ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Fantastic Four: First Steps Doesn't Hold Up - Movie Re-View

Episode Date: October 16, 2025

ScreenCrush The Podcast tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals.

Welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and I think I was wrong about Fantastic Four first steps. So when I first saw the movie, I mean, I was thrilled to finally see the Fantastic Four portrayed loyally on screen with a huge budget and kind of part of the MCU. But, you know, when I watch movies for work, I'm also spending a lot of time looking for Easter eggs or thinking of different follow-up videos. So I don't usually have the time to sit and think about the movie as much as I would like. You know, the movie as a story. But now I saw it once more in theaters, not for work.

I've seen it twice on digital. I just don't think it's that good. It's got some pretty big problems that I want to talk to you guys about. And more importantly, I'm going to talk to you about why I think the studio made these mistakes. But first, let me talk about why I think my first impression was so rosy. One, I am a massive fan of the Fantastic Four comics, and I love seeing loyal adaptations on screen. Like, parts of this movie seem like they're lifted straight from those Jack Kirby comics.

And I love that Stan and Jack had inserts in the movie, just like how they wrote themselves into the early issues of the comic. And getting Galactus as like an actual dude, dude and not a cloud. Like that's the stuff dreams are made of. Hey now, hey now. The movie's filled with charismatic actors, amazing visual effects. Why, it's a whiz-bang adventure the whole family can enjoy. But was it an actual good movie? Not really. I mean, when I rewatched it for the last time in theaters, I didn't have to do it for

work, I was just a guy watching a movie and not thinking of videos to make. And that's when I realized that the movie treated its characters and its source material with too much reverence. Marvel was afraid to give these characters any flaws. It's like instead of a doubt adapting a comic book, they adapted a coloring book. We're constantly being told who these characters are. Johnny loves space. Johnny loves women. We are told about Sue's past. When Johnny and I were kids, our parents were in a car crash.

Our dad was driving and he lived, but our mom didn't. But we don't ever get to actually see any of these traits at work and actually affect the story. I mean, think about it. Is there a character development in this film? Does a single character start off one way and then go through a series of personal obstacles, and then come out different on the other side. Well, no, not really, but Captain America didn't really change in his movies. No, that's true.

Steve Rogers doesn't change, but the world around him does change. But we're going to talk about the world in this movie and how it doesn't change either. Everything is extremely static. The Fantastic Four Begin the movie is a fully formed, mature unit, and they end the movie the same way. Like, let me go through them one at a time. When the movie starts, Reed Richards is a brilliant control freak who is worried about how he can protect the world. And the movie proves that he was right to be a control freak, and he was right to constantly worry about how to protect the world.

After all, a guy almost ate his planet. Sue begins the movie as a brilliant diplomat who loves her family. But by the end of the movie, she is a brilliant diplomat who successfully negotiated asylum for all New Yorkers and then dies defending her family. Ben begins the movie as a lovable freak who's okay with not looking human anymore. But throughout the movie, he becomes a lovable freak who's okay with not looking human anymore.

But with a beer. And Johnny begins the movie as a womanizing celebrity scientist who overcomes all of that to use, his science skills to gain the affection of a woman from outer space. You see where I'm going with this. No one has an arc in the movie because all of their character development already happened off screen. Right do you mean? So for me the most frustrating thing about the movie is that the characters did change and grow, we just don't get to see it. Or this growth is like barely acknowledged. For instance, it's implied that Ben used to be melancholy about his condition. There's a

scene where he's watching his old self on TV and when it flickers off, he looks kind of sad when he sees his monstrous reflection. And there's another scene where Reid starts to apologize for what happened to Ben, but then he nips it in the bud. In the comics, Ben spent years gaining this kind of emotional growth and self-actualization. In the early comics, he's self-loathing to the point of violent eruptions, constantly stalking off and leaving the team. But this movie glossed over all of that, and it just showed him as this kind, gentle man who isn't interesting. And in the comics, Reed feels tremendous guilt over what happened to his family, especially what happened to Ben. And this is why he started to apologize to Ben.

I could have known to stop, please. But unless you knew that backstory from the comics, I don't think you would really catch what the heck they were even talking about. And here's something else that's implied. So in the movie, Johnny really wants Reed to finish the spacesuits. Johnny wants to go to space. He wistfully looks at the rocket and everything. But Reed is reluctant, they never really tell us why.

I mean, well, if you're very good at reading context clues, you know it's because Reed is afraid and he does not want another accident to hurt his family. But instead of using that fear to create conflict, Reid immediately agrees to go into space to face Galactus. It's such an abrupt choice, I don't even know why they bother to have him reluctant to go into space to begin with. There's never a scene where he says, I don't know if we can go into space, remember what happened last time, this could be worse. He is reluctant for Sue to go into space because she's pregnant, but that's about it,

and we never really get this arc for Reid that he has to overcome his personal fears. And in the comics, Johnny is an immature, womanizing heartthrob, but in the movie, he's already grown past that point emotionally. Instead of seeing him go on dates or like appear in some kind of beach movie, he's just always on time for dinner. He's a responsible guy. We also don't get the antagonistic relationship between Ben and Johnny from the comics. Instead, it's more playful teasing about his catchphrase. What time is it Ben?

No, Johnny. Say it. I don't want to. I think the filmmakers were so obsessed with making the characters likable that they forgot to include what makes the Fantastic Four work, what makes them relatable. They are human beings first. They fight each other.

They have self-doubt. They're flawed. Whereas the people in this movie are so perfect, they fix the entire planet in the first 10 minutes of the film. But I also think the movie squandered its 1960s setting. Like the retro future was such a fun idea. It could have been a chance to really see superheroes in a different era and see how the world reacted differently to them. I'm also a huge fan of retro shows like Mad Men and for All Mankind. And seeing like 1960s fashion and design at the center of this film would have been a gas. But the problem is, when we are introduced to this world, it's already been radically changed and bears no resemblance to our own version of the 1960s. I mean, think about it. The 1960s setting in this movie didn't matter. It could have easily been set

modern day and it would have pretty much been the same film. I mean, the FF created a utopia in the opening montage. So then the main conflict of the movie becomes, well, would they give up their baby to save this world? And I think there's something to that they could have done more with. Like, what if their fragile world peace they built fell apart? And the FF actually had to contend with, you know, failure. But That doesn't happen because this team is just not allowed to fail. For about five minutes in the movie, it seems like the world is mad at them. There's a brief news report about people being unhappy, and then Ben says, Guys, it's getting bad out there.

And then outside the Baxter building, there's like two or three hundred people complaining. And then Sue gives one inspirational speech, and then Reed comes up with a solution, and then the world believes in the Fantastic Four once again. To quote one of my favorite YouTubers, pitch meeting, everything is super easy, barely an inconvenience. And let me tell you guys, Just in my lifetime, I've lived through some shit, I've lived through some unrest. But the fake riots in this movie were nothing compared to the real riots I've seen in my lifetime

and especially not compared to the riots of the actual 1960s. I mean, we should have seen real unrest when Galactus showed up. We should have seen the FF intervening in mass panic. I mean, they're superheroes. Maybe they could have used their powers to intervene in a riot instead of delivery to speech to a small crowd that somehow then inspires the entire planet. But all of these problems, I think, stemmed from the same bad decision. We need to see this team's origin on screen.

I think Kevin Feige and director Matt Shackman might have chosen to skip the origin story because we've seen it on screen before. Most notably in the 2005 film because the 2015... Doesn't, doesn't count. I mean, after all, they did skip over Retelling Spider-Man's Origin in 2017 Spider-Man Homecoming. But here's the thing. Tom Holland was our third Spider-Man in 10 years,

so it was okay to skip that origin story. But it had been 20 years since the last actual Fantastic Four film, 20 years since we saw their origin on screen. So we completely could have gotten that origin retold and it would have been fresh and new to the audience. I mean, you could have been born after that 2005 film and legally be allowed to vote and buy chewing tobacco. You see, origin stories are not about how heroes got their powers.

They're about showing how the powers change people. There is a clear arc from Tony Stark, selfish playboy to becoming Iron Man, self-sacrificing hero, or from selfish Peter Parker to a man who sacrifices his own happiness to protect others. But first steps skipped all of that. We didn't see their first steps. We saw like their fifth steps. We never saw how the characters grew as people

after getting their strange powers. We didn't see that alone. They were miserable and isolated, so they had to become a family. When we meet them, they're already a perfect family unit that's always on time for Sunday dinner. And this, I think, extends to the world they created.

We didn't see people scared of the thing. We didn't see the problems with disarming the entire world. Like, let's imagine, for instance, that the Fantastic Four were in the middle of trying to end the Cold War. But then Galactic, showed up. That would put their fragile world peace to the test. Cold War escalates as the Fantastic Four trying to tell the world that they have to trust each other or they were all die. Like for instance,

the movie Arrival did this with the world governments distrusting each other and then they're forced to share information about the aliens and it was a riveting drama. But instead in this movie, the US and Russia are already cool with each other. They've disarmed. Or like imagine if in our own 1960s a super team would have appeared. Think about the enormous social upheaval that would have caused, particularly with the Soviet Union being scared of the United States. But instead, all of these complex geopolitical issues and character imperfections were glossed over in that opening montage. Not to mention, there were numerous plot lines that were cut like John Malkovich as the Red Ghost, and I think cutting these plot lines probably undermined character development.

Great stories challenge their characters, but this movie was really easy on these people. Well, right, but the big guy wanted to eat their baby, and then they had to decide whether or not they were going to let him eat her baby. Sure, but did you guys ever think for a sense? second they were going to surrender their baby? Was there ever a doubt they would do the right thing or find a way to save their planet? It was like the filmmakers had such reverence for the source material that they played it safe all the way through the film. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not hate this movie. I think it's a really fun Marvel film. And that chase sequence with

the Silver Surfer that culminates in Franklin's birth, it is one of the most exhilarating, heartwarming scenes in any Marvel movie. Because in that moment, I fully related to these people. I mean, they have a really relatable motivation. They're trying to protect. a baby and a mother. And I also love this cast. I think they are the perfect Fantastic Four, and I'm looking forward to seeing them appear in more movies. But next time, I want the filmmakers to take off the gloves and really hurt these people, challenge them to grow and change, just like we've seen them grow and change over decades in the comics. Overall, the film does not have the emotional complexity of the Thunderbolts or even the Looney Tunes Fun of Deadpool and Wolverine.

This feels more like a studio that was drenched in flop sweat, and they just wanted to deliver a safe spectacle that appeased fans. Mission accomplished. Well, whoopty do. Get out. But what did you guys think of Fantastic Four First Steps? Is it overrated? Is it underrated? Do you think I'm wrong? Please let me know down in the comments or at me on Twitter, Blue Sky Threads or are free to join Discord server. And if it's your first time here, my gosh, welcome to the channel. Please subscribe, smash that bell for alerts. For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Airy.