Film Review: The Fantastic 4: First Steps

Welcome back to the blog readers. As you know, this year has been pretty good for superhero films (with the exception of a kind of disappointing Captain America: Brave New World (2025)). It certainly beats last year's offerings, where three of the four films were in my top 10 worst of the year. But now we end with a film that has been on my calendar ever since that Disney Investors' Day call back at the end of 2020. Would this film live up to the four-and-a-half-year hype? Stick around to find out.

The Fantastic 4: First Steps was directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer; and a story by Pearson, Kaplan, Springer, and Kat Wood, based on Fantastic Four by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The film stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon-Moss Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson. In the film, the Fantastic Four must protect their 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic world (known as Earth-828) from the planet-devouring being Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer.

I was feeling a bit hesitant about a Fantastic Four film since we had been burned three times already. Fantastic Four (2005) and its sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) had moments, but they were not free of issues. And other than the legendary meme that has come out of FANT4STIC (2015), that film was total trash. So it was with great hesitation that I went into this film. Luckily, I was rewarded with one of my favorite films of the year. Everything fired on all cylinders for me, from the cast (especially Pascal and Ineson), the score, the visual effects, and the script and story.

I need to start by talking about Pedro Pascal because he is having the best year of his career thus far. He deservedly scored an Emmy nomination for his performance in the second season of The Last of Us (2023-), and he stole the show in Materialists and Eddington (both 2025) (films I ultimately were disappointed in). But seeing him in this film made me remember why I have loved him since The Mandalorian (2019-). This version of Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic knows he is the smartest man in whatever room he walks into, but he never lets himself build an ego around that fact. Pascal does a brilliant job of showing off that side of Richards, and he does an even better job of showing that fear Reed has of the unknown. Hearing Pedro Pascal was cast as Reed got a lot of people questioning why he was appearing in everything, but seeing his performance makes me question if anyone else would have exceled in this role.

The final performance I want to highlight (although all of the cast kills it in this film) is Ralph Ineson as Galactus. I say the name of Ralph Ineson and you may not know who he is. But you have heard his voice before. The Witch (2015), The Green Knight (2021), The Pope's Exorcist (2023), and Final Fantasy XVI (2023) are some of the notable projects he has loaned his voice to. I had no idea who they were going to get as Galactus, but when Ineson's name came up I could not think of anyone better. And he shows that shit off. He kills it as Galactus. Just his voice alone is enough to send shivers down your spine. "Clever little bugs" has been engrained in my memory for the last week since I have seen this film. Ineson does a fantastic job of making you fear this being of infinite cosmic power. And it goes without saying (and I imagine this next statement will not be that much of a stretch) that this is the best live-action Galactus we have ever gotten.

I next want to talk about the score of this film. Score is something I usually do not talk about on this blog because I believe I cannot talk about music the same way I can about films. But I do talk about it when it does count. This happens to be one of those times in my opinion. Every time I heard the music in this film, I literally found myself in another dimension. And this is exactly the reason why Michael Giacchino is one of my favorite composers working today. Every piece from the main theme to Galactus's theme, the music playing in the "space chase," the music playing in a crucial moment in the climax of the film, even to H.E.R.B.I.E.'s lullaby was uniquely distinct and gleefully diverse in sound. I truly think we have one of the contenders for Best Original Score on our hands (and even Best Original Song for "Let Us Be Devoured").

Next up, I need to talk about the visual effects of this film. Visual effects is another category I usually do not spend a lot of time on because like music, I do not think I could adequately talk about it specifically. But this film has some spectacular visual effects that I absolutely need to talk about. Just seeing Galactus himself is an absolute work of art in of itself. But the real icing on the cake has to be the space stuff. Without going into details (because that will mean spoilers), the stuff that happens in space is some of the most visually satisfying stuff I have seen in a film in years. This entire film looks drop-dead gorgeous (like my man Timothée Chalamet), and it is a damn shame this film will not get the love it deserves at the Oscars. If you don't know why, go ask James Cameron.

And finally, I need to talk about the script and story of this film. None of the first three Fantastic Four films (and I am not counting the unreleased 1994 Corman film) did a very good job of making you feel like their respective iterations of the team felt like a family, but this film absolutely does. I really believed that Sue and Johnny were actual siblings. I could believe Reed and Ben being best friends. I can buy Reed and Sue being a couple that deeply loves each other. And I can feel the familial bond between all four of them. And I can feel it when these characters are debating what they have to do when Galactus is introduced in the picture.

I am also a big fan of what the script says regarding family and mortality. In terms of family, I already discussed the familial bond between the four leads but I wanted to take a second to talk about what the film says about family. As someone who does not have the best familial situation, this film tells the audience it is not necessarily about the family you are stuck with, it is about the family you choose. Sure, you may fight and have disagreements with your family, but they are the people who will love and care for you when nobody else will. And in terms of mortality, what we do in the face of mortality will define how the world looks at us when the end does come around.

In conclusion, The Fantastic 4: First Steps tells a "fantastic" story about family that will transcend throughout film for a long time after it is out of theaters. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.