The Fantastic Four: First Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel's First Family is forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, while defending Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer.
Alex | Pop Culture Brain reviewedJuly 24, 2025
What does Fantastic Four mean for the future of Marvel?
Who cares, was it a good movie?
I saw The Fantastic Four First Steps
so here’s the good and the bad without spoilers
Here’s the headline: This movie felt like old school Marvel - phase one Marvel
When the studio introduced underserved characters,
built interesting worlds around them.
And told compelling stories that weren’t bogged down by the future or the past
Despite the fact that the Fantastic Four have appeared on film many times before
They’re presented here with novelty, heart, and reverence,
a giant galactus step in the right direction
And that started with the incredible production design
The movie’s retro futuristic style was worth the price of admission alone
Hands in hand with that was the rich and textured world building
Other Marvel movies have the advantage of a world that already exists
But here they had to start from the ground up
and it felt refreshing, interesting, and lived in
Likewise, I loved the unabashed science fiction, cosmic tone
The movie didn’t shy away from comic book weirdness, it embraced it to its advantage
But they didn’t forget to make the movie be about something
And the themes of family, doing good, and citizens standing up for each other really resonated
“We don’t trade lives” definitely echoed in my head throughout
Michael Giacchino’s score was excellent, epic, and intricate
The cast had great chemistry
With Pedro Pascal being the highlight for me He really popped
Also shout out Julia Garner who was menacing and emotionally complex
behind a literally cold steel character
And props to the filmmakers taking some risks
and doing some things that we've never seen in a Marvel movie before
From rebooting the characters without an origin story to introducing a whole different world
The level of difficulty here was high and they cleared it no problem
As for the bad, the second act took place entirely in CGI space world
Which to me was less interesting and a bit messy compared to the Earth bound stuff
In general, the movie had a lot of great CGI, though a few wonky moments took me out of it
And I was distracted whenever Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn's accents would slip
These days it seems everything is riding on every new Marvel movie
Is Marvel good is Marvel bad is Marvel back is Marvel cooked
And I’m getting tired of these sweeping generalizations
The only generalization I can make here is I think this is a great movie
and I had a great time watching it