After years of delays, cast reshuffles, and studio resets, the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally welcomes its First Family with The Fantastic Four: First Steps — and it was well worth the wait. Matt Shakman's imaginative, reverent take breathes new life into a team whose cinematic legacy has been as unstable as Sue Storm’s molecular field.
Set on Earth-828, the film wisely separates itself from the mainline MCU continuity, granting it room to tell a focused, emotionally rich, and surprisingly cosmic tale. Four years after their transformation during a 1960 space mission, Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) are not origin-trapped rookies, but beloved global figures who’ve ushered in a new era of peace through scientific progress and diplomacy. The film opens with an earnest, Kennedy-era optimism that slowly unravels into something grander, stranger, and far more perilous.
The arrival of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner, otherworldly and wounded) marks the end of Earth’s honeymoon. Her warning: Galactus is coming. Ralph Ineson’s booming, cosmic menace makes for the MCU’s most effective god-tier villain since Thanos. But First Steps isn’t interested in just a battle for Earth. It’s a battle for one life: Sue and Reed’s unborn son, Franklin. Galactus hungers for a cosmic solution to his eternal affliction, and Franklin, still in utero, might just be it.
This moral dilemma — save your child or save the world — propels the second act into challenging ethical territory for a Marvel film. The backlash from the global public, the doubt within the team, and an ingenious potential solution (using teleportation bridges to move the Earth itself) all show that Shakman and screenwriters Jeremy Slater and Lindsey Anderson Beer trust the intelligence of their audience.
Pascal plays Reed with quiet conviction and a streak of vulnerability, while Kirby’s Sue is the film’s emotional anchor. Her sacrificial stand against Galactus and resurrection by Franklin is both moving and mythic. Quinn brings chaotic charm to Johnny, but the standout is Moss-Bachrach’s Ben Grimm — his quiet grief and humour ground the story amid its cosmic scale. Julia Garner’s Shalla-Bal, once a herald of destruction, becomes a tragic figure of regret and redemption.
The action sequences impress without overwhelming, and the film's use of FTL travel, black holes, and force fields never feels like mere spectacle. It’s science fiction with a strong emotional core. Visual effects are top-tier, and the sound design — particularly Galactus’ arrival — rumbles like judgment day.
Tonally, First Steps walks a fine line between pulp adventure and philosophical inquiry. Its Cold War retro-futurism and earnestness offer something rare: a superhero film that dares to be sincere. There’s little quipping, and even less cynicism. The final act’s city-evacuation montage feels like a true superhero moment — not about punching, but protecting.
And then there’s that mid-credits tease. In a quiet domestic scene, a resurrected Sue watches as young Franklin meets a cloaked figure who holds a cold metal mask. It’s a whisper, not a roar, but Robert Downey Jr.’s uncredited cameo as Victor von Doom signals that the Fantastic Four’s saga has only just begun.
First Steps doesn’t just reintroduce the Fantastic Four. It redefines them. It’s the most poetic Marvel film since the underrated Eternals and the most emotionally coherent since Endgame. A film about faith, family, sacrifice, and second chances, it cements the First Family's place not just in the MCU, but in the pantheon of superhero cinema.
Welcome home, Fantastic Four.
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