Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm debuted to the world as a comic in 1961. Combining their powers, the team became the Fantastic Four, and as the cover of that first issue proclaimed 64 years ago, “The Fantastic Four have only begun to fight!” Since then, five films from various studios have attempted to give the super-powered family justice on the big screen, including one unreleased movie from 1994. Four of these reboots are notorious for marring the stories of Marvel’s first family. One such reboot, Fantastic Four: First Steps, released to theaters worldwide July 25, 2025. Unfortunately, this newest installment continues the curse that weighs heavy on movie adaptations of the Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four: First Steps takes place on Earth-828, a planet without any of the widely-known Avengers. One of the strongest points of the movie is the retrofuturistic design, including nostalgic ads featuring various Fantastic Four members and styles straight from the 1960s. Perfect for the actual comic book reality of the Fantastic Four and for our retro-seeking generation, the movie’s atmosphere is stunning.
In Fantastic Four: First Steps, we are first introduced to Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) through the opening scene, when Sue discovers her pregnancy. The rest of the film is tied to her child’s birth. The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) flies onto the scene on Earth-828, announcing the imminent arrival of Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and the destruction of the planet. When the Fantastic Four swoop into Galactus’ base, they are told that he will only spare their planet if Reed and Sue give him their son, Franklin.
The first problem I quickly ran into with this movie is the style of storytelling. The director chose to put the film in media res; though the film is subtitled ‘First Steps,’ the actual first steps of the Fantastic Four are barely shown. The audience enters the story during maybe the two-hundredth step of this Marvel team. The Fantastic Four are explained as having already gained their powers through exposure to cosmic rays, already gaining celebrity status, already defeating such villains as Mole Man, and already being, well, the Fantastic Four. There are ways to masterfully craft a story through this mode, in media res, but ‘First Steps’ just misses the mark. The introduction of the team feels rushed, most likely in order to complete the story in time for the release of Avengers: Doomsday, in which Dr. Doom (Robert Downey Jr.), a classic Fantastic Four villain, will make his MCU debut. Avengers: Doomsday is even teased in the post-credit scene, where Doctor Doom comes to the Baxter Building to, assumably, snatch away Franklin.
Who is Franklin, though? This Fantastic Four movie revolves around his birth, and Galactus hints at Franklin’s incredible power as his reason for demanding Reed and Sue’s son. However, his actual abilities are never explained. We, as an audience, have no idea why Galactus could need a baby or what sort of potential Franklin possesses. Like a lot in this movie, it is vague and not fully fleshed out.
Yet, the ultimate mystery in this film is the villain, Galactus. We are told he destroys planets by consuming them, and it is hinted that he is cursed to do so, but so many questions are left unanswered. Why is he cursed? What will Franklin do for him? How and why does he consume planets? However, as an audience member, I am willing to set aside my confusion to focus on a larger story. And this was definitely a larger story. In fact, Galactus was too large of a story. This point returns to the movie’s title, Fantastic Four: First Steps. As a sort-of-origin story and an introduction to Marvel’s newest rendition of this super family, Galactus is not the villain I would have wanted for this movie. He is a planet-destroying, ginormous force that brings on the end of times. This is the first movie. In the Fantastic Four #1 comic, released in 1961, the Fantastic Four battle Mole Man, an Earthling who rules Subterranea and conducts attacks on the surface world. He is a smaller villain, a down-to-Earth (literally) bad guy who does not threaten the fabric of reality and doesn’t require a galactic showdown of epic proportions. He is, in other words, a good first battle.
For audiences just made familiar with the Fantastic Four, Galactus is an intense and chaotic scenario to face. His villainy makes the movie feel like a final piece of a larger story. We are left out of the humble beginnings and small-time heroics of the Fantastic Four and instead rushed into a fast-moving plot with world-ending stakes. Personally, I would have enjoyed a more zoomed-in look at the Fantastic Four and their world.
Essentially, Fantastic Four: First Steps was too grand, too cramped and just plain not fantastic. Many scenes, like the awkward birthing scene in space, felt unnecessary. Besides not being a solid opening to the Fantastic Four, this movie also felt like so many recent Marvel movies: unoriginal, corporate and poorly written in comparison to the glory days of Iron Man. Though the movie grossed over $492 million dollars at the worldwide box office and was lauded as the best Marvel movie of all time, to me, it joined the long line of poorly executed Fantastic Four film adaptations.
Jane Locke is a sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences. She can be reached at jal562@cornell.edu.
