The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Matt Shakman, July 25, 2025) Movie • Page 33

Just got out. Loved this. I think they nailed the characters for sure. I'll add more thoughts later, but so excited to see more of this cast in Doomsday.

 

super mediocre but the avatar trailer whipped

 

Overall, this was fine. Sue and Mole man were highlights. I agree that coming out so soon after Superman did it no favors.

The humor also fell very flat for me and rest of the audience except one specific guy that laughed at everything. He also loudly pointed out that Ben Grimm is being played by an actor from The Bear like he was sharing a piece of obscure knowledge.

 

Avatar trailer went crazy

 

Didn't know there was a new trailer for Avatar, that's awesome

 

Was it not attached to yours?

 

I won't be seeing it until next weekend unfortunately, I'm flying out for a business trip tomorrow so I've been busy preparing for that

 

My favorite part of the film was during the opening commercials where a guy talking loudly on his phone was decimated by a woman yelling "Excuse me, we paid to hear the movie, not your conversation."

Anyway, like with Superman, I love how this movie drops the concepts of Mole Man and Subterrania with no real explanation. You're either on-board or deal with it. Disappointed at no Moloids though.

Also felt the scenes between Ben and Natasha Lyonne's character were really unnecessary and if anything had to be cut, I'd rather that than John goddamned Malkovich. Felt like it added nothing.

I liked how Johnny was played a lot smarter and more invested than I think he normally is. The fact that he took the time to decipher Surfer's language, I wouldn't expect that from the character typically, and I think it elevates him to have him contribute like that.

Kirby really captured Sue's Mama Bear tendencies, loved her yelling at Johnny to straight up kill Surfer. And I felt like Pascal balanced Reed's pragmatism with enough genuine heart to not lean into the comic's more arrogant tendencies.

I do agree the film was surprisingly less comedic than I expected, but I thought Ben and Johnny had a good dynamic, although the "sexy aliens" line felt dumb. I enjoyed the car scene at the end though, very much a stereotype but I thought it worked. Expected Sue to step in and was surprised when she didn't.

Going back to Lyonne's character, and I am probably thinking too hard about this, but is it possible that she's Alicia Masters and just not going by that name to hide from her father? Since Puppet Master was name dropped?

Just trying to imagine why a couple scenes of Ben very awkwardly talking with her would be more important for the film than John goddamned Malkovich.

 

Thought this was great honestly

 

I do not care for Paul Walter Hauser

 

I… liked this I guess?

The cast was perfect. The aesthetic and tone was spot on. The music was great. Everything on a vibes level was fantastic. And, lots of good moments. At the start of the movie, I was like, oh, maybe this rules.

But, the pacing felt off for a lot of the movie, and a lot of the story fell flat. Pretty disappointed that the performances, visuals, and general energy didn’t have the base or space to thrive like I think it could have.

Hopefully this cast & director get something stronger to work with next time.

 

I see people talk about pacing in reference to things and I guess I don't understand what's meant by that.

 

I felt like things were moving at a really fast pace, and not in the intentional way that, say, Superman did. It’s like they cut the runtime of this, not by removing whole sequences, but by editing so tightly that some parts didn’t get a chance to breathe and have impact.

I’m generally a fan of making these things shorter, but this one would’ve worked better with, say, a two and a half hour runtime. (Though, there are also story decisions throughout that didn’t work for me, separate from the pacing.)

 

on second watch, pacing was not one of the issues i had with this. feels fine.

 

I've been reading a lot of people speculate if Marvel has some kind of mandate now to keep these films below a certain runtime, and I'm starting to wonder if that's true myself.

BNW, Thunderbolts, and this all had scenes and plot points excised and I think it's to their detriment, because there are points that could have been expanded on or things that would've been cool to see that didn’t make it for silly reasons.

Going back to my criticism of the Lyonne scenes, I wonder if there were scenes cut that would've made her presence more impactful, because what we got added nothing to the film. And I know there were Mole Man scenes cut too.

 

So what hopes does everyone have for the inevitable sequel?

Now that we've gotten past Galactus and since Doom will be used shortly, I'm wondering who they'd select for the villains/hook of the story.

Because of the way the MCU has taken place, concepts like the Skrulls and Namor that would typically be associated with Fantastic Four are already out in the wild, so it doesn't make sense to retread.

I think the most obvious would be the Negative Zone, and introduce Blastaar and more importantly, Annihilus. But, and this is admittedly an infinitessimally low chance, I wonder if they'll use the Four to reintroduce the concept of the Inhumans?

Either way, I would like the Four to remain true to being explorers, so I would hope any future film would involve them journeying somewhere else and not necessarily tackling something in their city.

They've already confirmed the existence of Red Ghost, Mad Thinker, Diablo, Wizard, and Puppet Master, so I imagine they wouldn't be name dropped if they were going to show up, although I do wonder about Puppet Master and Alicia Masters (still wondering if Rachel Rozman is a fake name).

If they did show up, probably just as an opening fight. Figure a main villain would be someone the team had never met before.

I would like to see more done with Ben. We saw a brief scene of him pondering his old appearance and we're seeing brief scenes of him trying to live a normal life, but I wonder if we'll delve into any internal struggles about him being what he is.

They did briefly touch on Reed blaming himself for the incident, wonder if they'll start talking about any attempts he's made to reverse Ben's transformation.

Lastly, and just an aside, between Galactus and the Celestials, we now have two ticking time bombs in two separate universes that are potential apocalyptic threats for their respective worlds... wondering if we'll see them again sooner than later...

 

More Mole Man

 

It would be great to actually see Subterrania in all its glory.

 

Fantastic Four with Chiklis was better, but this is still solid.

 

Another thought I had, and not that I'd want this, but a Fantastic Four sequel, assuming it's in the Sacred Timeline, may not be a bad place to pick up on the Eternals and Celestial plotline.

I have to assume Marvel is only gonna use big names for the near future, so I can only see that plot thread picking up there or in a New Guardians film.

 

We’ll have the “new” reality that forms during/after Secret Wars. It depends on what is kept from Earth-828. I can see some of the tech, the Baxter building, and possibly a district of the aesthetic existing in the “new” New York. Subterrania would be nice.

There are rumors that one of the next big bads is Annihilus, so perhaps the F4 sequel will relate/build to that

 

Didnt really like this at all and it might be one of my least favorite marvels on first reaction. Found it pretty drab and boring, and the characters paper thin. Great visuals and some cool moments but meh.

 

Saw this again today. Other than wanting a more fleshed out scene as part of the team's establishing montage (Red Ghost would've been cool, but Mole Man would've made more narrative sense), I feel like they do a good job of giving scenes the space they need to breathe while keeping the plot going. I really liked giving Johnny the role of appealing to Surfer's empathy by decoding her language/the transmissions. Great payoff to him being so obsessed with space at the start of the movie