Director - Matt Shakman 
Cast - Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson. 
Duration – 114 Minutes
 
Marvel Studios may be calling this The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but it stumbles straight out the gate. Despite a loaded cast, gorgeous visuals, and the long-awaited arrival of Marvel’s First Family in the MCU proper, this movie is more interested in setting the table than actually serving the meal. Yes, it’s ambitious. Yes, it’s sincere. But this origin-lite, emotionally overcooked space opera forgets the one thing fans actually show up for — fun.
 
Set on the alt-universe Earth-828, the film follows Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), years after they gained their powers from a cosmic storm. They’re not discovering their abilities — they’ve already built a utopian world where they’re basically worshipped like futuristic gods. Reed is now a pacifist scientist-dad-to-be, Sue is glowing with maternal pride, Johnny is half the firecracker he should be, and Ben, well… at least he’s consistently miserable. But when the Silver Surfer shows up to warn them about the coming of Galactus — a cosmic threat with an appetite for entire planets — the story finally sparks... and immediately fizzles.
 
The problem? This film is all world-building and no world-shaking. It spends a massive chunk of its 114-minute runtime explaining how Earth-828 functions, how this version of the Fantastic Four operates, and how society reveres them. There are talk shows, parades, emotional fireside chats — but no kinetic energy. There’s a massive villain threat in the form of Galactus, but he’s barely shown. The most awe-inspiring antagonist in Marvel lore — the literal devourer of worlds — is reduced to ominous clouds and a couple of voiceovers.
 
And speaking of threats: where’s the action? Besides one visually interesting battle at the end, the film seems terrified of spectacle. Fans expecting a superpowered showdown, or even just a solid team sequence, will be left scratching their heads. The first and second acts are practically allergic to momentum. For a film trying to reintroduce a legacy team, that’s cinematic malpractice.
 
Even worse, some of the performances are smothered by uneven writing. Vanessa Kirby does her best to bring gravitas to Sue Storm, but she’s constantly tasked with heavy-lifting emotional monologues in a movie that doesn’t earn them. Pedro Pascal, normally charismatic, plays Reed as if he’s always half-asleep or explaining theoretical physics to a brick wall. Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm has none of the fire that made Chris Evans’ version iconic — he’s reined in to the point of irrelevance. Only Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm feels like he belongs here, giving The Thing a genuinely grounded edge.
 
There’s a better movie hidden somewhere in First Steps. You can see flashes of brilliance — in the idea of a superhero family forced to defend their child from a cosmic predator, or in the quiet moments between the Four as they wrestle with guilt and responsibility. But all of that is drowned in slow pacing, chopped-up editing, and a reluctance to just let loose. This is supposed to be a high-concept sci-fi thrill ride, not an awkward Thanksgiving dinner with vague apocalyptic tension.
 
To make things worse, The Fantastic Four: First Steps commits the ultimate MCU sin — it wastes its villain. Galactus should be terrifying, unforgettable, and mythic. Instead, he’s barely a presence. The studio's trend of overpromising and underdelivering its villains continues. Galactus joins the growing graveyard of neutered threats like Kang, Gorr the God Butcher, and Dar-Benn — all big names treated like final bosses in a mobile game.
 
Yes, there’s a mid-credits scene that teases bigger and better things (and trust us, it’s juicy). But if Marvel thinks fans will keep buying tickets just for the next breadcrumb, they’re sorely mistaken. We needed the Fantastic Four to usher in a bold new era for the MCU — instead, we got a muted, risk-averse entry that plays like an expensive pilot episode.
 
The Fantastic Four: First Steps isn’t a disaster — it’s just deeply frustrating. With a stellar cast and decades of lore to mine, this film had the potential to be spectacular. Instead, it takes the scenic route through exposition city, skips the main course, and delivers a final fight that’s too little, too late. Marvel’s First Family deserves better. So do we.