Yes, I'm as surprised as any of you.

Marvel’s lacklustre run since Avengers: Endgame (2019) has meant that Kevin Feige has been looking to consolidate for a while. He’s been badgered with constant firefighting that’s been needed since the sudden passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020 (Black Panther), the abuse allegations against Jonathan Majors, who was playing Kang – supposed to be built up as the next big Marvel villain after Thanos – and the reality-check that Feige got for the female-led films like Black Widow (2020), The Marvels (2023), and a black Captain America (played by Anthony Mackie) – all of which turned out to be disappointments. Coupled with Marvel’s strained relations with director Ryan Coogler, actors Scarlet Johansson, Brie Larson, and the two main draws – Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr sitting out (till RDJ was announced to return as Doctor Doom) – it all looked like the cinematic universe was too scattered. But that seemed to take a new turn with Thunderbolts*, which teased reinvention of the Marvel movies with almost a M Night Shyamalan-esque take on a superhero movie. 

In Matt Shakman’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, the Marvel cinematic universe (MCU) goes back to the comic books – something James Gunn tried doing with the new Superman movie as well. The genre seems to have junked the gritty look, in favour of colouful comic book panels. Unlike Superman – which feebly delivers some commentary on Israel-Palestine, I liked that Shakman’s film makes no effort at real-world commentary, instead building an alternate version of 1960s America. By doing so it moves away from the cynicism, showcasing a world that still hasn’t given up on decency. After three relatively forgettable attempts to launch the characters through two different casts, Shakman fully commits to the comic book movie look by making the indoor scenes look like a family-friendly sitcom, and rooting in something ‘real’: parental anxiety. 

In the film’s first scene, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) tells Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) that they’re going to be parents soon. The good news, the excitement around which quadruples after the couple tell their brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) and best friend, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), is followed by bouts of self-doubt. Pascal is excellent in the way he shapes Reed Richards around a person constantly grappling between cold logic and the less logical sentiments. Moss-Bachrach brings a lot of his breakout role Richie (in the FX series, The Bear) into Ben Grimm. Blessed with an atypical appearance, Grimm effortlessly plays the doting uncle, helping Sue through her pregnancy. Quinn refuses to play Johnny Storm as a dull jock, like Chris Evans did in the 2000s, instead finding a more nuanced version of the character. Quinn plays Storm in a way where he’s well-aware of his reputation as a daredevil womaniser, one he constantly keeps fighting around his team-members to showcase he’s more than that. 

Vanessa Kirby is excellent and in my opinion one of the highlights of the film, blurring the lines between a female superhero and a first-time mother. It reminded me of another one of Kirby’s films, Pieces of a Woman (2020) – a bleaker look at a woman expecting her firstborn. I loved the energy of a mother willing to do everything to protect her child, harnessed into The Invisible Woman – a more cliched, but still a classical storytelling trope imbued into Kirby’s character. It was a more defined character than the versions played by Jessica Alba and Kate Mara. What I truly enjoyed about The Fantastic Four: First Steps is how it didn’t seem to be trying to cater to the larger Marvel universe, with unnecessary Easter Eggs (except for a mid-credit scene). It tells a coherent story, which doesn’t need to use the MCU as a crutch for its own muddled telling. 

The four superheroes are already hailed and celebrated when Shakman’s film opens, and through a superb stretch even beginners are told about how they came to be. A team of astronauts sent to space after being exposed to cosmic rays, develop superhuman ability. They use these powers to save the world against extra-terrestrial entities. Until one day, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) shows up to tell them that Earth has been chosen by Galactus (Ralph Ineson) as the next planet he’s going to feed on. I loved Garner’s mournful delivery, making her Silver Surfer almost this reluctant ally to this space God with an insatiable hunger. Ineson, who has spent his career playing characters from the beyond in The Green Knight (2021) and Nosferatu (2025) more recently, is adequately intimidating as Galactus.

It has the usual Marvel contrivances in its climax, something I’ve come to expect from such films. But to my surprise, it doesn’t overstay its welcome at 116 minutes, and deftly moves from one plot point to the next. As hard as it is to take sermons from films cynically propped as a part of an assembly line to deliver manifold profits, I was surprised to find myself moved by the idealism in Shakman’s film. 

By harking back to an era, when the world was on the brink of space exploration, the film recreates the wonder of a time when the future looked promising. There were challenges even then, but somehow we were naive enough to believe that we could break out of our cyclical lust for power. The film reiterates American author Margaret Mead’s lines: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful and committed citizens can change the world” during a key scene. If nothing else, The Fantastic Four: First Steps pictures a world when we’re still kind to one another, and apathy hasn’t taken over. The hope hasn’t been extinguished, even if it’s in a fantasy superhero film in 2025. 

*The Fantastic Four: First Steps is playing in theatres.

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