The Fantastic Four: First Steps Review: What Superman Does So Right, The MCU’s Latest Gets Wrong

I don’t pick sides in the Marvel vs. DC debate because it’s never actually made any sense to me: across all media forms – including comics, television, movies and more – both companies have produced absolute brilliance from some of the greatest minds to ever tell stories, and both have also produced plenty of junk and pablum. The breadth of each includes such a wide variety of adventures and dramas that a broad comparison becomes meaningless. Any dedicated Marvel fan could easily discover something to read/watch from DC that would fit their personal tastes, and the same is true for DC fans reading/watching something made by Marvel.

Macro judgement of the two is meaningless… but micro comparison is still totally fair game, and in the month of July 2025, both Marvel Studios and DC Studios are releasing features that are actually fascinating to compare. Director Matt Shakman’s Fantastic Four: First Steps and James Gunn’s Superman respectively hold very different positions within their respective franchises (the former is the 37^th movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe and technically set outside of the canon; the latter is the first blockbuster in the nascent DC Universe), but similar approaches have been taken for both: because of the immense pop culture status of the titular protagonists, filmmakers have felt the freedom to skip over traditional origin stories and instead opt to drop audiences into their already-in-progress lives as heroes.

It’s a logical approach for both – but it yields extremely different results for each, and what the difference comes down to is story vs. plot. In Superman, the personalities, motivations, and aspirations of all the main characters are drawn perfectly clear, and everything that develops is predicated on the actions that they take and the consequences that result. In Fantastic Four: First Steps, on the other hand, things just kinda happen. The whole world has a very specific aesthetic, and the heroes most definitely appear familiar, but there is never any kind of organic growth or natural depth. Everything feels overtly structured as a threat presents itself and impediments to protecting the world arise. Interesting personalities and arcs are non-existent, and it’s all so rote that it becomes boring (truly the last thing that I ever expected an MCU Fantastic Four movie to be).

With screenplay credits belonging to Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer, Fantastic Four: First Steps begins as Marvel’s first family gets the news that it is adding a new member. Four years after a mission in space and an encounter with a cosmic storm that gave them superpowers, Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm a.k.a. The Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby) get the exciting news that they are expecting a baby – much to the joy of Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach). One of the film’s multiple montages then zips through the months that follow, the time including baby proofing and various scientific experimentation, but soon before Sue’s due date, the team is confronted by a visitor from space.

Shalla-Bal a.k.a. Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) zooms down to Times Square and informs the Fantastic Four and the rest of the planet that Earth has been targeted by the world-devouring entity known as Galactus (Ralph Ineson), and their lives will soon be ending. In order to stop this catastrophe, Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben take their first trip to the cosmos since their fateful accident in order to try and negotiate with the voracious Celestial, and it’s there that they are given a choice: the only way that they can save their home and all of humanity is by giving up the unborn baby.

Fantastic Four: First Steps is so focused on its plot that it forgets about its characters.

To be fair to The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the plot points in the narrative are taken from the comics, but as they are collected together in this story, it all feels artificial and shallow. Reed and Sue having a baby isn’t introduced so that we can see how its presence radically changes the lives of the parents; it only happens because it is a means toward setting up the offer to potentially save the world by sacrificing their child (perfect evidence of this: there isn’t even a conversation about the nine-month pregnant Sue sitting out the exceptionally dangerous trip into space because the plot needs Galactus to scan her womb and recognize the fetus’ potential).

It’s all built so rigorously that it dampens the stakes, and the extreme focus on the simple logline plot means that it never takes the time to create unique arcs for the protagonists that help us understand who they really are. It can be said that Reed gets his personal mettle tested as a new father, as it activates his need to intellectualize everything and spikes his anxiety, but that just leaves Sue to be relegated as “emotion-driven, caring mother” – and that’s not much of a part.

Johnny is the most charismatic of the group and suggested to be committed bachelor – but the only way in which his personality is explored is by giving him a PG-rated crush on Silver Surfer (which feels like the only reason the film opted to feature Shalla-Bal instead of the classic Silver Surfer, Norin Radd). The movie has so little idea of what to do with him that his big task in the plot becomes translating Shalla-Bal’s language – which isn’t exactly the excitement you want from the Human Torch.

At the very least, however, it’s better than anything Ben gets to do, which is pretty much nothing. The Thing is a deeply emotionally rich character – the hero who looks at himself in the mirror and sees a monster – but The Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn’t make time for any of that. Instead, his focused screen time is almost entirely limited to just walking around his old neighborhood, impressing school kids with his strength, and flirting with their teacher (Natasha Lyonne), who doesn’t give his rocky appearance a second thought.

There is nothing to complain about when it comes to the cast and the performances, as the spirit of the characters are mostly represented, and there is a natural and effortless chemistry that is instantly recognizable and properly bonds them as a family. But the ensemble is begging for better material that is more focused on what makes them amazing individually and together instead of the flat, apocalyptic plotting that is the sole focus in this blockbuster.

Underwhelming CGI sequences aside, the look of Fantastic Four: First Steps is what makes it special.

There is far more creative energy poured into the look and feel of The Fantastic Four: First Steps compared to the script, and it is a delight unto itself. It doesn’t pack much of a punch when it comes to blockbuster action, as there is minimal effort to uniquely utilize the special abilities of the protagonists and give them standout signature moments, but the retrofuturism swing is the work’s best quality. Full of rounded edges and dynamic shades of blue, Matt Shakman creates a world that feels both cozy and shiny – the result of a wonderful collaboration in cinematography, editing, costuming and production design. And putting the perfect extra flourish on the aesthetic is the tremendous score by Michael Giacchino, driven by powerful strings and an epic chorus.

The throwback vibes are disrupted by sequences of visual effects overload, as beats with Galactus have the look of video game cutscenes, but the overall look of the film is still the best thing it has going for it. An unintended consequence: it’s a shame that we won’t get to see much more of the world, as it seems rich for further exploration, but it seems inevitably that the characters are going to find themselves flung across the multiverse into the main MCU canon.

To say that this is all disappointing would be a great understatement. The Fantastic Four is a beloved superhero group that has had an ugly and bad cinematic history, and when the rights to the characters returned to Marvel Studios via the completion of the Disney/Fox merger in 2019, the expectation was that the heroes were finally in proper creative hands and that a perfect movie would finally be crafted. But Marvel’s stature as an elite blockbuster machine has changed tremendously in the last six years, and that’s reflected in the film that is coming to theaters. Fantastic Four: First Steps has a dynamic look that sets it apart from other titles in the franchise, but it’s lack of depth stops it from feeling properly satisfying.