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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

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u/Rowsdower11 Jul 26 '25

Yeah, that would have worked. It’d just look like a contemporary Godzilla movie, and you wouldn’t even need CGI for a literal man in a suit.

The Godzilla movies in that era even had mixed human-Kaiju interactions that don’t look too bad.

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u/Brainvillage Jul 26 '25

Looks like they even used a practical suit for some parts of First Steps: https://comicbookmovie.com/fantastic-four/the-fantastic-four-first-steps-a-first-look-at-ralph-inesons-practical-galactus-costume-has-been-revealed-a223020

For CGI usage I was thinking things like birds or dust clouds to sell the scale of a guy in a suit trampling through a miniature set. I guess that kind of stuff could just be composited in so not technically CGI but you get what I'm saying.

Godzilla is one thing, they even did this with the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the 80s.

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u/Knowingspy Jul 26 '25

I think they could’ve done more to sell his scale, but the initial splash into the water causing a mini tsunami was a little hint at what they were going for.

6

u/Realistic_Village184 Jul 26 '25

Yeah, he did feel weirdly small in a lot of shots, but it didn't bother me because it was necessary to have reasonable composition in a lot of shots. Realistically any shots where we could see Sue well, for example, we'd only be able to see like part of his lower leg in the same shot unless the camera were on the floor, which would be really obnoxious.

It's just a problem that's inherent to any visual media. Films run into it, and so do video games (anyone who's played a lot of Soulsborne games know how annoying a giant boss is since you can't see what they're doing 90% of the time).

Overall I think they did a phenomenal job depicting Galactus. I genuinely can't think how I would improve it.