The Fantastic Four: First Steps review — one of the greatest Marvel movies of all time

2025 officially marks the return of the superhero movie. After Marvel was in a multi-year slump post Avengers: Endgame and DC Studios was reconfiguring its identity under James Gunn, the big screen output of both studios this year showed signs of life.

Though Captain America: Brave New World was a rough start to the year, Thunderbolts* was a fun and surprisingly deep story about some Marvel side characters getting the chance to shine for the first time. Superman, meanwhile, even if I wasn’t as big of a fan, offered something different and got people excited about the future of DC’s comic book adaptations. But the best of the bunch is The Fantastic Four: First Steps.

The third attempt at bringing Marvel’s iconic family of superheroes to the big screen is the charm. The core four of stars have great chemistry; the director brings a fresh feel to the proceedings; and an epic score helps to elevate it all. That all results in not only one of the best Marvel movies of all time, but one of the best movies I’ve seen this year.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps feels different in large part because it is different from all of the movies we’ve seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The movie is set in a different dimension from the main story of the MCU we’ve been following for nearly 20 years, specifically Earth 828 (the main MCU storyline has been set on Earth 199999, for reference).

This world is a blend of 1960s and futuristic styles, where The Fantastic Four — Reed/Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue/The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny/The Hunan Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — are beloved heroes and things are going great, with Sue and Reed set to welcome their first child. However, when a being with the capability to devour Earth demands the ultimate sacrifice to save the planet, the Fantastic Four put their brains and mettle to figuring out a plan.

That all leads to a practically perfect superhero movie. It relies on telling the story of a family as much as the galactic threat hanging over them.

While together, the quartet of Pascal, Kirby, Quinn and Moss-Bacrach are fantastic, they each shine individually as well. Pascal’s brainy Reed is a competent, confident leader for the public, while more of an awkward nerd with his family (no one is having a better summer than Pascal between this, Materialists and Eddington). Kirby’s Sue is the emotional heart of the group and movie; a bad-ass mother who won’t stop protecting all that she cares about. Quinn nails the comedic relief role but there’s a sincerity and earnestness to his Johnny that makes him more than a joke machine. And Moss-Bachrach brings a softness and calm to the rock (physically and emotionally) Ben.

Elsewhere, Julia Garner’s Silver Surfer/Shalla-Bal and Ralph Ineson’s Galactus are imposing antagonists that make the most of their screen time. Paul Walter Hauser also has a great bit as Mole Man. And of course, can’t forget to mention Herbie, the heroes robot assistant, who could easily have been a childish marketing ploy, but is handled with enough care and given enough to do that he never feels gimmicky.

The fact that The Fantastic Four: First Step could create such rich characters, tell an engaging and thrilling story and introduce a brand new world within the MCU all under two hours (movie has a runtime of one hour and 55 minutes with credits), is a testament to director Matt Shakman.

Though Shakman only had one feature directing credit to his name prior to The Fantastic Four: First Step, he had plenty of experience directing some of the biggest TV shows of the last decade, including the Marvel and Disney Plus original series WandaVision. With how well made WandaVision was, perhaps it shouldn’t be a surprise that Shakman nailed The Fantastic Four, but he definitely deserves a good amount of credit for reviving what prior to 2025 had become a stale playbook. He, along with screenwriters Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer, was even able to pull off making the trademark Marvel sky beam feel less played out.

Supporting all of this was the brilliant work by composer Michael Giacchino. While no stranger to the MCU and superheroes — he previously scored Doctor Strange, Tom Holland’s Spider-Man movies, Thor: Love and Thunder and The Batman — Giacchino outdid himself this time. His Fantastic Four theme is instantly iconic, while his epic score perfectly blends and accentuates both the movie’s action scenes and its quieter moments. I hope an Oscar nomination is in line for Giacchino’s score; one of many potentially award-worthy elements from the movie.

Kevin Feige recently talked about Marvel’s recent ups and downs, including the argument that the studio has been choosing quantity over quality in recent years. Time will tell whether The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a blip on the radar or a turning point, but it certainly feels like quality is the dominant theme in this movie. As a result, The Fantastic Four: First Steps may have just saved the MCU and helped to usher in a new era of superhero movies.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres exclusively in movie theaters worldwide on July 25.