The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) – Film Review
Director: Matt Shakman
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn
Certificate: 12A
By Roger Crow
There have been a few attempts to bring Marvel’s gifted family to the big screen. The first was made in 2004 just to keep the rights, but was apparently never meant to see the light of day. The second in 2005 was a hit-and-miss offering which boasted a terrific turn from Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, but treated sister Sue (Jessica Alba) as a one-dimensional sex object.
That spawned a sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer, which did boast the big-screen debut of the eponymous intergalactic herald of Galactus, one of THE greatest comic book villains in history, but turned out to be a massive cop-out when it sort of manifested. It didn’t help that many of the gags were rubbish. Then there was 2015’s take on the saga, with director Josh Trank making a grittier version of the well-worn story.
Marvel were bound to try and reboot the story one day, and the mission was simple: this time, get it right. And with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, they finally have.
Set in a retro-futuristic world of Earth, director Matt (Wandavision) Shakman does a great job of juggling the comedy, drama, effects and epic scale the movie required.
“Emotional heft”
Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby and Joseph Quinn have that spark needed to make the family dynamic work, while Ebon Moss-Bachrach has a thankless task as Ben Grimm, aka orange rock monster The Thing. A good performance under all that make-up, or CGI, or both.
However, it’s Julia Garner who almost steals the show as Shalla-Bal, the mesmerising female Silver Surfer, and The Office veteran Ralph Ineson as Galactus. When I first heard he’d been hired, I’d expected it was just a vocal role, but no. That’s Ralph, the Leeds-born thespian with one of the greatest voices in screen history, consuming worlds, and threatening to destroy Earth.
While the first half plays like a live-action Incredibles, a film series obviously inspired by The FF, the second is all emotional heft and drama as the Richards/Storm/Grimm clan try to save Earth, and their new arrival Franklin, from the towering planet-chomping Galactus.
A good chunk of the first act was ruined by the guy next to me who drank two enormous sodas, slurped his way through the ice, and munched a massive box of popcorn so loud I thought Galactus himself had taken up residence in the cinema. Inbetween his multiple trips to the loo and a Paddington hard stare from me, things settled down, and I could finally enjoy the movie I had waited so long to see.
“Beating heart”
Remarkably the third act is moving. Very moving. An emotion I hadn’t felt with any Fantastic Four movie ever, probably because I hadn’t cared about any of the characters before, but Vanessa Kirby does such a good job as Sue Storm/Richards, the emotional weight needed to make the movie work is present and correct. You can spend millions on effects, but if there’s no beating heart, or sucker punch moments, what’s the point?
Yes, the movie will drop on Disney Plus in a few weeks, and yes I will watch it again, and this time enjoy it more without the annoying extra soundtrack, but as ever, it’s worth checking this out on the big screen. And stay tuned for that inevitable credits teaser which foreshadows next summer’s Avengers Doomsday.
Adopted Yorkshireman Roger Crow developed a passion for film and TV in the 1970s and 1980s. He has been a published film and TV reviewer since the 1990s; a world travel and restaurant critic since the noughties, and for the past decade has assessed the pros and cons of live gigs and theatre productions around the UK. His ideal day would involve reviewing a performance of Bat Out of Hell, followed by a Pad Thai while being serenaded by Texas on a cruise around Europe.
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