{"id":29195,"date":"2025-07-22T17:35:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/29195\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T17:35:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T17:35:09","slug":"fantastic-four-first-steps-review-a-retro-superhero-cartoon-hits-live-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/29195\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic Four: First Steps review: a retro superhero cartoon hits live-action"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marvel Studios\u2019<\/a> The Fantastic Four: First Steps<\/a> is set in a world where the eponymous superheroes are beloved celebrities with their own animated TV show, which is used as a way to get Johnny Storm\/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm\/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) to say \u201cFlame on!\u201d and \u201cIt\u2019s clobbering time!\u201d without actually taking their traditional comics catchphrases seriously. That narrative conceit seems pointless, given that everything in the film feels just as morally tidy and simplistic as Hanna-Barbera\u2019s 1967 cartoon The Fantastic Four<\/a>. First Steps\u2019 writers should have just let the heroes be equally silly.<\/p>\n

Fantastic Four: First Steps might be the MCU\u2019s simplest movie to date: The studio is kicking off Phase Six of the beleaguered Marvel Cinematic Universe<\/a> by providing a jumping-on point that requires no previous franchise knowledge. The Fantastic Four exist in a different universe than the mainline MCU story<\/a>: the retro-futuristic Earth 838. Both Tim Story\u2019s 2005 Fantastic Four films and Josh Trank\u2019s 2015 reboot told the story of how the group gained their superpowers, Matt Shakman\u2019s 2025 version neatly compresses the origin story into an intro for an in-world TV special to celebrate the fourth anniversary of the fateful trip to space where the team encountered a cosmic storm and gained their powers. <\/p>\n

That intro isn\u2019t as tight as the opening titles laying similar groundwork in James Gunn\u2019s Superman<\/a>, but the conceit allows Shakman to provide a quick summary of who the heroes are and what this version of Earth is like. The Fantastic Four have not only battled classic Silver Age villains like Red Ghost (John Malkovich, cut from the movie<\/a>), Diablo, and Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser), they\u2019ve also brokered world peace. With Reed Richards\/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm\/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) expecting their first child, the biggest challenge the group faces is babyproofing their home\/headquarters. That is, until Shalla-Bal\/Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to let Earth know that they\u2019re the next planet on the meal plan for Galactus (Ralph Ineson).<\/p>\n

\"Julia<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: 20th Century Studios\/Marvel Studios.<\/p>\n

Apocalyptic stakes are nothing new for the MCU, though this film can at least milk some tension from the fact that since its setting is an alternate Earth, it doesn\u2019t actually need to survive for the franchise to continue. The bigger problem is the tonal disconnect of inserting a galaxy-spanning threat into a movie that\u2019s at its best as an intimate story about family bonds.<\/p>\n

The film includes a lot of bland gags about parenting. Reed, the smartest man on Earth, still winds up with some spare screws when assembling a crib. There\u2019s a bit about the trickiness of getting a car seat properly seated in the Fantastic Four\u2019s flying car that goes on for far too long. More compelling are the serious moments when Reed explains that he\u2019s not a dreamer, but a pessimist, constantly thinking about the worst things that can happen, then trying to invent his way out of those scenarios. When he worries that his child will be like him, it\u2019s clear that he\u2019s just as concerned about passing on his bleak worldview as his cosmically mutated DNA.<\/p>\n

First Steps hints at the larger impact this perspective could have as Reed \u201cbabyproofs the world,\u201d in Ben\u2019s words, by tracking all possible criminal activity, exhibiting a paternalism very similar to what led Tony Stark to create the killer robot Ultron. But Reed\u2019s calculating nature is mostly just a source of friction with his wife. The filmmakers aim to get away from the sexism of earlier versions of the Fantastic Four by making Sue very powerful, but she\u2019s still primarily defined by being both an actual mother and a figurative mother figure to the world. Even more impressive than her ability to turn a whole spaceship invisible is how she can use an impassioned speech to get the entire planet to work together.<\/p>\n

\"Joseph<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo: 20th Century Studios\/Marvel Studios<\/p>\n

The cast manage to make the Fantastic Four feel like a tight-knit family that would do anything for each other. It\u2019s a togetherness that shines both in smaller moments, like Ben teasing Reed about his anxieties, and in the splashy scenes when they fight together, always looking out for each other while giving each other openings to use their strengths. The battles are far too reliant on CGI, but at least having a four-person team with highly distinct powers allows for some fun scenarios as they try to burn, blind, push, and climb Galactus. Narratively and thematically, First Steps winds up feeling a lot like Pixar\u2019s The Incredibles, but with a less developed villain.<\/p>\n

While Shakman and First Steps\u2019 screenwriting team tidily present the Fantastic Four\u2019s backstory, Galactus and Shalla-Bal are explained through exposition dumps that are narratively clumsy and leave far too little explained. The film might have worked better if Galactus had been purely presented as a force of nature like a cosmic Godzilla, but the attempts to personalize him and make him somewhat sympathetic feel hollow, because they\u2019re so clearly focused on setting up future films. You might not need to do any homework to watch First Steps, but it still suffers from the MCU\u2019s world-building problems.<\/p>\n

First Steps mostly coasts by on wholesome utopian vibes, with Shakman demonstrating the same ability to create a highly stylized retro world that he used to great effect in WandaVision<\/a>. But while that MCU show uses its featherweight sitcom world to hint at something sinister below the surface, First Steps plays the story entirely straight. The same is true for its take on the superhero genre, which skips all the modern handwringing<\/a> about how superheroes should consider the repercussions of using their power, and just takes for granted that they know what\u2019s best, and that the world will be a better place with them looking after humanity.<\/p>\n

\"H.E.R.B.I.E<\/a><\/p>\n

Image: 20th Century Studios\/Marvel Studios<\/p>\n

Maybe that\u2019s OK. Two decades into the MCU, audiences don\u2019t need origin stories, and they also don\u2019t need every blockbuster movie based on a comic book to be a deconstruction of the superhero genre. Viewers might debate about what the Boravia war<\/a> in Superman really means, or get upset about the film\u2019s politics, and First Steps dodges that sort of conflict by not meaning anything at all. It has the simple morality, goofy humor, and challenge level of a Saturday morning cartoon. It\u2019s a silly family-friendly story that stands on its own, without expecting its audience knows what came before or cares much about what comes after.<\/p>\n

Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres in theaters on July 25.<\/p>\n

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