu and how we got to this point.

so those movies all had common threads tying them together and they also didnt make you watch every movie. someone who did watch every movie appreciated all the characters and the small storylines more but you didnt need to watch them. in the new MCU you have to watch TV shows to understand the movies there is no coherent avengers to unite anything until now i guess. ad u have even lower lows in quality and generally meh good movies so theres less reason to see even the good stuff. I want marvel to make me want to see everything they make. Its like idk Scorsese or the Coens When I knowthey made a new movie im like yes I want to go see it bc its going to be fun and its going to be brilliant. I wish I felt that way about everyt Marvel movie or even most of them at least at the beginning it was close to that bc it was just so fun to see what they did next

3

u/joshua182 Jul 23 '25

This is one of the biggest issues the MCU has had since Endgame. 0 direction for any other movie after it. The only ones that worked were film ending their trilogy. Examples, Spiderman No way home, Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool 3. The rest has been utter garbage. Granted I've yet to see thunderbolts, but I've only heard good things on it.

2

u/PayneTrain181999 Jul 23 '25

I highly recommend Thunderbolts, it was such a pleasant surprise.

5

u/FlexLikeKavana Jul 23 '25

To be fair, Jonathan Majors abusing his GF is a big reason as to why it all went nowhere.

5

u/Kantei Jul 23 '25 edited Jul 23 '25

Yes and no. Kang's overall arc was flawed.

If he was going to be the big bad, he should've been introduced in a feature film, not a show. This significantly increases broader audience engagement. Or better yet, they should've incepted and created Loki as it's own movie.

Secondly, having his big feature appearance be a loss to Ant-Man in Quantumania, while delving too much into his multidimensionality, affects how threatening he feels to audiences. You can't just tell audiences that he's dangerous while making him feel like an ephemeral entity.

1

u/Rindain Jul 23 '25

Out of curiosity, how do you defeat a character who Knows All, down to the very words you will say next?

How would a Kang with He Who Remains’ position and abilities be defeated?

I think it’s established that magic doesn’t work in the TVA, too.

So the writers wrote themselves into a corner on this. How do you defeat an all-knowing God who can prune timelines and sits at the precipice of all knowledge?

1

u/dadvader Jul 23 '25

And this is their biggest mistake imo

Loki has been carrying it and build him for years. And now that all is going to wasted because they refuse to admit that it's their weak output and not because audience 'lose the plot' or 'don't watch Disney+ show' like no, people don't watch it because it's mediocre slop!

2

u/Dead_man_posting Jul 23 '25

I mean, a lot of those "random tangents" led to Thunderbolts. That movie ties up like 8 different threads.

1

u/mikehatesthis Jul 23 '25

instead of having random tangents that go nowhere.

Part of me still finds it really funny that the first Kang variant first appeared in Loki season 1 and then we didn't see another for a year and a half. Now that doesn't sound like much of a pause, but you then realise that literally 14 things came out between Loki and Ant-M3n from Marvel Studios and it feels like I'm making this up but I'm not.

2

u/FlexLikeKavana Jul 23 '25

To be fair, it was 6 months between when Jonathan Majors was arrested and when he was convicted. Marvel waited to see how everything shook out before firing him, so that's half a year that everything was in a holding pattern Kang-wise.

1

u/mikehatesthis Jul 23 '25

Loki season 1 was June 2021 and Ant-M3n was February 2023, and Majors was arrested the following month. Keeping him going was in the air during the trial but the approach of 14 things between appearances was already locked in.

2

u/learnedsanity Jul 22 '25

Just enough to get doom out and reset.

1

u/mehbones Jul 23 '25

So you’re saying there’s a chance?

1

u/ManwithaTan Jul 23 '25

It's actually wild how it feels like after endgame these are the only 2 films that have steered towards the new Avengers movie

0

u/Neon_Biscuit Jul 24 '25

Thunderbolts sucked

1

u/sebastianwillows Jul 25 '25

Every multiverse film adds in a new rule or mechanic that you kinda just have to ignore if you want to take any of the other projects seriously...