Title: The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Director: Matt Shakman
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner
Where: Showing in Theatres
Rating: **1/2
In The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Marvel returns to the drawing board—this time armed with chalk, retro optimism, and the ever-dependable Pedro Pascal. What emerges is a nostalgic time capsule disguised as a superhero film, styled like a 60s domestic sitcom—with just enough planetary peril to justify the PG-13.
For those weary of needing a PhD in Multiverse Studies to watch an MCU film, this one’s mercifully light on lore. No portals. No cameos from alternate versions of your dry cleaner. Just four space-exposed astronauts turned superheroes, grappling with impending parenthood and a cosmic apocalypse in equal measure. It’s Marvel’s most earnest attempt in years to feel fun again—though occasionally, it mistakes fun for fluff.
Director Matt Shakman skips the usual backstory routine and throws us straight into a world where flying cars are nothing new and chalkboards still rule the lab. Set in a cheerful, candy-coloured version of the 1960s, the film is drenched in retro-futuristic style—think blue uniforms, white boots, and a robot nanny named H.E.R.B.I.E. who looks like he could’ve walked out of an animated film like WALL-E. The setting is undeniably fun to look at, though at times it feels more like a movie set than a real world.
Pedro Pascal brings a weary warmth to Reed Richards, the stretchable genius with a heart as elastic as his limbs. Vanessa Kirby, as Sue Storm, doubles as both invisible heroine and moral compass—plus she gives birth mid-battle without losing her eyeliner. Joseph Quinn’s Johnny Storm gets to flirt with a chrome-plated Silver Surfer (Julia Garner, sleek and strangely underused), while Ebon Moss-Bachrach's Ben Grimm grumbles soulfully under a mountain of CGI rocks. Their chemistry as an imperfect-yet-devoted family just about holds the film together when the plot begins to float off like space debris.
But “First Steps” is oddly light on suspense. Galactus—the devourer of worlds—feels less terrifying than tired, like he too might be suffering from franchise fatigue. Julia Garner’s Surfer arrives like a celestial HR manager to inform Earth it’s been downsized, and the team zips off into space for a final act that’s more glowy lights and emotional platitudes than tension or thrill.
Still, there’s something admirably quaint about the whole affair. It dares to be smaller, simpler, more heartfelt—even if it occasionally forgets to be compelling. The family dynamics sing, the production design pops, and the pace rarely drags. Yet it often feels like Marvel dipped a toe into reinvention, then pulled it back quickly lest the water be too cold.
For all its commendable restraint, First Steps doesn’t quite soar. It’s a charming starter course, but not the full feast promised by Marvel’s next “Phase.” Like H.E.R.B.I.E., it’s helpful and likable—but not exactly built for battle.
Still, in a cinematic universe where more is often mistaken for better, this modest, mid-century reboot might just be the palate cleanser we didn’t know we needed.
