Nerdly » ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Review

22nd Jul2025

‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Review

by Matthew Turner

Stars: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Ralph Ineson, Julia Garner, Natasha Lyonne | Written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer | Directed by Matt Shakman

Often referred to as Marvel’s First Family, the Fantastic Four finally make their MCU debut (sort of) with this new adventure, the third iteration of the characters, following their previous appearances in the 2005 and 2015 movies (and the 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer). Directed by Matt Shakman – who clearly impressed Marvel honchos with the TV series WandaVision – the new film is superbly cast, beautifully designed and takes big comic book swings with its story choices.

The film begins on Earth 828 (a nice detail at the end explains the number), an alternate universe that is handily styled like the 1960s, allowing Shakman to lovingly recreate the look of the classic original comics. Like the recent Superman movie, the script chooses to dispense with the Fantastic Four’s origin story, choosing to cover it with a quick series of TV montages, and instead we join the family – stretchy brainbox Reed Richards / Mr Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm / Invisible Girl (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm / the Human Torch and pilot-turned-rock-clad creature Ben Grimm / the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) – four years after their transformation, when they are celebrated as Earth’s beloved protectors.

However, when the arrival of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) heralds the coming of Galactus, a planet-eating celestial being hungering for Earth, the Fantastic Four face their biggest challenge to date. Or maybe their second biggest challenge, since – with terrible timing – Sue is pregnant and about to give birth to their first child.

A big part of getting The Fantastic Four right lies in the casting, ensuring that no one character overshadows the others (as arguably happened in the previous versions), and also that the quartet spark appealing chemistry together. Happily, that’s very much the case here – Pascal makes a terrific Reed, while Kirby makes Sue a much stronger character than we’ve seen before, and Moss-Bacharach and Quinn have likeable back-and-forth banter as Ben and Johnny.

In addition, the decision to gender-swap the Silver Surfer pays off nicely – Julia Garner brings a soulful quality to the character, and comic book fans will be happy with the details of her origin story. Similarly, Ralph Ineson capitalises on his role from The Green Knight and brings immense gravitas to Galactus, making him a formidable foe.

However, it’s fair to say that the real star of the show is the exceptional production design work, both in the Jack Kirby-esque 1960s costume designs and the various details – essentially, the look of the film is the future, as it was imagined in the 1960s. Indeed, it’s like all the sets were originally intended to be used for a live-action version of The Jetsons.

That whole idea is crystallised in the form of H.E.R.B.I.E. – a robot helper character that was originally created for the Fantastic Four cartoon, making his live action appearance here. Thankfully, the film gives him exactly the right amount of screen time and comedy moments, a decision that could easily have gone wrong.

Crucially, The Fantastic Four adheres closely to the tried-and-trusted Marvel formula of superhero action, emotion and character-based humour. However, there are certain tweaks – the humour isn’t quite as laugh-out-loud funny as in other Marvel movies, as the film has a quite serious interplanetary threat hanging over it for the most part.

Similarly, while the action is very solid overall, there’s no stand-out hero moment for three of the characters, and die-hard FF fans may feel a little short-changed in that respect. On that note, none of the Fantastic Four movies have ever really figured out how to have fun with Mr Fantastic’s stretchy powers and the same is true here too. Here’s a hint, Kevin Feighe – pretend he’s ElastiGirl from The Incredibles.

The Fantastic Four is further heightened by a terrific score from Michael Giacchino and colourful comic book cinematography from Jess Hall.

In short, this is an extremely enjoyable Fantastic Four movie that’s worthy of a place in the upper-mid tier of Marvel movies in general. It’s also arguably the best screen representation of The Fantastic Four so far, and the film benefits significantly from the decision to maintain the stylish setting throughout, rather than, say, switching to the standard MCU aesthetic halfway through.