{"id":48851,"date":"2025-07-25T12:53:41","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T16:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48851"},"modified":"2025-07-25T14:12:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:12:37","slug":"the-fantastic-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/25\/the-fantastic-four\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) [Comic Book Month 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Fantastic Four, Marvel\u2019s First Family, deal with new additions: baby Franklin and world-eater Galactus and his herald in the radiantly fun The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s wonderful to have two superhero films in the past few weeks that unabashedly steep themselves into the Silver Age comic silliness. Both Superman and Fantastic Four proudly wear their sources on their chests next to the emblematic S and 4s. It\u2019s taken four teams and five movies to finally get The Fantastic Four right in all their cheery, cheesy goodness. The First Family\u2019s Fantastic Fourth Fling Finds Fortune. Ahem, I promise I won\u2019t alliterate everywhere.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fantastic Four, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, ushered in the Marvel Silver Age with the release of their first issue in November 1961. The cover of which is replicated in film, in one of many great nods at their history scattered across the film. Of course, Marvel (and its earlier incarnation, Timely Comics) and many characters such as Captain America and an earlier robot version of the Human Torch existed before (who appeared as an easter egg in The First Avenger), but Marvel as we know it was truly born with the reveal of the First Family.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s with the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe for the crew to come to the silver screen in the saga, outside the cameo of John Krasinski\u2019s Mister Fantastic in Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Side note: if you\u2019re behind thanks to the post-Endgame dip, Fantastic Four: First Steps stands completely on its own. As for the previous versions: the charming but cheap 1994 Roger Corman-produced \u201ckeep the rights\u201d and 2005\/2007 Tim Story-directed pair tried to bring the spirit of the comics, although both did poorly. The less said of 2015\u2019s total misfire, the better. It may be long in the making, but First Steps lands its footing with optimistic aplomb.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It\u2019s a big, expressive movie, confident in its world and characters. Eschewing the origin story, writers Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer, and Kat Wood, and director Matt Shankman drop the audience right into the existing world, four years into the heroics and fame of the team. For those unfamiliar, Mark Gatiss provides some direct exposition of the group and their world: Reed Richards is Mr. Fantastic, his stretchable body contains the smartest brain on the planet, his wife Sue Storm, The Invisible Woman, can also send out telekenetic rays; her brother Johnny is The Human Torch, a man who can control flame, and Ben Grimm is the Thing, a man covered in rock with super strength. As a group, they can do it all. The actors behind them, respectively: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach,\u00a0 are all amazing and perfectly suited. They have astounding chemistry, feeling that they\u2019ve lived in their lives and known one another their entire lives. Moss-Bachrach and Quinn in particular bounce off one another with natural ease.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Speaking of lived in, like Gunn\u2019s Superman, Shakman trusts the audience to jump headfirst into a fully realized world, heroes are around, have a history, and have fought many villains in their beautiful retro-futurist world. And what a beautiful world it is. I adored the retro-futurist New York, realizing the science-led, shiny world of Space Race optimism. From bubble cars, loads of Space Needle-like buildings, fun tech, to the FantasticCar and the foursome\u2019s robot helper H.E.R.B.I.E., it\u2019s such fun to see this world in action. Director Matt Shankman previously directed one of my favorites, Disney+\u2019s limited series WandaVision. In that he was able to create a multitude of stylized settings with fidelity, and he brings that skill to Fantastic Four. It\u2019s wonderful, and it looks great. All the CG, and it\u2019s very CG heavy, is amazing, from the street level of their New York to the massive Galactus.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Galactus and the Silver Surfer are very well used as the Big Bads of the piece, leaving the group\u2019s main villain, Doctor Doom, for later use. In this iteration, the Fantastic Four have fought many villains, but none have provided a real challenge (Paul Walter Hauser steals with his bit as Mole Man). Until the Silver Surfer, played by Julia Gardner, arrives to herald Galactus, voiced with menace by Ralph Ineson, who is coming to eat the Earth. Thankfully, unlike Rise of the Silver Surfer, Galactus is a literal being, not a cloud. He’s a few hundred feet tall, ready to chomp the world, starting with New York .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The confidence in character creation extends to the story; it\u2019s straightforward and streamlined. The only wrinkle is that Sue Storm is ready to give birth to her and Reed\u2019s baby, Franklin, but that factors into the overall plot. There\u2019s precious little else. The group works with the fame. The Thing connects with Natasha Lyonne. But there is no need for big character things to work out to distract: Johnny doesn\u2019t need to learn to control his impulses; Ben doesn\u2019t feel insecure as the Thing. It\u2019s confident you\u2019ll dig who they are. Yes, this doesn\u2019t lead to much character growth, but I\u2019d rather keep it speeding forward (at less than two hours for this sort of movie, it runs full speed) than be bogged down with filler for the sake of an action scene, an unneeded character melodrama, or a joke.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It might be argued that there isn\u2019t enough action in this superhero fantasy. It\u2019s true,\u00a0 First Steps has far less Bam-Pow compared to the Gee-Whiz of fun science. Let\u2019s be honest, Marvel fight scenes are nearly all the same second-unit; we remember the characters and the larger sequences than the point-by-point choreography. Instead of punch-punch, the action is all great teamwork; it\u2019s awesome to see how they work together with ease.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fantastic Four: First Steps provides the fun of the characters, their wild Silver Age world, and all it entails with a sense of science adventure, bolstered by a fitting Michael Giacchino score. It\u2019s a wonderful change of pace. I really enjoyed Thunderbolts*, but it\u2019s a downer. Fantastic Four, combined with DC\u2019s Superman, builds a summer of big, bright, optimistic superhero flicks to combat the dreadful, dark nature of the real world at the moment. I\u2019ll take those First Steps, run with it, Marvel!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fantastic Four, Marvel\u2019s First Family, deal with new additions: baby Franklin and world-eater Galactus and his herald in the radiantly fun The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,1004],"class_list":["post-48851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-superhero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48851"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48851\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48858,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48851\/revisions\/48858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}