The Fantastic Four: First Steps, 2025 - ★★★½
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Fantastic Four: First Steps is a self-contained story that anyone can watch without any prior knowledge of Marvel comics or movies. It certainly reminded me of Superman with how it just instantly throws you into the story, which I believe was a misstep for both films, as audiences could not fully form a strong emotional connection with these freshly introduced characters.
The story is simple and straightforward, perhaps overly so; too simple, in a way. It feels bare-bones, lacking depth, and merely follows the planned story beats from start to finish. This approach might work for an established world and characters, but I don’t think this no-frills, fast-paced style is suitable for this project. The story could have benefited from more breathing room. That’s the reason I truly enjoyed the first act, but the enjoyment diminished as the film progressed.
The cast exceeded my expectations, I thought they were miscast at first, but still left much to be desired. They captured the family dynamic well enough, but they lack the charisma and charm of the previous 2005 cast. I think some parts are due to the lack of character building on screen. There should have been more time dedicated to developing the characters’ histories, personalities, and motivations. Letting them banter, crack jokes, or consoling each other are simply not enough.
I don’t understand why the writers of these superhero films keeps overlooking the basics of storytelling: presenting motivations, character flaws, and overcoming those flaws are the cornerstones of any hero’s journey, folks!!
Sue Storm carried the movie so hard I felt embarrassed for other characters in this film. Despite being the smartest character, Reed in this film consistently makes plans filled with holes and lacks backup strategies. The most disappointing part is how quickly he (temporary) gives up when the plan fails; it is disheartening to see him unwilling to put up a fight when the stakes are so high. Johnny is quite okay, but he’s not that charming in this version. And they did The Thing so dirty, he barely got moments to shine.
Surprisingly, all scenes featuring the Silver Surfer are fantastic! I felt like the crew may have prioritized her character to the point that there might be a bit of bias. Because she got more material to work with than others, and her action scenes are well-thought-out, which is frankly, a weird decision how they put so much care into this character over The Fantastic Four. But I'm not going to complain about some good quality in the film.
The latter half of the movie misses the mark and lacks substance, in my opinion. I did not feel the stakes, emotional weight, or tension at all. The absence of civilian engagements, leaves the apocalyptic tension feeling hollow. It would have been far better to see civilian interactions in these situations when they get roped into this end-of-the-world scenario from personal perspectives. Without showing us how frightening the situation truly was, the stakes feel diminished. Moreover, the final act's action scenes fall flat. Galactus acting like Godzilla chilling in a park is just not it.
Despite these drawbacks, I really love this retro-futuristic setting and the world they created here. The visuals, mood, tone, and atmosphere of this film are very well executed and fitting to the story. I just wish we could have seen more of it.
All in all, this version of Fantastic Four used a similar storytelling approach to Superman but with less quality and emotional depth to match. It's a shame because many issues could have been addressed in the script by allowing scenes and characters more space to develop. (Or perhaps they filmed it but got cut out, in that case it would have been on the editing team) Nevertheless, it remains enjoyable and feels like Marvel is slowly coming back to its form. I just have my doubts about whether it will progress fast enough before they lose even more audience at this point.