Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

I herald his beginning

I herald your end

I herald Galactus

I have mixed feelings about this movie. Objectively, it was undeniably excellent and definitely the best live action Fantastic Four to date. The writers did great with the character chemistry, tone, setting, aesthetic, conflict, and worldbuilding. Just like Gunn's Superman, this film has an enjoyable Saturday Morning Cartoon feel to it but not in a cheesy or immature way like the Tim Story films and most certainly not as grim and boring as Fan4stic. All of the characters had fun personalities and a personal moment to shine, and the film's pacing kept the movie engaging throughout with no dull moments or subplots. The conflict about

Spoiler:
sacrificing Franklin to spare the world

My only (and admittedly-personal) gripes are how weak, or at least how underdeveloped they made Galactus and Silver Surfer powerwise. Character and narrative-wise, they were both excellent. Galactus and Surfer's designs were great and Galactus came off as an unstoppable force of nature while Shallal Bal was a formidable henchwoman

Spoiler:
and sympathetic antihero

Spoiler:
just stomping around NYC like a low-grade Kaiju and not using any psionic or reality warping attacks

That being stated, they might just be saving the better power showings for future Avengers films. I hope we get better Power Cosmic scenes in the future movies. Considering the next MCU film after this will be Avengers Doomsday, which doesn't come out until December of next year, I'm hoping that they will use the year-and-a-half-long MCU movie drought to stave off the supposed wave of superhero fatigue and in particular I think and hope that they are going to adapt the Doom stealing the Power Cosmic storyline to lead into Doomsday and eventually Secret Wars.

Regardless of all that, in terms of this film, I had a great time, I give this film an 8.5/10, and I definitely feel that, like Superman, we finally have a great live action cinematic rendition of these characters for the 21st century (although I still have nostalgia for the Story films). This film was a great spectacle and a tantalizing addition to the MCU. Can't wait to see what this leads up to, especially considering

Spoiler:
the post credits scene with Doom and Franklin

Originally posted by Lestov16
I have mixed feelings about this movie. Objectively, it was undeniably excellent and definitely the best live action Fantastic Four to date. The writers did great with the character chemistry, tone, setting, aesthetic, conflict, and worldbuilding. Just like Gunn's Superman, this film has an enjoyable Saturday Morning Cartoon feel to it but not in a cheesy or immature way like the Tim Story films and most certainly not as grim and boring as Fan4stic. All of the characters had fun personalities and a personal moment to shine, and the film's pacing kept the movie engaging throughout with no dull moments or subplots. The conflict about

Spoiler:
sacrificing Franklin to spare the world

made for great tension and, again like Gunn's Superman, made it a battle not just against supervillains but also public opinion. Ultimately, the movie was a great sci fi adventure with a lot of charm.

My only (and admittedly-personal) gripes are how weak, or at least how underdeveloped they made Galactus and Silver Surfer powerwise. Character and narrative-wise, they were both excellent. Galactus and Surfer's designs were great and Galactus came off as an unstoppable force of nature while Shallal Bal was a formidable henchwoman

Spoiler:
and sympathetic antihero

. However, and this might just be because I've been debating on this site for too long lol, they didn't do much feat wise. Matter of fact, I'd say the Tim Story film (ROTSS) had better feats for both Surfer and Galactus. Surfer didn't do much here besides, well, surf, and Galactus in particular felt lowballed in the final battle. He's a supposedly omnipotent being yet he was

Spoiler:
just stomping around NYC like a low-grade Kaiju and not using any psionic or reality warping attacks

. I'm not saying he wasn't threatening, but like I said, ROTSS did a far better job of displaying the capabilities of the Power Cosmic, and considering that film massively downplayed the characters' power levels, you can imagine just how weak they felt here.

That being stated, they might just be saving the better power showings for future Avengers films. I hope we get better Power Cosmic scenes in the future movies. Considering the next MCU film after this will be Avengers Doomsday, which doesn't come out until December of next year, I'm hoping that they will use the year-and-a-half-long MCU movie drought to stave off the supposed wave of superhero fatigue and in particular I think and hope that they are going to adapt the Doom stealing the Power Cosmic storyline to lead into Doomsday and eventually Secret Wars.

Regardless of all that, in terms of this film, I had a great time, I give this film an 8.5/10, and I definitely feel that, like Superman, we finally have a great live action cinematic rendition of these characters for the 21st century (although I still have nostalgia for the Story films). This film was a great spectacle and a tantalizing addition to the MCU. Can't wait to see what this leads up to, especially considering

Spoiler:
the post credits scene with Doom and Franklin

AND the post credits scene from Thunderbolts.

Fuuuuuudge its a good summer to be a comics fan.

I originally thought Pedro was miscast but he was good.. Vanessa was excellent as Sue. Julia was good as Shalla Bal. The whole film was good. Written well. Good feats. I liked it a lot.. and will see again

Galactus was unforgivably nerfed.

Not terrible, but wasted potential.

Definitely better than the originals. Worth a watch, IMHO.

Nah. Galactus was downright terrible. His first scene was excellent but he was awful in the final act. He doesn’t use any cool or exotic powers. He just a huge giant who lumbers around like King Kong. And then he’s completely overpowered by Sue. So much for being a cosmic god…

Anyway, the whole movie was a massive disappointment. The scene where they visit Galactus and escape was great, but everything else was mediocre as best. Pedro was terrible. A huge miscast. And the Thing does basically nothing in the entire film.

I was really hoping that the end credits from whichever movie it was when the FF4 ship was entering the atmosphere meant that Galactus won in this movie and they escaped with Doom on board.

Lol You all being too comic book nerdy. Sometimes they gotta nerf a bit to make a good film. We saw the Tim Story route where the FF cant even fight Surfer let alone Galactus - it makes for a very boring film.

They went all out on the action and sci-fi which makes me happy.

And the nerfing wasnt too bad - can analyse on versus forum. There was a lack of exotic powers, but nothing to say they dont actually have those abilities (I mean we got years of Loki only to find out in the Loki show that he has always had TK and Energy blasts).

Top top film. But more from Ben in future please.

All out on the action? WTf were you watching? The movie was boring with very little action. Like I said, the chase sequence was cool. But the rest was dull and dour. The final act was a joke. Nothing exciting about it and Galactus was about as threatening as the Stay Puff Marshmallow man… and that can do right by him in a later movie doesn’t change the fact he is a chump in this.

But Galactus being incredibly lame is only one of the flaws of the film. Others, even more prominent are in it,some that I’ve already mentioned like being a dour bore of a film or Pedro doing a terrible job as Reed.

Also who can forget that scene where Sue convinces the world to risk everything to save her son with the most milquetoast speech in the world? Laughable.

Galactus's lack of high end feats while on earth can always be reconciled one of two ways, imo...

a.) He was intentionally trying not to cause much collateral damage as to avoid harming Franklin.
b.) He was hungry/weakened at the time due to lack of sustenance, which would also explain his smaller size in the film.

More odd to me is that MCU Galactus evidently cannot teleport or fly MFTL under his own power, and is fully reliant on his ship to roam around the universe. That's an odd nerf. ermm

Originally posted by ares834
All out on the action? WTf were you watching? The movie was boring with very little action. Like I said, the chase sequence was cool. But the rest was dull and dour. The final act was a joke. Nothing exciting about it and Galactus was about as threatening as the Stay Puff Marshmallow man… and that can do right by him in a later movie doesn’t change the fact he is a chump in this.

But Galactus being incredibly lame is only one of the flaws of the film. Others, even more prominent are in it,some that I’ve already mentioned like being a dour bore of a film or Pedro doing a terrible job as Reed.

Also who can forget that scene where Sue convinces the world to risk everything to save her son with the most milquetoast speech in the world? Laughable.

I dont really think she convinced the world to Save her Son. I think she convinced them that theres No Way She will sacrifice him. And as Ben and Johnny already mentioned theres nothing really the people can do to force the FF.

So after her speech they just figured theyre only hope is to help Earths protectors to save the Earth.

The only idiocy I would suggest was Reed telling the people of Earth that Galactus offered to spare the Earth for their son. That was a daft decision but could be chalked down to a character flaw. Unless of course he was considering it himself…

The visuals were amazing, absolutely looked the retro Jetsons 60s look.

The story though, was very, very, very mid-level most of the film with a few higher blips.

For the acting, everyone was serviceable, but not great. No one nailed their roles like Hemsworth with Thor, Evans with Cap, Downey with Tony.

1st act is top tier comic book movie entertainment. Great intro, great aesthetic, builds the character relationships and their connection to the audience extremely well. Some awesome action in the space bit.

Act 2 is utter dog shit. Doesn't forward the plot, doesn't build on the characters, doesn't ratchet up any tension. Doesn't look as visually cool.

Act 3 is mid. Galactus was a total waste.

Yeah, pretty much everything after they come back was ho-hum.

So Reed Richards, world's smartest man, apparently has the same problem solving process as

Spoiler:
Patrick Star. Still surprised the big plan for Galactus was move Bikini Bottom... err Earth.

Also feel that 2005 Ben Grimm and Reed somehow ended up looking better in the realm of comic book characterization. Though Pascal did act the part pretty well. Wanted more cosmic power showcasing but I guess that may have been a casualty of late editing.