Fantastic Four: First Steps
Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) is one of the most anticipated movies of the year, but for me, one of the most underwhelming movies of the year.
The film features the Fantastic Four, Sue Storm (The Invisible Woman), played by Vanessa Kirby, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), played by Pedro Pascal, Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), played by Joseph Quinn, and Ben Grimm (The Thing), played by Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Out of the main four cast, Joseph Quinn is by far the standout. Unlike previous versions of the character, notably Fantastic Four (2005), Johnny comes off as really smart, as he is in the comics, and plays arguably the most important role in the third act. The other three do alright performances, but nothing special. The film’s villain is Galactus, played by Ralph Ineson, a giant, and his herald, the Silver Surfer, played by Julia Garner. Whose aim is to eat the planet that houses the Fantastic Four, to feed Galactus’ eternal hunger.
The plot is really the weak point of the movie for us, though. The start shows a montage of some battles that the Fantastic Four have been in, and this is the only action until about halfway through the movie! Meaning this first half is just a bore to get through. This is due to the revelation that Sue and Reed are having a baby, and are trying to study it to see if he has powers. Then, the Silver Surfer comes and tells them that Galactus is coming and then leaves. The Fantastic Four then go on a rocket to see Galactus, who tells them that the only way to stop him from eating their planet is by giving up the baby, Franklin, who Galactus believes can end his hunger with his powers. They, of course, refuse to give him up and start to leave, but the Silver Surfer chases them to get Franklin.
This is arguably the best scene in the movie, where the Silver Surfer chases their spaceship to get Franklin, but what ruins this scene is the fact that Sue is going through labour while it happens, which means that all you can hear and focus on is the screaming, which just makes the scene so annoying. They end up escaping back to Earth by going invisible and losing her near a black hole.
The movie follows the people of Earth coming together to build teleports to teleport Earth away to where Galactus won’t get them, but then The Silver Surfer destroys them, and they come up with a new plan to lure Galactus in and teleport just him away by using Franklin as bait. He takes this bait, grows smaller, and they eventually push him in and teleport him away with the help of Sue, who dies in the process, and The Silver Surfer, who gets convinced to help by Johnny. Don’t worry, though, Sue gets revived by Franklin.
With enjoyable enough characters, good CGI, but as I have explained a silly and most of the time boring plot that drags the movie down to what we believe is a fair rating of 71%
