The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | Release Date: July 25, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Critic Reviews
Positive:
32
Mixed:
19
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJul 24, 2025
Making your characters relatable, likable, charming and vulnerable might seem to be a fairly obvious assignment, but it conflicts with the comic-book-movie urge to make its characters completely and devastatingly awesome. In getting back to basics, “First Steps” proves to be easily the best superhero movie of the year. Read full review
90
SlashfilmWitney SeiboldJul 22, 2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set in a world that I wouldn't mind living in. Even if there are occasional, ineffable cosmic deities plotting to devour me, and terrifying silver aliens ripping my soul apart with their eyes. "First Steps" is a superhero movie where we're already better. And I love that. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesDominic BaezJul 22, 2025
It’s heartfelt, action-packed and just plain fun (and comes with an intriguing mid-credit scene you don’t want to miss). Fantastic indeed. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkJul 22, 2025
This is a film that projects an unflinching sincerity and optimism, and the first in the MCU, a franchise that has brought much of Marvel Comics’s wildest flights of fancy to life, to really channel the spirit of Kirby’s creations and how that first endeared them to audiences. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJul 22, 2025
This is a solid, intelligent, occasionally inspired comic book movie that delivers most of what a popular audience demands from the genre (including interstellar voyages and massively scaled action sequences) plus a little bit more. Read full review
83
ConsequenceLiz Shannon MillerJul 22, 2025
Calling First Steps the best Fantastic Four movie yet is accurate and also easy, thanks to the low-budget hilarity of 1994's Roger Corman-produced effort, the two lackluster (and blatantly sexist) 2000s movies, and Josh Trank's 2015 disaster. Yet just on its own merits, it's a solid comic book adventure that's not embarrassed by being a comic book adventure — in fact it finds real power in its love for its roots. Read full review
80
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Radheyan SimonpillaiJul 25, 2025
The Fantastic Four is here for a proper reset – a buoyant and frequently dazzling one at that, which sort of makes up for the failed movie adaptations of Marvel’s first family from the past. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineJarrod JonesJul 25, 2025
More than a solid MCU entry, First Steps is among the most vivid, peculiar, and emotionally present superhero films of the past decade. Read full review
80
iChristina NewlandJul 23, 2025
It is a convincing, emotionally arresting, and visually appealing antidote to the complex muddle of so many recent superhero films. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 22, 2025
There’s no bold genre reinvention afoot in this reboot, and its thwart-the-baddies plot remains bound to familiar equations, though at least now the equations actually balance. Read full review
80
LooperDominic GriffinJul 22, 2025
The film is not exactly exemplary or paradigm shifting, but it is entertaining, heartfelt, earnest, and largely unashamed of its comic book origins. Read full review
80
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJul 22, 2025
Matt Shakman has done something Marvel Studios doesn’t do very well anymore. He’s made a superhero movie that embraces the 'super' part. And the 'hero' part. And the 'movie' part. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 22, 2025
True to its subtitle, the film feels like a fresh start. And like this summer’s blockbuster “Superman” reboot over at DC, that could be just what it takes to win back audiences suffering from superhero exhaustion. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJul 22, 2025
Despite its vivid and electric space sequences, the visually striking movie often feels like a throwback analog good time, which certainly worked for me. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinJul 22, 2025
With an exemplary cast and shiny new alt-universe to enjoy, this is the best Fantastic Four yet. And if that bar’s too low for you, then it’s also the best Marvel movie in years. Read full review
75
Washington PostChris KlimekJul 23, 2025
Buoyant, bracing and, most shocking of all, brief, “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” represents a quantum leap of ship-righting. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 23, 2025
It’s not great superhero cinema — the verdict is out on whether that’s even possible in the Marvel Phase 6 stage of our lives — but good is good enough for “The Fantastic Four.” Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 22, 2025
As a means to finally bring the Fantastic Four into the MCU, First Steps is as successful in its own way as Spider-Man: Homecoming was. In addition to representing an apology for the previous big-screen botching of Galactus, the film puts all the foundational pieces into place. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJul 22, 2025
Nostalgia, as mentioned, is a factor. But the key to its success is its focus on family and hope. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleJul 22, 2025
What it certainly is, though, is a very solid comic book movie. It’s a little surface over substance, and the time capsule feeling is pervasive. This is an earnest-enough superhero movie where even the angry mob protesting the superheroes turns quiet and pensive. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittJul 22, 2025
After two mediocre 2000s film featuring Marvel’s legendary superhero family, and an atrocious third outing in 2015, the foursome makes its Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in a combo sci-fi/disaster flick full of retrofuturistic 1960s flavor. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyMaureen Lee LenkerJul 22, 2025
From its Saul Bass-inspired opening credits to its callbacks to Saturday morning superhero cartoons, it practically vibrates with its sense of time and place. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesAmy NicholsonJul 23, 2025
This reboot’s boldest stride toward progress is that it values emotionally credible performances. Read full review
70
ColliderEmma KielyJul 22, 2025
The Fantastic: Four Steps successfully invigorates the MCU, but it’s the tectonic shift that audiences thought it would be. Read full review
70
Total FilmBradley RussellJul 22, 2025
Fantastic Four may not be the confident stride Marvel fans were hoping for but, at the very least, it's a solid first step. Read full review
70
IGNClint GageJul 22, 2025
These First Steps might not be the great strides I was hoping for, but they are sure footing for the Fantastic Four to officially leap into the MCU. Read full review
70
Screen RantMolly FreemanJul 22, 2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the MCU getting back to basics - a solid superhero movie, grounded in heart, but with little flashiness. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJul 24, 2025
At a time when everyone is complaining about superhero fatigue, it seems almost perverse to say that maybe the Fantastic Four should have had another film first. Instead, they rush to an ending that bolts them so neatly into the greater continuity. Read full review
67
Original-CinJim SlotekJul 23, 2025
We get it. This is their entry ticket into the MCU. And the space-age ‘60s vibe does add a little bubblegum to soften any attempt at over-seriousness (it brings to mind the use of ‘50s kitsch in the game-based series Fallout). Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 22, 2025
For a lot of Marvel fans, it will be more than enough. For the more superhero skeptical, it offers a helpful example of how simply skipping the origin stuff on the fourth try doesn’t automatically confer a sense of dramatic urgency or comic-book wonder. Read full review
65
Film ThreatAlan NgJul 22, 2025
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is good, when it should have been great. Read full review
63
PolygonSamantha NelsonJul 22, 2025
It’s a silly family-friendly story that stands on its own, without expecting its audience knows what came before or cares much about what comes after. Read full review
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