The best thing about First Steps is the aesthetic. It’s far and away my favorite part of this film, and that’s a problem because as much as I do enjoy a solid retrofuturistic aesthetic, it’s not enough to make a mediocre movie worth watching. This is all style over substance.

Note: Be aware there are spoilers for “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” in the article below.

Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ introduces powerful new characters to the MCU, and ends with tease for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’—here’s the ending and post-credits scene, explained.

Fantastic Four First Steps cut John Malkovich's Red Ghost but Marvel Studios should use that footage as a one-shot.

As promised last year by Disney CEO Bob Iger, Marvel Studios has scaled back to only 2-3 feature film releases each year, and with "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" in theaters, that's it for the 2025 lineup.

This iteration of the Fantastic Four has a standalone adventure without all the burden of the MCU's history and cast of characters.

So it’s counterintuitive that Trank’s film revisits the origins of Reed Richards (Miles Teller), Sue Storm (Kate Mara), Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan), and Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), going back even further than the usual Fantastic Four starting point to spend 10 minutes on Reed and Ben’s childhood friendship.

Does Reed Richards have the worst superpowers in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? The Fantastic Four: First Steps makes the case.