Movie Review: Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) directed by Matt Shakman

It's been four years since Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (now Mrs. Richards, played by Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) took their fateful trip to outer space. They were exposed to a cosmic radiation storm that transformed them into super-powered beings. They became the heroic team the Fantastic Four and are the beloved heroes of Earth 828 (a different -verse in the multi-verse that includes the main Marvel timeline). Their lives get upended by two things. First, Sue becomes pregnant after two years of trying to conceive. The news is received with joy by pretty much everybody though a lot of changes are about to happen. Reed, being the egg-headed scientist, is worried about their child having powers or defects, but every test he invents shows no anomalies. They hope for a normal, healthy boy as they reconfigure the Baxter Building with a nursery and other child-friendly features.

The second upending event is the arrival of Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner), the herald of Galactus (Ralph Inneson), the World Devourer, who is going to devour Earth next. She tells the Earth people to prepare for their end. Naturally, everyone turns to their heroes, the Fantastic Four, to find out how they will stop this. Reed bumps up a rocket launch they were planning. After scanning for Shalla-Bal's energy signature across the galaxy, he susses out where Galactus probably is. By this point, Sue is very pregnant but goes on the trip anyway. They fly to Galactus's ship and confront him. Galactus scans them and makes them a deal--he will spare the Earth if they give the unborn child to him. The child has the power cosmic inside of him and could take on the curse of Galactus, the hunger that forces him to devour planets. Reed and Sue refuse and the four flee back to Earth. When they announce that they have not defeated Galactus and that he wants their son Franklin to spare the Earth, things get a lot more complicated.

This movie is the introduction of the Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. An alternate Reed Richards (John Krasinski) briefly showed up in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. The 828 Reed is in his own reality literally (though often he gets too much in his own head and is "in his own reality" metaphorically too). The world looks like 1950s America with the clothing styles and the television programing, though presumably Reed's brilliance has introduced a lot of technological innovations. The look is nice, a refreshing change like X-Men First Class was for that series. The plot is interesting and moves along at a good pace. The characters are well acted and developed, with Galactus being minimalistically portrayed. He has only two motivations and acts that way. His character is so over-the-top, it seems like a good decision to keep him as more of a force of nature than a complicated person. The movie catches the comic-book feel of the FF and has plenty of references to famous bits in their early days. The family dynamic, with its love and frustration and teasing and understanding, is spot on. It's an enjoyable popcorn summer film that sets up the characters to bleed over into the main Marvel universe.

Recommended, highly for comic book fans.