I just got out of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and as I said in my “out of theater reaction” video, overall, I liked the movie.
I loved the music score, the cast is fine, the story is pretty good, and the special effects—honestly—are the best Marvel has done in years.
It’s different from what I expected, in both good and bad ways, which we’ll get into below. It also leans a lot more into straight-up science fiction than I thought it would, which I appreciate.
Before we dive in, my biggest gripe is that Marvel basically released the entire movie online through trailers, TV spots, and first-look images. I actually tried to avoid the last couple of weeks of marketing—I stopped watching after the second trailer—but social media being social media, it is what it is. There were really zero surprises left in the movie.
I don’t think ticket sales have been all that strong, and whenever that happens, Hollywood seems to think the solution is to release more footage online. That’s a mistake. If everything’s out there before the movie drops, what’s left to talk about? That definitely applies to The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Also, no worries,The Fantastic Four: First Steps isn’t woke, aside from the female Silver Surfer casting. But to be fair, she doesn’t crap on the male characters, and honestly, I didn’t mind her. Sue Storm is OP AF, and Pedro Pascal plays Reed a bit like a simp, but I think they toned that down a lot in editing. The big surprise? Johnny Storm came off way better—and cooler—than he did in any of the trailers.
Note: Spoilers follow.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps actually feels a lot like Superman in some ways. FF skips the origin story, and just like Superman, it drops you right into the middle of the action. Whether that works for you depends on personal taste, but I can see this becoming a trend in Hollywood—skipping the first act build-up to get things moving fast.
In Gunn’s Superman, we’re told about Superman stopping a war at the start, but we never actually see it, which probably would’ve been epic. Similarly, and disappointingly, The Fantastic Four: First Steps ditches all the cool cameo scenes. We’re told they happened, but barely any are shown, and the ones that do appear are blink-and-you-miss-it. Just last week, Marvel confirmed John Malkovich was cut as Red Ghost. I’m guessing they cut around 25 minutes of FF battling various villains just to get the runtime under two hours. It’s a shame, because I would’ve liked more FF superhero action beyond just the Galactus fight (same issue with Superman). I also expected more from Paul Walter Hauser’s Mole Man, as he comes off really basic and underwhelming.
How’s the story? The flick is set in an alternate universe (great nod, by the way) on Earth in the ’60s, where the FF are the most famous people in the world. They’ve saved everyone countless times and even managed to rid the world of its armies, well, except for Latveria, it seems!
Then BAM! The female Silver Surfer shows up and tells them they’re doomed. I was like, whoa, that came quick. Almost out of nowhere. Again, I think they cut 20–25 minutes from the start. It felt out of place, but to be fair, it does get the movie off to the races.
The rest of the movie is all about the FF dealing with Galactus, figuring out how to stop him, and how the story tries to make it all make sense. It’s kind of wonky, IMO. It drags at times (a little girl next to me fell asleep, though her dad liked it and agreed it’s the best MCU movie in years), but overall it works. Normies probably won’t notice the issues.
For example, why does the female Silver Surfer show up months in advance to warn Earth? In the comics, Galactus usually follows the Silver Surfer almost immediately. The answer here seems to be: if Galactus showed up right away, the plot wouldn’t work with the whole baby Franklin storyline. It’s kind of a plot hole, IMO.
Regarding Galactus, this isn’t my Galactus. He wants baby Franklin to replace him and become the new Top G. He’s also nowhere near as powerful as the Galactus we’ve seen in the comics. Sue basically takes him down by herself. Bruh. LOL. That said, I still appreciated and enjoyed Galactus overall. The scene when he was stretching Reed was pretty funny. The scope and spectacle are really cool, and again, the special effects look great.
The ending was just okay for me. I went in expecting something different, as I was told the female Silver Surfer dies, Galactus destroys that world, and the FF escape to the 616 universe. I expected an Infinity War-style ending that would tie into the Thunderbolts post-credit scene. But the ending here is completely different and doesn’t sync with that scene at all. Honestly, I think Marvel changed a lot about this movie, and that might actually be a good thing. They’ve been shifting gears since the strikes, as I first said. The film ends up being pretty standalone, aside from the other post-credit scene that leaked a while back.
I’ll also add that no one clapped at the end. They did for Superman (nyuk, nyuk, nyuk)!
The Verdict
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is one of the better MCU efforts in recent years, but it still has issues—mainly some choppy editing, occasional pacing problems, and a few story choices (or lack thereof) that feel like either leftover studio input or course correction (which might not be a bad thing). It looks great, has solid action, and gets a lot right with the characters, but it also plays it safe and leaves some things on the table. I liked it overall, but I also left thinking it could’ve been a lot more. At least I left wanting to see more, not with a bad taste in my mouth. It’s worth seeing, especially if you’re a fan. I was satisfied. 8/10.
