I hadn’t paid attention to the Fantastic Four in nearly two decades, since Chris Evans and Jessica Alba graced the screen in the original containment suits. But I’ll be honest: if Pedro Pascal’s name is in the credits lately, I’ll show up, even if I end up leaving underwhelmed (Eddington and Materialists didn’t necessarily live up to their hype, but his charm still makes them worth a watch). That same appeal pulled me into The Fantastic Four: First Steps. And while it looked and sounded polished, beneath all the shimmer and 1960s vignette, it doesn’t really offer much that’s new.
The movie is visually beautiful. New York City windows glimmer under alien shadows, and the space-travel sequences alongside the Baxter Building headquarters have a kind of retro-cosmic charm. The villains (Galactus, a planet-devouring force of nature, and his herald, the Silver Surfer) are striking. They fill the screen with dread and scale, and with Earth marked for death quite immediately into the onset of the plot, the stakes feel enormous. But then you realize: the story isn’t going anywhere unexpected. Galactus comes to destroy Earth, the Fantastic Four stop him, their civilian fans cheer. There’s no real struggle, no lasting consequence. Outside of a supernatural birth that takes place in space, it’s all a little too neat.
This team is already famous, adored, and seasoned. They start the film as icons and end it the same way, unshaken and untouched despite a few minutes where they try to make it seem like the world just might turn against them. Nothing emotionally, physically, or really ideologically bad happens. I’m not saying a superhero movie needs to be grim to be good, but this one felt like it was on rails. Compare it to the chaos and weight of something like Avengers: Infinity War or the grit of Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins trilogy; those films weren’t afraid to take something from the audience, or from the heroes themselves.
What keeps First Steps from falling completely flat is the cast. Pascal as Mister Fantastic delivers the kind of earnest gravitas that can carry a story even when it lags. His cohorts are equally devoted and strong: when Ebon Moss-Bachrach of “The Bear” appeared onscreen, I silently cheered. He and the rest of the team manage to make the dialogue feel lived-in, even when the script doesn’t give them much to work with. There’s chemistry, warmth, and the sense of a real team dynamic. It’s only unfortunate that they’re locked into such a predictable arc.
In a genre desperate to evolve, The Fantastic Four: First Steps plays it safe. It has heart, talent, and polish, but it’s missing a soul-deep reason to care. I didn’t leave the theater disappointed, but unmoved. And maybe that’s the problem. The movie does everything right on paper, but it forgets to surprise us. It’s more of a reset than a first step.
Movie Times: Click Here
Genre: Action/Sci-fi
Director: Matt Shakman
Actors: Julia Garner, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn
Run Time: 1h, 55m
Rating: PG-13 for Action, Violence & Some Language
