THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS

'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' follows Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal, 'Materialists', 'Gladiator II'), Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby, 'Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One', 'Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw'), Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, TV's 'The Bear', 'No Hard Feelings') and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn, Netflix's 'Stranger Things', 'A Quiet Place: Day One'), who after a trip to space, return to Earth with superpowers. This found family forms the team Fantastic Four and end up as the planet's protectors. The team have become celebrities in their own right, and Sue and Reed are expecting their first child. When Shall-Bal, AKA the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner, 'Wolf Man', 'The Assistant') arrives on Earth, she comes with the message that Galactus (Ralph Ineson, 2025's 'Nosferatu', 'The Creator'), the planet destroyer, is coming to Earth next. Now the 'Fantastic Four' face their biggest threat yet.

'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' is the first time this team has been pulled off successfully in the theatrical space. While I have a soft spot for the 2005 films, they are hot messes, whereas this 2025 team is a pure delight to watch. The chemistry the core four have is truly encapsulating.

The film is set in an alternate reality on an Earth that's in the 60s. The production design is incredible, and they do a lot of really fun stuff with this setting. I was worried after 'Captain Marvel's' promise of a 90s setting, but did nothing with it. Here, they completely lean into the setting, and I shouldn't have been worried, as 'WandaVision' director Matt Shakman was behind the lens here. This is one of the first Marvel films that really felt like it was delivering on its setting promises; a lot of the time they all feel like Marvel films, but 'The Fantastic Four: First Steps' is truly something else with its fun 60s setting.

My gripe with this film is more with where we are in the MCU. It's a fantastic (tee-hee) stand-alone film, and while, of course, it lays some ground work for future films, we still are a year out from the next 'Avengers' movie, and most of the new characters have not even met each other - and in this case, they aren't even in the same universe yet. The last two phases for Marvel have been rocky to say the least, but I'm curious to see just how they will pull off this new version of the 'Avengers' when there feels like there is so much groundwork still to cover. This is not to say I wanted this film to be more of a lead-in to 'Doomsday'; I really enjoyed how standalone this was, and it took me back to those first MCU films. It's just still so wild to me that a big crossover event is coming and we are still missing huge pieces of the set-up for that.

It took four official attempts, but we finally have a 'Fantastic Four' film that is a celebration of the iconic family's long history. Like 'Thunderbolts*' earlier this year, it feels like the MCU is back on track - and together, those two films have brought some life back to this struggling franchise.