The Fantastic Four: First Steps by Matt Shakman (2025)
Sure, the mid-century modern aesthetic is fun and cool and retro, and it’s better than the previous Fantastic Four movies — which, we can all admit, is not a very high bar. But First Steps made little impression on me. Indeed, almost a week has passed since I saw it, and I’m only now writing my review because I kind of kept forgetting about it. (Or maybe I was just trying to repress my memories of that uncanny valley version of Franklin Richards.) You’d think that a film starring the Silver Surfer (aka, my favorite superhero) and a comics-accurate rendition of the world-devouring Galactus would merit a bigger reaction from yours truly, but meh. And just for the record, I couldn’t care less about the Surfer being gender-swapped from Norrin Radd to Shalla-Bal (who is Radd’s lover in the comics). I’m more upset that the Silver Surfer, as a character, is largely sidelined by the film and we never get to see a true display of the Power Cosmic. That, and it’s the multiverse, so I’m sure Norrin Radd is surfing the spaceways somewhere in the MCU.
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