The Fantastic Four: First Steps focuses on a fractured family

For those not familiar with The Fantastic Four, they are a Marvel Comics superhero team who gained powers after being exposed to cosmic rays in outer space. The quartet consists of scientist Reed Richards with an elastic body as Mister Fantastic, his wife Sue Storm-Richards with force field powers as the Invisible Woman, brother to Sue, Johnny Storm as a Human Torch and friend Ben Grimm transformed into a super-strong Thing. The four of them traverse a series of adventures, taking them from their home base, the Baxter Building, in New York to galaxies far away.

The series began in 1961 after being created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and grew in popularity to inspire video games, television shows and big screen adaptations. In First Steps, the plan is to mix everything together with high hopes of box office success and integrate The Fantastic Four into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This tale hits the ground running and rarely stops until the end. The heroic happy couple has a bun in the oven and Sue speeds through pregnancy like a pro. Planet-eating entity Galactus scouts out the Earth to devour and senses the power packed inside the child. This creates a conflict between the hungry villain and Marvel's first family. There are three men and baby plus an invisible lady fighting for screen time. 

The creatives have built a highly stylized world and Galactus shines in all of his Kirby glory while taking his First Steps on the screen. Director Matt Shakman knows how to think outside the box after the WandaVision series, but stumbles with some of the execution.

The cast struggles to connect with their various characters and this creates an obstacle blocking the family dynamics necessary for the FF. Pedro Pascal understood the assignment and focused on the intelligence of Reed, but this makes Richards fall flat at times. Vanessa Kirby is supposed to be a New Yorker, but her London heritage is quite visible in her delivery. Joseph Quinn is also English but fares better as Johnny while delivering hothead rebelliousness. Ebon Moss-Bachrach leaves The Bear behind and wrestles with past versions of the Thing in the process of making Grimm his own. The memorable dialogue from Ben hits the rocks when a joke is made about his popular tagline and the sentimentality of the lovable hero proves to be too big a mountain to climb in the time allowed.

All this aside, the formula strays from the blackboard and rewrites comic history unnecessarily. Quirky actress Natasha Lyonne portrays an original character named Rachel Rozman when she could have been Ben's blind love interest Alicia Masters. Another option for Lyonne was to be written as Johnny Storm's girlfriend Frankie Raye, to become Nova, a herald of Galactus shown in the comics years ago. Instead, dramatic actress Julia Garner is gender swapped from the traditional Silver Surfer and covered in special effects.

The humor finally flames on later in the film with some banter and Paul Walter Hauser as Harvey Elder upstages everyone with his hilarious take on the underground bad guy. The Mole Man isn't the only baddie glossed over. John Malkovich was completely ghosted for his role as Ivan Kragoff/ Red Ghost in the film and doesn't appear.

Before this review veers off into the Negative Zone, First Steps isn't bad, but it's not as fantastic as it could have been.It tiptoes around greatness being a step in the right direction and better than the previous four cinematic attempts. It's an homage to the cartoons and nostalgia of many children that grew into fans over the years, right down to the robot Herbie. It covers a large amount of territory historically in a visually captivating way that makes up for some of its shortcomings and pitfalls. New viewers can jump onto the surfboard to take an out-of-this-world ride, but this endeavor was made to honor longtime fans and is full of references. Buckle up for arch nemesis Doctor Doom in an upcoming second steps sequel and expect many more fantastic trips stretching into the future of the franchise.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps strides into theaters on July 25, 2025.