Fantastic Four: First Steps – Finally Not Trash Tier. YAY.

I went in with the bar on the floor. Because c’mon… I’ve seen the other Fantastic Four movies. And the reboots. All of them. But finally, with a little MCU sauce and Kevin Feige fairy dust, the Fantastic Four got their redemption arc. They’re no longer the punchline of superhero cinema.

Not only did Marvel not mess this up, they actually dropped the F4 into the MCU with multiverse logic that works. No Avengers cameos. No forced Stark tech connection. Just the team doing what they do best. Big science. Big space. Big heart. Big chaos.

Story / Writing – Good. Not God-Tier. But It Finally Makes Sense

For once, it didn’t feel like the plot was written by a fanboy raised on Capcom cutscenes and bad Reddit theories. The stakes were cosmic. The team dynamics worked. Galactus wasn't just a cloud with a deep voice. He had a presence. The Silver Surfer (yes, her, this time) had actual agency. Her internal conflict hit. She wasn’t just a shiny plot device with no lines.

And then there’s the big swing: Reed and Sue use their baby to bait Galactus. Yes. baby Franklin. I can accept that. What I can’t accept is that the distraction stroller was completely empty. No doll. No heat signature. No baby-smell decoy, not even the baby monitor that was already built and available at home? Reed Richards, self-proclaimed smartest man alive, dropped the intergalactic parenting ball like it was radioactive.

But beyond that scene, the writing moves with intention. There’s no slow origin rewind. They are the Fantastic Four from scene one. No wasted exposition. No lab accident retelling. Just the fam, a galactic threat, and a tight clock.

Acting – I Wanted Jim and Emily like everyone else did, But This Cast Slaps

Let’s be honest. We all mentally fan-casted John Krasinski and Emily Blunt. But Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby stepped up and made it their own. Pascal’s Reed felt burdened in a good way. Like every choice he made had weight. Kirby’s Sue was the calm in the storm, but you knew she was ready to unleash full mama bear mode if someone looked at Franklin the wrong way.

Johnny Storm was... finally tolerable. And even likable. A nice shift from how douchey he was when we got a little reminder in Deadpool & Wolverine. And Ben Grimm, the shaving gag worked. Let the Thing crack a smile once in a while. He deserves it.

Only issue? Galactus needed more than three scenes and a closing speech. If you're gonna bring out the Devourer of Worlds, let him cook! Well..err…let him eat!

Originality – Not New, But Not Reheated Trash Either

It’s not a genre-breaker. But it doesn’t feel copy-pasted from another Marvel script either. The team earns their win. No magic rock. No portal army. No surprise god cameo. Just problem-solving, teamwork, and actual stakes.

They used their brains to outplay Galactus, not just throw blue lasers at him until the screen went white. Honestly, after the moral conundrum endings of Thunderbolts and Brave New World, it was nice to see the good guys win without the villain suddenly deciding they’re just tired of themselves.

Vibes – The First F4 Movie That Didn’t Make You Cringe

It was a good vibes movie. No qualifiers. For the first time, this franchise wasn’t complete ass. The pacing was smooth. The runtime didn’t drag. The script had a purpose. It gave us time to understand this version of the family before launching them into cosmic chaos.

They laughed. They argued. They solved science problems. It felt like a family. Not four people shoved into matching jumpsuits because Disney needed to hit a quota. The tone hit that perfect retro-futuristic balance without being too camp or too self-serious.

Getting the Fantastic Four into the MCU and making them feel like they belong? That’s a vibe. That’s the vibe.

Impact – Reed Richards: Smartest Man Alive, Dumbest Dad Alive

This is the best Fantastic Four movie ever made. That’s a low bar, but this one cleared it like it was nothing. The cast works. The dynamics feel real. The stakes hit. It’s fun and smart and not embarrassed to be weird. It gets cosmic without losing the human stuff.

But I’ll never recover from Reed’s empty stroller. You built a cosmic scanning baby monitor thingy and forgot to put anything in the decoy? A stuffed animal. A potato with googly eyes. Something. Anything.

Also minor gripe, the post-credits scene in Thunderbolts teases they’re in Earth-616, but this movie still gives zero answers. That’ll probably get unpacked in Doomsday or Secret Wars. I’m not panicking. But a little explanation would have been nice.