After around ten years of silence, Marvel’s first family returns to the big screen in one of Marvel’s best movies in years. Ever since the release of “Avengers: Endgame”, Marvel has been pretty hit or miss with Phase 5. Some have been well-made movies like “Guardians of the Galaxy 3”; however, it has also released some disappointing films, such as “Eternals”.
However, Marvel returned in 2025 with a brand new film featuring The Fantastic Four, directed by WandaVision director Matt Shakman. In my opinion, this is one of the best Marvel movies we have received in a while.
First, I want to praise the film for having a unique aesthetic. Marvel Phase 5 opened the world to the concept of a multiverse, the idea that there are millions of universes with different outcomes. However, Marvel hasn’t done much with this idea; instead, it just uses it to reference movies like the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films or the Tim Story Fantastic Four movies. “Fantastic Four First Steps” embraces a retro-futuristic look because the director (Matt Shakman) chose to stylize this movie with a 1960s-inspired look. I wish more Marvel movies had done a unique style in this phase, but most of them have failed a showing the multiverse in an interesting way.
Second, the casting for Marvel movies can be somewhat controversial (Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom). On the other hand, the cast for “Fantastic Four First Steps” embodies their characters extremely well, making them feel like they are straight from the comics.
Mister Fantastic, played by Pedro Pascal, plays a good Reed Richards who truly feels like the smartest man on Earth, which makes it even more worrying within the movie when he encounters a problem he can’t solve.
Vanessa Kirby’s Mrs. Fantastic is the perfect counter to her husband, where Reed Richards sometimes fails at connecting with people on an emotional level. Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm helps the team seem human despite their unnatural powers with her kind-hearted speeches and her motherly love that helps bring the world together.
The Human Torch quite possibly receives his best performance in film history from Joseph Quinn. In previous iterations of the Fantastic Four, the Human Torch, Johnny, is often portrayed as the hotshot superhero, a womanizer, who enjoys his powers a little too much. However, First Steps shows a more nuanced version of the character, showing him to be smart when he chooses to be, and without him, the movie would have likely been the last time we see this version of the four. This is a major improvement over previous iterations, where the Human Torch was a bit too cocky.
Finally, we get the most comic-accurate version of the Thing we have ever received. The CGI in this movie looks amazing, feels like the Thing jumped right out of the comic book and was on set. Played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who portrays the Thing as a kindhearted person who was dealt a bad hand and is forced to deal with consequences.
However, I don’t think the movie is fully a ten out of ten. I wish that during the film, we received more of the family in action, and it feels like a lot has been cut from the film, which makes me wish the movie had a longer run time to help build up the Fantastic Four in this universe. One of the only examples of The Fantastic Four in action before the main climax is Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards punching an orangutan.
In conclusion, the movie portrays “The Fantastic Four” as a family, and the chemistry from the cast helps make this truly feel like the best version of the Fantastic Four put to screen. It is one of the best Marvel movies to come out in years, and I hope that Marvel Studios can continue with this good streak of films. 8.5/10
