Review: ‘The Fantastic Four: First Steps’ is a Spectacular and Heartfelt Adventure Befitting of Marvel’s First Family

July 23, 2025Ben MK

It takes a lot to impress moviegoers these days. And while films like The Eternals, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and The Marvels would have surely done blockbuster box office 17 years ago, in today's cinematic climate, wowing audiences suffering from superhero fatigue requires more than fancy costumes and cutting-edge visual effects. Whether it's the empty promises teased by fan-serving post-credit scenes or multiverse-centric narratives that have outworn their welcome, viewers demand sincerity, as well as spectacle. And with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, director Matt Shakman is aiming to deliver both, in this highly anticipated kick-off to Phase Six of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The place is Earth-828, and it's been four years since Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife, Susan Storm (Vanessa Kirby), his brother-in-law, Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and his best friend, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), became household names. Known as the Fantastic Four, this quartet of astronauts were forever transformed after being exposed to cosmic radiation during their first foray into space, gaining them extraordinary powers such as the ability to stretch, become invisible, control fire, and be virtually impervious. But although they've since protected the Big Apple from supervillain threats like Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), Thinker and Red Ghost, they're about to face the greatest challenge of their lives so far — becoming parents. With Reed and Sue expecting their first child and Johnny and Ben soon to be uncles, it's an impending event that has the entire city abuzz. Nowhere, however, is the anticipation more palpable than at the Fantastic Four's towering headquarters, the Baxter Building, where preparations are underway for the arrival of the team's newest addition.

It's a busy and stressful time that has Reed even enlisting his trusty robot sidekick, H.E.R.B.I.E. (Matthew Wood), to help babyproof their home, and enlisting the New York City police to try and neutralize the city's criminal element, all to ensure that their child is born into as safe a world as possible. But when the Earth is paid an ominous visit by Shalla-Bal (Julia Garner), the shiny, silver herald of the gigantic, planet-devouring conqueror known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), it casts severe doubt on whether there will even be a planet left for Reed and Sue's baby to call home. Informing the world's bewildered population that her master will soon be arriving to destroy the Earth, Shalla-Bal gives the Fantastic Four little choice but to embark on a journey beyond the known universe to find Galactus, and to attempt to convince him to spare the planet. When that fails, however, it's up to our heroic foursome to come up with a bolder, more dangerous plan — one that involves putting not only their lives at risk, but the life of the one person on Earth they would sacrifice it all to protect.

Written by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson and Jeff Kaplan, the result plays like a mash-up of The Incredibles and Captain America: The First Avenger, bringing Marvel's First Family to the big screen in spectacular fashion completely befitting of what Stan Lee and Jack Kirby envisioned when they created these iconic superheroes in 1961. For all its retro-futuristic visuals, trademark MCU humor, and colorful, cosmic-themed action, however, what stands out the most about The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the movie's laser-eyed focus on family, especially its themes about parental anxiety, and how it's able to expand these deeply woven and relatable themes into a genuinely heartfelt and thrilling adventure that unfolds, literally, on a galactic scale.

It all makes for a promising start to this newest chapter of the MCU. Yet, while it's a reassuring sentiment that's sure to cause the millions of die-hard Marvel fans out there to breathe a collective sigh of relief, it's still too early to know how The Fantastic Four: First Steps will pay off when it comes to their upcoming inclusion in Avengers: Doomsday. Either way, this is one crowd-pleasing superhero adventure that audiences shouldn't skip out on. For just as their name implies, the future of the MCU is looking quite fantastic.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps releases July 25th, 2025 from Walt Disney Studios. The film has an MPAA rating of PG-13 for action/violence and some language. Its runtime is 1 hr. 55 min.