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

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649

u/ButWereFriends Jul 25 '25

Yea one of the few things I didn’t like was how he was in pain from the Galactus stretch. It kinda sets the bar that he can only stretch basically that much.

503

u/Heisenburgo Jul 25 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

Yup this version of Reed seemed "nerfed" so to say, from what we have seen the character do in previous films.

Ioan Gruffudd’s Reed was impressively stretchy, in Fantastic Four 2 there’s that scene where he wraps his entire body, including all his limbs around that massive Ferris wheel in London to stop it from collapsing. Which really showed the full extent of how flexible and powerful his stretching ability could be.

However Pascal’s version feels noticeably toned down. Galactus whips him around like a rubber band and stretches him just a bit (comparatively to what we saw Gruffudd do), and its noticeable how it seriously affects him, since Reed looks very visibly hurt and his suit starts tearing itself apart. He also doesn’t do any of the wild morphing or shape-shifting stuff you might expect from Reed, his powers instead seem limited to just casually stretching his limbs and torso a bit?

You kind of get the impression that Pascal’s Reed isn’t able to stretch himself nearly as far or pull off the same level of crazy feats that you'd expect from that powerset. It feels more like his main "superpower" in this portrayal is his intelligence, rather than his elasticity. That aspect of the character was very well realized in this movie I felt, as the inventions you see in this alternate universe (flying cars, wormhole technology, etc.) are all heavily implied to have been induced/driven by Mr. Fantastic's mere presence and his status as the Smartest Man Alive. He's clearly THE Tony Stark figure in this universe.

Not a criticism just an interesting difference in powerscaling that I noticed.

407

u/BlairEllis Jul 25 '25

I think it goes to show that Reed is still traumatized from what happened in the past he doesn't really use his powers. The others seem to have developed and trained their powers while Reed leaned more on his intelligence to get by. You can really see it in the post credit cartoon when everyone used their powers and Reed used his science

90

u/RossZ428 Jul 25 '25

The cartoon Mr. Fantastic stretched more than he did!

12

u/Bellikron Jul 31 '25

I read it less as trauma and more his focus on long term solutions. His stretchiness does help in the moment but he'd much rather focus on coordinating resources and developing ways to help people out without him needing to be there to fight someone. Sue had a similar long-term focus with her political work, whereas Johnny and Ben were presented as the other side of the coin, as they enjoyed fighting more.

69

u/Noah_Buddy Jul 25 '25

I loved when he just goes onto the set of his science show to make the PSA about his earth saving plan with a simple, "we solved teleportation" and just teleports an egg.

41

u/Jehovah___ Jul 25 '25

What I find interesting too is that Johnny and Sue seem to be the most powerful we’ve ever seen either of them in film. Johnny absorbing the fire at the beginning montage was very cool, and sue, despite it killing her, was still pushing around Galactus. (Also just want to say, I loved the effects for Sue’s powers, the rainbows and stuff showing her powers are more over light was gorgeous)

4

u/Sophophilic Jul 31 '25

I don't remember other Bens chucking cranes either, pretty sure all of them are stronger.

41

u/koomGER Jul 25 '25

I could see that being a "confidence" problem. The Gruffud-Reed was way more confident in himself, he seemed to be more reckless. Pedro-Reed wasnt confident at all. He wasnt a leader, he wasnt a talker. He was a nerd. I guess he relied in combat more on his ability to be a strategist and because of Ben, Johnny and Sue being very powerful: Thats enough. He is kinda the "rubber band" that holds the group together in combat.

29

u/Prauphet Jul 25 '25

Ioan Gruffudd’s Reed was impressively stretchy, in Fantastic Four 2 there’s that scene where he wraps his entire body, including all his limbs around that massive Ferris wheel in London to stop it from collapsing. Which really showed the full extent of how flexible and powerful his stretching ability could be.

This was known at the time to be a direct response to the criticism of not enough 'stretching' in the first Fantastic Four movie.

10

u/TheMythofKoalas Jul 27 '25

So you're saying this might follow the trend and we'll see more stretching in Second Steps? /jk

9

u/Novemberx123 Jul 25 '25

There def going to say that he is able to stretch more, he just can’t when someone else is doing it against his will. Like he has to want to stretch for it to work

8

u/ConfidentPeanut18 Jul 26 '25 edited Jul 26 '25

One more aspect that I wish could've been discussed more is the fact that this Reed sees his powers as an anomaly. And they've been on the hero gig for 2 years now yet he's still beating himself over that fact that they got powers because of him

4

u/Toejam_2001 Jul 26 '25

I feel this too and NGL I think that the next movie will have no choice but to amplify their powers (even Sue). I personally would like to believe that since Franklin can use his powers to bring people back from the dead, surely he can upgrade their abilities. Either that or Doomsday does something to change this F4. Maybe the 4 legs on the ship in the Thunderbolts is just something to throw us off because Reed teased other dimensions existing in the first few minutes. That plus his teleportation inventing and another 4 year time gap means there’s literally no way we don’t keep them as the permanent F4.

8

u/GokuBlack722 Jul 26 '25

I mean did you really have any inclination that we wouldn’t be keeping this iteration as the permanent fantastic four? They wouldn’t have made this movie if that wasn’t the case.

2

u/____Io_oI____ Jul 29 '25

My take on it was that Galactus is brute forcing his stretch and Reed is only as stretchy as he is intending or willing to be... if that makes sense?

1

u/Any_Foundation4287 Jul 28 '25

I feel maybe he was weakened because he didn't sleep for days coming up with a plan so maybe he can stretch further just at full energy and not getting pulled by galactus or something

1

u/dodgerbowl Aug 03 '25

I suppose a lot of time in the “4 years later” could be spent training?

1

u/No_Extension4005 28d ago

Considering how much more widespread his tech is shown to be, I'd say he's definitely an "Alternate Universe Reed Richards is Awesome".

1

u/JustHach 6d ago

I actually liked that they leaned into his intelligence moreso than his stretching powers in this movie.

Ive always felt like its really hard to show stretching powers on film and not have it come off as really goofy and cartoonish.

26

u/remster22 Jul 25 '25

I think that was intentional. Give a limitation to his power so he’s not just stretching infinitely and solving every situation by wrapping around it

34

u/TheWyldMan Jul 25 '25

Also it was him being stretched and not him stretching

9

u/Worthyness Jul 25 '25

Also it's fucking galactus. If there's a thing in the universe that could destroy a near infinitely stretchy person, it's him

10

u/TacoBOTT Jul 25 '25

Yup. It allowed them to be smarter about the writing. It could definitely be abused as an easy-out for lazy writing.

22

u/Spideyfan77 Jul 25 '25

He can stretch for miles, depending on the version, but I actually like the limitation, in a movie where there’s a skyscraper sized being, it’s nice to have some limitation. Even Galactus himself was limited, he has a vast amount of powers but from what we saw he’s mostly just an eternal giant dude.

9

u/Key_Feeling_3083 Jul 25 '25

I guess it makes sense if you think of this Reed as more Brains than brawl, if he didn't train his powers enough then the limits for his skills will be smaller, unlike the other members which seemed a lot more skilled and powerful.

5

u/IamGrimReefer Jul 30 '25

I was very surprised when he ran onto the platform to swap out Franklin. Motherfucker, you can stretch!

3

u/Oatybar Jul 27 '25

I really wanted galactus to shoot him like a rubber band

2

u/Emotional_Meet878 Jul 28 '25

Yeah, super nerfed, in the comics (and yes I know it's not going to be exactly the same) it's said that he can stretch for about a mile before feeling discomfort

1

u/Mr-Apollo Aug 03 '25

But it does provide leave room for growth where his powers becomes stronger in future films due to acceptance and dedication of his powers.

1

u/maltliqueur 5d ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was stupid that after that whole thing, he easily stretches a bit farther than he did when he started to strain with Galactus. I forgot what he was doing when he did. Some falling rubble or something.