The Fantastic Four: First Steps is finally available with a Disney+ subscription, and as one of the few at CinemaBlend who didn’t get the chance to see it in theaters, I wasted no time checking it off my list of 2025 movies watched. Overall, I think my opinion of the movie is higher than our official The Fantastic Four: First Steps review, though I will say that having one scene spoiled really impacted my overall opinion.
No, this isn’t another plea to make H.E.R.B.I.E. the next Grogu or Baby Groot, but rather a word of caution to upcoming Marvel movies that may make the same mistake with marketing. Sometimes less is more when showing off footage from the film, especially when what’s shown is vital to the story’s overall pace.
I Wish The Press Conference Scene Would’ve Been Held Out Of Movies
Since the first official trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps debuted, I’ve seen that shot of Pedro Pascal’s Reed Richards admitting to a member of the press he didn’t know if the world was safe. What I didn’t know when I saw that scene is that It happened at the midpoint of First Steps, and was in many ways, that’s the biggest part of the movie. That may seem odd to say given everything that happens after, including Galactus’ arrival on Earth, but I’ll be honest, it may be the most egregious spoiler I’ve seen in a Marvel movie trailer since this franchise started.
The Best Part About The Movie Is The Dramatic Tonal Shift At The Midpoint
The press conference in The Fantastic Four: First Steps represents a dramatic tonal shift in the rest of the movie. To that point, the entire movie is about how the superhero team has handled just about every threat they’ve ever faced with relative ease, to the point that there’s zero doubt from the public that they could ever truly fail to protect them.
The movie’s feel-good, happy vibes fade immediately after that, as the team is forced to deal with a villain who wants Reed and Sue’s baby, Franklin, in exchange for the world’s safety. From that point on, we see the Fantastic Four’s public approval rating plummet as humanity grows increasingly worried about the world being destroyed.
It all starts with the press conference, but because I’d already seen that exchange in the trailer, I knew where it was heading when the movie’s start was drastically different from that conversation’s tone. I couldn’t help but think how much better my experience would’ve been had the trailers been loaded with the goofier moments at the start, with maybe just a glimpse of Galactus to hint at what’s to come. It’s still a good movie, but I would’ve liked it much more without that spoiler.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is available to stream on Disney+, and I definitely recommend it as one of the better movies I’ve seen from Marvel lately. I can’t wait to see how that post-credit scene pays off, and how it’ll set the stage for Doctor Doom’s big attack on the MCU in Avengers: Doomsday.