REVIEW #453 Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Fantastic Four: First Steps

Synopsis

Marvels first family face their most dangerous threat yet as they defend their Earth from Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer.

My Review

Style, flare and gravitas, Fantastic Four: First Steps has all of the above in abundance! A Marvel movie that actually takes care in its cinematography and is visually at its best when utilising its retro-futuristic set design, intimate lighting and careful framing. The latest instalment into the MCU, never cowers away from its comic book roots, but rather leans into them, providing a creative introduction for Marvels first Family. Unfortunately despite having two, all powerful and extremely cool antagonists in Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus, the villain arcs were definitely the weakest elements of the film. It moved at a very fast pace, having to cover a lot of ground, establishing this separate universe and fleshing out a brief backstory for this iteration of the group. In that process, I feel they lost the substance behind the antagonists. With just another half an hour of run time, I feel like those faults could have been prevented and we would have had a serious contender for one of Marvels best!

That being said, there is so much to enjoy here, the dynamic between the cast creates a genuine family connection amongst the characters and they are all perfectly suited to their roles. The talk show style introduction was probably the best route they could have taken in providing the audience with the context we needed. Meanwhile, each character felt like a unique adaptation, completely different to what has come before and these iterations worked far better in my opinion. An interesting change I loved was that every member of The Fantastic Four were established in a position of strength, we didn’t get a dumbed down version of Ben or an overly insensitive and self obsessed Johnny, they all emitted strength, intelligence and wisdom too. Finally I want to mention Michael Giacchino’s score, which brilliantly enhanced the emotional beats and injected so much energy and emotion into the film. The Fantastic Four was in great hands with Matt Shakman and although it’s not perfect, it’s shown just how much of an asset they will be in the MCU moving forward, as well as showing the power of unique creativity!

My Rating: 8 out of 10

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