By JJ Ledewitz, Arts and Culture Editor
As the 2020s reaches its midpoint, Marvel Studios has appeared to have officially fallen from the status it once had, a trajectory it had been heading toward for some time. Earlier this year alone, the studio saw two box office flops in Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* — while their rival DC Studios’ Superman film soared. There was, it seemed, only one film left to lift Marvel back to its previous elite status.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which released on July 25, 2025, was no ordinary Marvel film; it was a reboot of a popular comic book family, one that had three previous live-action iterations, each of which was a failure in its own right. All Marvel had to do was try their best and hope that this time, they would get it right.
This is the first film of Marvel’s Phase Six, and it is also one of the only Marvel movies in recent years to be entirely self-contained. Set on an alternate retro-futuristic Earth, the film follows Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), her brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) four years after they were exposed to cosmic rays while on a space mission, granting them each superpowers. Since then, they have become the beloved superheroes of their world. But the safety of Earth is put in jeopardy when a silver-clad woman flies down from space, announcing that Earth has been “marked for death” and warning both the Fantastic Four and the citizens that the planet will soon be “devoured” by the being she heralds for, Galactus (Ralph Ineson).
Each character finds their place in the film. Reed is the troubled scientist, certain his calculations are always correct, yet still haunted by the error that caused him and his three teammates to gain their abilities. He and Sue are also preparing to become parents, which is an integral part of the plot in the latter half of the film. While not as well characterized as the others, Johnny’s ladies’ man personality shines when needed, and Ben’s rocky skin — his curse from the event four years ago — weighs down on his self-confidence, though he remains a valuable fighter, even if not as present in the film as the others. That said, all four members of the team feel like a family.
Director Matt Shakman delightfully decorates this version of Manhattan with tall retro-futuristic buildings, embracing the vision people had of the future in the 1960s. The clothing, the technology, the food, the branding — everything in this world feels old and new at the same time, evoking a feeling of faded familiarity and the wonder of the unknown.
Unlike the unreleased Fantastic Four film from the 1990s, the 2005 Fantastic Four, its 2007 sequel and the gritty Fant4stic from 2015, this film skips the characters’ origin stories. Instead, it offers a fun, documentary-style montage of their trip into space, their newfound superpowers and the supervillains they fight on a weekly basis. This grants the characters a natural bond and allows the viewer to jump right into the action.
Although the film is generally easy to follow, it is clear that a lot of the film was edited, and parts were entirely deleted. Certain subplots go nowhere, and certain characters have important introductions and barely show up again, and other characters do barely anything but are in too many scenes than they deserve to be. Legendary actor John Malkovitch was supposed to play a role in the film, even appearing in multiple trailers for it, but he was nowhere to be found at all. What is left after the heavy editing is still a good film, but it is clear that the film that was released was not the same film that was planned.
Overall, this is a fun superhero film, albeit with a few minor issues. Still, it proves to be one of Marvel’s strongest post-Endgame showings, and it promises a bright future ahead for each of the four leads.
Photo Credit: Unsplash