Fantastic Four: The First Steps (2025), directed by Matt Shakman, marks the return of Stan Lee’s first family of superheroes to the big screen after 10 years. The franchise has been rebooted with this film, and the four will go on to make an appearance in upcoming projects in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Avengers: Doomsday (2026).
The film focuses on the Fantastic Four, a group of astronauts/scientists turned superheroes who protect Earth 828 from any dangers. The film is set in the 1960s, four years after the group has begun their superheroic endeavours and depicts their battle against Galactis, a space god cursed with never-ending hunger that urges him to devour planets whole, whose latest target is Earth 828, the home of our superheroes. The film follows the Fantastic Four as they navigate how to defeat Galactus and save their people.
Director Matt Shakman’s first venture with Marvel, WandaVision was majorly successful with its focus on the workings of Wanda’s powers as she deals with immense grief over the loss of her partner Jarvis and her questionable methods to preserve her sanctity.
With Fantastic Four: The First Steps, Shakman has extracted some good performances from Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards and Vanessa Kirby as Susan Storm as superheroes tackling their new roles as parents in a now endangered planet, yet hasn’t done justice to the almost two hour runtime with enough payoff in its plot, action and character development.
The film can be commended for its production design done by Kasra Farahani and costume design, done by Alexandra Byrne. These elements immediately bring the viewers to the 1960s. The retro style weaved in through set design, costume, use of props and even the opening credits to the film take viewers back to the older superhero era with the likes of the animated Spiderman series and the Superman films. Though the family is extremely well-equipped technologically and is seen conducting complicated tests and experiments, the film does well with keeping them to the era, with robots operating on cassettes and a flying car that is reminiscent of models from the 60s.
The story itself was simple and easy to follow for those who are unfamiliar with this franchise with its classic approach of a villain threatening life on earth causing the superheroes to take charge and defeat them. There was nothing unique that one could take away from the film. Compared to the Superman film that was also recently released, which showcased better tension, emotion, comic relief and a dynamic, well-developed villain, Fantastic Four disappoints slightly with its predictable plot and weak character-building for both the superheroes and the villain and making audiences care about the story in general. The viewers are left curious on what caused Galactus to become this all-destroying being and searching for any Marvel’s signature comedic relief during action sequences. With both films having close to the same run time, Superman accomplishes much more in its plot and action, and does justice to its characters’ emotional development across the story, while Fantastic Four: The First Steps was genuinely dragging on, even without having any significant subplots to carry out.
The film also suffers due to its poor CGI, something apparent in many of the films produced by Marvel Studios as of late, such as Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness and SheHulk. This is especially apparent in the portrayal of Sue Storm and Reed Richard’s baby, where as the child turned its head, one could see his features morphing slightly as it laughed or babbled, which was distracting.
In all, Fantastic Four: The First Steps is a fairly enjoyable film in terms of its performances, production design and the excitement of seeing these superheroes return to the big screen in the MCU, however, it disappoints with its pacing, its repetitive and weak plot, and distracting use of CGI.