The Fantastic Four: First Steps Movie Review

Cindy and I went to the Lux 5 theater in Mitchell, South Dakota on Friday, July 25, 2025 to see the opening of The Fantastic Four: First Steps and this is my review.

We lucked out in that the Lux 5 theater is another one of those nice theaters in a small town that don’t charge a king’s ransom for a ticket. $6 for a senior ticket on a first-run movie! They had 5 theaters and the one we were in was nice, clean, and modern. There were about 30 people, at the most, in a venue that would seat more than 150.

When the movie was first announced, I was VERY excited for it. And, of course, I was hoping that the Marvel Cinematic Universe was finally going to get “it” right after all the previous studios had wrecked Marvel’s First Family. Then, when I saw that Pedro Pascal (an actor I have greatly admired since seeing him in Game of Thrones and even more for his personal stands on issues) was going to be playing Reed Richards, I got even more excited.

But, when the trailers started coming out…I wasn’t sure. It was hard to get a “feel” for the story from them and the special effects looked like they were from several generations ago in quality. I found myself getting a little more excited after the end credits scene of Thunderbolts* showed a space ship with the Fantastic Four logo on it appearing above earth. Then another trailer came out that just failed to fill me with anticipation. I was beginning to think I might even be willing to wait to see it on a streaming service a few months from now.

But, when we had a chance to go on opening day and at such a reasonable price in a smaller town venue that wouldn’t be loaded with rude people, I gave in to my initial excitement and we went.

Set in the early 1960’s on an alternate earth (Earth 828, in fact, because that was co-creator and artist Jack Kirby’s birthday and month), the earth is threatened with destruction by a world-eating entity known as Galactus. This was the same story that I read as an 11 year old in 1966 in issues 48-50 of The Fantastic Four comic book. Some slight differences are the movie has no Watcher and the Silver Surfer is a woman named Shalla Bal, who was the wife of the original male Silver Surfer on Zenn La.

If you read those comic books as I did, then you know the incredible feeling of seeing that story come alive on the big screen.

The movie is full of action and lots of family-related interactions because at the heart of the Fantastic Four is that they are a family. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, they have always been referred to as Marvel’s First Family.

Reed, Mister Fantastic, is as big of a brain as ever. Sue, The Invisible Woman (as was eventually revealed in the comic books) is probably the most powerful of the four. Ben Grimm, The Thing, is past his angry stage by this point in their history and even hot-headed Johnny, The Human Torch, is capable of some pretty smart thinking.

And Galactus looks just like the comics version! Not some big dark cloud like one movie-maker portrayed him.

It makes me SO happy to say, “Marvel, finally got it right!” I wish Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were still alive to see their creations played out on the big screen while remaining mostly faithful to their comic book origins and stories. One small spoiler; though in our world Stan and Jack have passed on, they do have a “cameo” in the movie that will excite long-time fans like myself.

There are two end-credit scenes. You should stay for both of them.

The movie really was so much better than I even first imagined it would be! Thank you Marvel, for staying true to the source material and doing something that I think would have made Stan and Jack proud to have their creations presented in such a manner to the world.

Highly recommend!