I don’t know what it is about summertime that brings out movie production companies attempting to shove as many big screen blockbusters at us that they can.
I mean, I still have a bit of superhero fatigue and am cautiously eyeing the coming weeks for something new or at least a novel idea with a slight twist in the storyline.
Honestly, I didn’t plan on liking “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” very much at all despite the stellar cast.
I suppose a lot of that is due to them not being as big a deal as other comic franchises while I was growing up.
Still, this reboot isn’t without its own charms at times – especially if you’re a fan of 1960s culture.
It took time for the movie to win me over, so, I won’t be surprised if it falls flat for a few folks.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a 2025 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Fantastic Four.
Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the 37th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and the second reboot of the Fantastic Four film series.
The film was directed by Matt Shakman from a screenplay by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, and the team of Jeff Kaplan and Ian Springer.
It features an ensemble cast including Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn as the titular team, alongside Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, and Ralph Ineson.
The movie is rated PG-13 for action/violence and some language and is 114 minutes long – including a mid-credits scene.
In Earth-828, a retrofuturistic universe, 1964 Manhattan celebrates the fourth anniversary of astronauts Reed Richards (Pascal), Sue Storm (Kirby), Ben Grimm (Moss-Bachrach), and Johnny Storm (Quinn) becoming the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four.
They gained superhuman abilities from exposure to cosmic rays during a space mission.
Since then, the group have become celebrities, fought supervillains, Reed’s inventions have progressed technology for the world, and Sue’s diplomacy via the Future Foundation organization has led to global demilitarization and peace.
When Reed and Sue reveal that they are expecting a child, the world prepares for the new arrival and questions whether the child will also have superpowers.
The Silver Surfer (Garner) comes to Earth and declares that the planet has been marked for destruction by Galactus, a planet-devouring cosmic being.
Reed studies the disappearance of other planets to verify this claim, and the team decides to find Galactus before he comes to Earth.
They track the Silver Surfer’s energy signature and use faster-than-light (FTL) travel to reach a new planet.
As they arrive, the planet is destroyed by Galactus’s ship and the team is captured.
Galactus reveals that he has an insatiable hunger which has driven him to consume planets for eons.
He senses that Reed and Sue’s unborn son has immense cosmic power and would be able to take on Galactus’s hunger, freeing himself from it.
Galactus offers to spare Earth in exchange for the child, and induces Sue to go into labor.
The team refuses and escapes from the ship only to be pursued by the Silver Surfer.
The Silver Surfer destroys their FTL system mid-warp jump and forces the team to try and evade her in a black hole.
They use the gravity from a black hole to delay the Silver Surfer and send themselves back to Earth.
However, it isn’t that easy and the gravity pull threatens to kill them all before they can make it back to Earth.
Per usual, things continue to get hairy for the superheroes before they’ve got a chance to face Galactus again.
Overall, I found the movie fairly decent and am more than glad it didn’t go through the team’s origin story step-by-step.
