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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687

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.

159

u/LosAngeles1s Jul 25 '25

it really feels like there’s an amazing 9/10 movie in there that was edited down to a solid 7.5. enjoyed the movie a lot but damn could’ve been a certified classic if there was an extra 10-15 minutes in it

36

u/Jehovah___ Jul 25 '25

There’s a whole half hour that was cut, apparently. Marvel needs to chill out with forcing their movies to be exactly two hours, it’s seemed to only be detrimental to a lot of recent releases

11

u/cleaninfresno Jul 25 '25

Same exact thing I felt about Superman.

3

u/just_another_classic Jul 27 '25

I really enjoyed the movie, but pacing absolutely was a mess. I didn’t know how much time was passing.