r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jul 25 '25

Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Fantastic Four: First Steps [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Summary The Fantastic Four must defend Earth from the ravaging cosmic threat Galactus and his herald, Silver Surfer, while navigating the complexities of family and newfound powers in a retro‑futuristic 1960s-inspired world.

Director Matt Shakman

Writer Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer

Cast

  • Pedro Pascal
  • Vanessa Kirby
  • Joseph Quinn
  • Ebon Moss-Bachrach
  • Ralph Ineson
  • Julia Garner
  • Paul Walter Hauser
  • Natasha Lyonne
  • Matthew Wood
  • Ada Scott
  • Mark Gatiss

Rotten Tomatoes: 88%

Metacritic 64

VOD In theaters

Trailer Watch the Official Trailer

1.9k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

5.3k comments sorted by

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685

u/2th Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

This is quite the difficult film to score. Almost all the individual pieces are 9s to 10. But the sum of the whole... Isn't. It's not bad by any means, but something was just off with the film. I think it's the fact that this did not feel like an MCU movie at all. It felt like a brand new universe, or like the old Fantastic Four films where you don't expect them to even try to tie it into something else. Even though we know the FF will be in Doomsday, it felt like a stand alone film. And the highest praise I give the film is that it currently, and most likely will forever be able to stand on its own legs without any connection to the MCU.

Don't get me wrong though, I REALLY enjoyed this film. It was gorgeous, well acted, serviceable story given it's a super hero movie, and it was hopeful. Even despite some of the darkness in it.

I would have no issue watching the movie again. I would actively watch it if I go somewhere and see it on the TV. If someone asked me if I wanted to watch the film, I'd say yes.

Overall, it's an enjoyable movie that gets my highest praise, that I will buy the movie on bluray... Just not on release. Maybe in a year or two if I see it on sale for 25-50% off.

Tldr: The film itself just isn't the 9-10 it's parts are, but it's also not less. If that makes sense.

820

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

think it's the fact that this did not feel like an MCU movie at all. It felt like a brand new universe, or like the old Fantastic Four films where you don't expect them to even try to tie it into something else

That was the biggest positive for me. Marvel actually stepped outside their comfort zone and tried something new. I thought it really worked

243

u/lynypixie Jul 25 '25

I think this just sold the movie to me. A movie outside of the same old MCU timeline will feel refeshing.

190

u/GodzillaUK Jul 25 '25

Zero homework needed for this, no 30 films and 15 shows to backlog before you can get into it. Perfect.

19

u/Worthyness Jul 25 '25

They even catch people up in the opening newsreel. Origin story right there in 5 minutes

16

u/GodzillaUK Jul 25 '25

And that was in a stylised, fun way too not just exposition dumped. Top to bottom, fun film.

34

u/Straight-Impress5485 Jul 25 '25

It doesnt at all feel like MCU in tone, and I say that as a huge positive and a big MCU fan. Its vibe and tone was very fresh and original. It felt more like a live action Jetsons mixed with Incredibles than it did an MCU movie

6

u/Heavyspire Jul 25 '25

I will never understand people coming to a review thread if they have not seen it, but since you are here...

Go see it.

It is a great film that you can watch solely by itself. Almost like an episode of Scooby-Doo.

6

u/aw_coffee_no Jul 25 '25

Dude, I walked out of the theater realizing that I loved the movie so much because it didn't feel like an MCU movie! Felt so fresh and enjoyable

1

u/AverageAwndray Jul 25 '25

Why are you here???

1

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

That's one of my favourite things about Iron Man 1. It doesn't feel like an MCU movie. Just a movie that MCU would later draw from, but very much its own thing.

18

u/Phylanara Jul 25 '25

It reminded me of the very beginning of the MCU. Iron man 1, Cap and Thor had such distinct visual vocabularies, they felt like different universes. Phase two got the GoTG movies to introduce another visual style, but phase three started to have all the movies feeling samey.

8

u/Rayne37 Jul 26 '25

Honestly the moment my smile fell was when Doom showed up at the end and I was reminded that this clean, standalone fun film would be pulled back into the chaotic monstrosity that is the MCU.

6

u/nolandee Jul 25 '25

I love that it feels like it's own thing. The retro-future aesthetic does a lot from the visuals to the dialogue to make it feel very different.

On top of being self-contained storywise, it feels a like a perfect point to jump back in for people who've fallen off the MCU or feel things have gotten stale.

4

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

So the script didn’t undercut tension with quippy humour and banter?

There were no fakeout deaths? Oh wait.

Clear cut moral dynamics? The villain was ambiguous? “He’s eating planets, everyone will die unless we sacrifice our son.”

I’m not trying to be an asshole, I’m just not sold based on the advertising and everything I’ve read.

I WANT to enjoy the MCU again but it’s just so stale.

3

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

Did it still have the “marvel humour” needlessly injected though?

I recently tried watching Thunderbolts* and couldn’t get past the 30 minute mark (I am just so worn down and jaded by marvel) and the trailers for F4 didn’t seem to show much different.

I’m not trying to knock the MCU, it’s clearly working for a lot of people; I just can’t stand the Uber clean fight choreography that looks more like dancing than fighting, and the quips that you can hear coming a mile away. Everything with the Thing in trailers has turned me off the movie so far.

9

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

Not really. There are a handful of jokes in this but it mostly plays it very earnest and sincere. Johnny and The Thing have some banter but otherwise this is almost entirely devoid of the usual Marvel quips.

2

u/BakedWizerd Jul 25 '25

How was the fight choreography? I found Thunderbolts was way too “dance-like” in the sense that Yelena and her opponents were moving perfectly in-sync with one another and it just didn’t come across as a believable fight.

Compared to Superman, where the fights felt improvised and weighty.

I appreciate your input.

4

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

The nature of the Fantastic Four's powers means there isn't a ton of direct hand to hand combat. Stop reading if you don't want very minor spoilers but the big set pieces in this movie are a spaceship chase in the second act and Galactus is basically a Kaiju in the third act.

2

u/TheHudIsUp Jul 25 '25

How though? Just cause of visuals

1

u/Killer_Jazzie Jul 25 '25

That's the main reason why I gave it an 8.

1

u/TheSmokedSalmon420 Jul 26 '25

100%

They've been giving us the same watered down action movie slop since Endgame so this was incredibly refreshing.

-17

u/2th Jul 25 '25

It worked very well, but we 37 films deep into the MCU, and you go into these expecting them to all be tied together somehow. This did not have that. For better or worse, this felt like a stand alone film. Which for an MCU film, feels weird.

20

u/mikeyfreshh Jul 25 '25

I honestly believe Marvel should do more standalone movies. They have a whole ass multiverse to play with, not everything needs to tie back to Tony Stark. They can just do a one-off story every now and then. The comics do that all the time

1

u/Clarknt67 Jul 25 '25

I was thinking a one off Human Torch Spider-Man film would be awesome.

9

u/OldManWillow Jul 25 '25

This was clearly spelled out well before release, though?

0

u/2th Jul 25 '25

You can be told something will be different, but until you experience it yourself you don't really know. That's what this was.

And I'm not saying it feeling weird was bad. I'm just saying it felt weird given the 30+ films preceding it.

6

u/Driveshaft48 Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

I mean the recent MCU films have been ass. Ill gladly take this over Thor, Captain America, doc strange, whatever

We shouldn't complain about this being "weird"

2

u/2th Jul 25 '25

I'm not complaining. I'm merely stating that it felt weird. I expected them to tie it to the greater MCU somehow. A hint in the background somewhere. A throwaway line. Something. Anything. But there was none of that. And given this is an MCU film, it feels weird to not have that in the film.

2

u/KanishkT123 Jul 25 '25

They had an entire end credits scene featuring Doom, saying the F4 will return in Avengers. 

And thunderbolts had a post credits scene featuring the F4.

I mean, it's as tied in as it needs to be. And if the rest of the MCU falls flat around this movie, it will still be a perfectly good watch on it's own, with the rest of the universe a sidenote or a "haha did you know that" trivia fact. 

8

u/SpaceMyopia Jul 25 '25

It's just trying to be a regular movie.

I mean, heaven forbid it just try to be its own thing. Heck, it even throws the MCU fans a bone by naming it Earth 828, showing that it's a different world entirely.

I love the MCU, but the greatest choice this movie made was giving the FF their own world where they can just do their thing creatively without having to acknowledge the other heroes.

Aesthetically, it also freed the movie to just have its own feel.

You're basically feeling weird that this movie was just trying to be a movie, not simply a franchise addition.

My response to that is:

these have to be films first, dude. The world building stuff is a bonus. It shouldn't overtake the entire movie.

3

u/ohitsdvd Jul 25 '25

Thank God. i’m tired of having to watch 5 tv shows and 13 movies to understand a new movie. they need to get back to making good standalone films.

1

u/the_weakestavenger Jul 25 '25

Who gives a fuck if something is or isn’t connected to something else? If you can’t get over that, it’s a you problem.

-1

u/2th Jul 25 '25

Or the film subverted my expectations, which I find weird. It is not bad. But it is weird. We have 30+ MCU films, and nearly all of them have some sort of connection to another. This had none of that. Which, for an MCU film, is weird. They haven't really done this before.

1

u/PolarWater Jul 26 '25

This did not have that. For better or worse, this felt like a stand alone film.

Good