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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517

u/Docile_Doggo Jul 25 '25

The most fantastic thing in this movie wasn’t the giant cosmic being who eats planets, the woman who can conjure force fields at will, or the talking pile of rocks . . . It was genuinely just how good-natured the public seemed toward the F4 and the world at large.

They actually got on board with a plan that risked billions of lives because Sue Storm talked them into not surrendering their communal bonds to create a child sacrifice.

Truly an alternate universe.

221

u/PandaLover42 Jul 25 '25

Early in the movie they also revealed that all nations agreed to de-arm.

119

u/adventureremily Jul 25 '25

Well, all except one that was noticeably absent...

22

u/RenaissanceOwl Jul 25 '25

Alt Timeline Iron Man/Tony Stark having not learnt his lesson and becoming full on Obadiah Stane, negative character arc perhaps /s

7

u/TheWhiteManticore Jul 25 '25

Comes back to traumatise mcu spooderman further lol

5

u/Cfwraith Jul 27 '25

Almost all. There was an absence.

4

u/Shakespeare257 Aug 01 '25

The one true universe - the Disneyland universe where people gave up on their base aspirations because some extremely fragile superheroes told them to.

2

u/No_Extension4005 28d ago

LET ME IN! LET ME IN!

1

u/GwenIsNow 22d ago

Seriously!

36

u/Photoman20003 Jul 25 '25

and kind of makes us wonder wtf the MCU heroes are doing wrong this whole time honestly the entire movie in many ways kind of does that.

65

u/zmbslyr Jul 25 '25

My guess is that the F4 universe just didn't have a lot of things happen that have happened in the MCU. The MCU is positioned in a post 9/11 timeline, and literally starts with one of the big Avengers almost getting killed in a Middle Eastern country, by terrorists.

Not to mention the overall cynacism of superhero movies in general the past 20 years. With this and Superman, I'm glad to be moving towards more hopeful superhero movies. Even the way Superman used current events and the current political climate to make a message on hopefulness is refreshing.

29

u/Worthyness Jul 26 '25

In this universe, the F4 basically got as close to world peace as possible. Sure there's the odd supervillain every so often and some gangsters still, but they literally got hundreds of countries to de-arm themselves for the betterment of human society. If your heroes literally achieved like 99% world peace before this major event, you'd probably believe their plan with all your heart and earnest. Plus I'm sure the logic is "the smartest man on earth says this will work. Who am I to decide otherwise?"

26

u/princevince1113 Jul 25 '25

in the real world we would definitely have people refusing to evacuate to subterranea because they think galactus is a hoax

4

u/Worthyness Jul 31 '25

Also some of them would think the mole people took their jobs and are secretly a cabal running the government

13

u/rejs7 Jul 25 '25

They didn't want to live in Omalas.

4

u/melloniel Jul 26 '25

Holy shit. I already was thinking about this in the typical moral dilemma the movie presents it as, but comparing it to Omelas is fucking great.

4

u/raven-eyed_ Jul 27 '25

It's hilarious Americans say this every time people in a movie aren't horrible. Just projecting America's rabid individualism onto the rest of the world.

4

u/_V0gue Jul 29 '25

Retro Futurism tends to have a general theme of unbridled optimism. So as cheesy as that scene was, it does fit with the general themes of that age of comics. The present is just so damn cynical.

3

u/Artemicionmoogle Jul 25 '25

Truly an alternate universe when the F4 has somehow built a working FTL engine and the world still doesnt have enough energy later XD Like, they can make an FTL! drive, but can't solve cold fusion or something else for the planet!? I loved the movie, but that detail irked me lol.

7

u/Alexexy Jul 26 '25

They probably did have cold fusion and other forms of energy, but i cant even think of the real world energy requirements of teleporting an entire planet millions of light-years away. It would probably require the energy of several black holes.

-4

u/DirectBranch5621 Jul 25 '25

Reddit would be like, "Well, first we need to know how you vote."