My Review of "The Fantastic Four: First Steps"

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the latest Marvel movie to come out in 2025. It feels somewhat of a comback for Marvel this year. I really liked their Thunderbolts movie that came out earlier this year. It really seems as though they're following a new motto, quality over quantity. This movie is certainly good but maybe it wasn't for me.

It all starts out with a full introduction to the team. We get a narration and montage to give us a whole origin story and what's been happening for the past four years. This is a nice a clever way to add all the easter eggs for a lot of the fans of the comic series. We learn of the patriarch of the family Reed. He's a brilliant man with the ability to stretch.

Then we have Reed's wife Sue. She's pregnant and I'm not too certain what her powers are. At first she has the powers to make herself invisible. She can also make things invisible as well. Then later on she gets telekinetic powers. This was very confusing but I'm sure it's all comic accurate.

Sue's brother, Johnny, is also on board. He loves the stars so they made him into an astronaut. He has the power of turning into fire and flying. Apparently, he also has a superpower of decrypting and learning alien languages in a few days as well. I don't know it's weird but again probably comic book accurate.

To finish up the four we have Reed's best friend Ben. He's really strong and has rock for skin. His role is definitely a comic relief character. There's not much in this movie for him.

They feel like Earth's only superheroes and everyone loves them in this Marvel universe. I like the fact that this movie feels like a stand alone film. You don't need to know anything else about the other TV shows or movies to understand what's going on in this movie. That's like a breathe of fresh air when it comes to these Marvel movies.

The team basically finds out that their world is in danger of being consumed by a villain called Galactus. This being seems to have godlike powers and is on a world eating streak. Though the timeline feels somewhat like the timeline from Game of Thrones in the last few seasons. Time seems to slow down and speed up at the convenience of the plot. It's kind of wild how I'm the only one that was bothered by this.

The explanation for everything was quite well done though. I could understand pretty much everyone's motivations and direction. Everything was quite meticulous but in some ways this also felt a little boring at times. The pacing was a little off for me. Not that it wasn't entertaining but there were some lulls that kind of dragged.

Then there's the ending. Oh my gosh, my eyes were rolling at all of the weird decisions in play here. I guess that's to be expected. How are these Superheroes going to beat this godlike creature? They have to make him into a kaiju ripping through New York city. I get what they were doing here but it really took me out of the movie.

I do like the fact that they made it into a kaiju fight but the solutions were kind of meh for me. How is a superhero that stretches hurt when the villain stretches him? There's even some comparisons to this movie with the Pixar movie The Incredibles. That movie was probably inspired by this comic book series.

The art direction of the movie was really well done. I was mesmerized by the retro futuristic look. This movie must be appreciated on the big screen to fully realize the scope of the work that they've done. Even the CGI for the most part was well done. It kind of blended into the whole aesthetic of the movie.

Overall, I had an okay time with this movie. There's just a few lulls that really took me out of the movie but not enough from enjoying it. Maybe this isn't really for me because I don't know the characters or something. Though the confusing timelines and odd decisions closer to the end almost made me not like the movie. I have to give this one a 6 out 10. I don't see myself watching this over again.