Jonah Naplan   July 25, 2025

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” feels like a big studio’s attempt to resurrect and revitalize a group of characters who seemed to be a lost cause after a cinematic disaster that unfolded roughly ten years ago. In this way, it’s largely a success, thanks to director Matt Shakman (who has explored Marvel terrain before with the Disney+ series “WandaVision”) and his game-for-anything cast whose chemistry is as electric as the Guardians of the Galaxy and the original six Avengers. It’s the first Marvel project in a while that does not require you to have seen hours worth of previous content in order to understand what’s going on—there’s no “homework” involved. The movie is a refreshing stand-alone adventure that clocks in under two hours and feels so breezy that you might wonder if content was cut.

“First Steps” takes place in the 1960s on Earth-828, a planet different from the rest of the MCU timeline. The film’s aesthetic is both retro and futuristic, courtesy of the top-notch production design work of Kasra Farahani. Immediately (and I mean IMMEDIATELY), we’re thrown into the world of Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, aka Pedro Pascal, and his wife Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, aka Vanessa Kirby. The couple have been trying to have a baby, and Sue finally gets pregnant. Her brother Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, aka Joseph Quinn, and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, aka Ebon-Moss Bachrach share the excitement, but soon all are threatened when the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) tears through Earth’s atmosphere with a portentous warning. She’s the messenger and loyal assistant to Galactus (Ralph Ineson), an extra-terrestrial planet-eating giant, whose impending arrival will ensure the world’s destruction. He’s after the super family’s due baby, little Franklin, and wants to sort of transfer his spirit into the body of the child because he sees potential.

But how did we get here? Before the real plot kicks into motion, “First Steps” introduces us to these superheroes and explains how they got their powers, framed by the group’s appearance on a late night talk show hosted by Ted Gilbert (Mark Gatiss), who’s basically Ed Sullivan. A space exploration mission gone awry exposed the team to cosmic radiation, mutating their DNA exponentially. They returned to Earth, um, different, and have been the planet’s protectors ever since. The sudden emergence of Galactus challenges their morals in ways they’ve never been tested before, as they consider and prioritize what’s most important to them. Parents may feel especially seen by “First Steps,” which centers its narrative around the question of how much you’re willing to sacrifice for your children. Would you give up the whole entire world if it came down to it?

Right off the bat, “First Steps” makes it clear which characters it’s most interested in. You can look at it any number of ways. Reed and Sue certainly get the most screentime overall, but Johnny probably gets to show off his powers the most, while Ben is afforded the greatest arc romantically (that being said, his love interest, schoolteacher Rachel Rozman, played by Natasha Lyonne, is criminally underused). There’s really only one time—maybe two—in the entire movie where the whole team is properly suited up, fighting a foe together. It’s highly satisfying when it does happen, of course, but we’re left wondering why the movie tasked with introducing a beloved set of characters into the Marvel Cinematic Universe didn’t give us more scenes like this. It would seem inherently obligatory but, then again, there’s little about “First Steps” that copies anything we might have seen before. Its handling of the heroes’ origins, for one, framing it as a phenomenon from the past seen only in flashback, is a major “first step,” throwing away any preconceived notions we might have of how this story should be told, and tossing us right into the thick of things (it’s assumed that this group has been the “Fantastic Four” for a number of years already when the film opens) from the very beginning. It’s interesting how the title of this movie also acts as a metaphor for the bold creative decisions of Shakman and company.

“First Steps” is, first and foremost, an ensemble piece, anchored largely by Pascal who’s been having his biggest year yet between this, the hugely popular “The Last of Us” TV series, and new movies by Celine Song (“Materialists”) and Ari Aster (“Eddington”). Pascal’s rising movie-stardom is the result of his unending charisma and theatrical range. His ability to play to the entire spectrum of strong, dedicated men who are always on the straight and narrow is impressive, and he continues that streak here. Though Reed Richards gets few opportunities to truly become the stretchy “Mr. Fantastic” in the movie, he guides the whole team as a needed voice of logic and reason. Everybody else is similarly excellent, and embodies their characters in a way that should satisfy fans who value comic accuracy. Bachrach is worth noting as a character caked in CGI but who still feels touchingly human underneath all the artifice.

Now let’s have a little talk about this movie’s runtime. “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is 115 minutes long, including credits and two extra scenes. That’s ten minutes shorter than “Thunderbolts*” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” about forty minutes shorter than “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” and “Eternals,” and fifty minutes shorter than “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” not to mention any of the DC extended or immediate universe movies that it beats, too. It’s refreshing to see a movie like this get all of its points across in under two hours, but it’s just so brisk that you might wonder if a longer cut of the film (which could theoretically have existed at some point or another but got edited down) would have been more effective in developing these characters and allowed them more space to explore their powers and play around with each other. So many of the film’s great qualities are allowed to shine because the whole thing does not overstay its welcome in the first place.

Unlike so many other contemporary comic book movies, including, in my unpopular opinion, the recent “Superman,” this is a film that’s consistent in visual style from beginning to end without sacrificing the story or losing sight of its characters. The aesthetic fusion is charming and, often in the big action sequences, awe-inspiring, thanks to cinematographer Jess Hall, whose knack for grandiose compositions would make this movie look outstanding in IMAX or any other premium format. It’s not difficult to get wrapped up in the fantastical elements of this story because Shakman establishes this lived-in world so well and because the screenplay by Eric Pearson, Ian Springer, Jeff Kaplan, and Josh Friedman has enough love for these characters that we can’t help but love them, too.

“First Steps” is endearing in a way a lot of these sludgy, dimly-lit blockbusters are not. It hums with life from the first frame to the last, and reminded me of a time when the “franchise” had not fully developed yet, and comic book movies were more concerned with being individual pieces of entertainment than a part of a larger timeline. And sure, there’s always something coming next (stick around for the mid-credits scene for a tease at what it is), but “First Steps” is most fascinated by the present. Amidst the current landscape of comic book set-ups, sequels, and reiterations, that’s pretty fantastic.

Now playing in theaters.