It’s hard to think of a superhero franchise that has struggled on the big screen more than “The Fantastic Four.” Its first movie was a low-budget write-off that never got released, the so-so 2000’s movies paled against their more successful peers, and 2015’s “Fant4stic” was staggeringly bad.

Much of that futility has been attributed to the wrong people holding the franchise rights, so with the Fantastic Four back in the Marvel stable, fans are hoping the fourth time is the charm. The verdict? Despite some struggles, “First Steps” mostly succeeds where its predecessors came up short.

Set on an alternate Earth from a parallel universe, “First Steps” takes place a few years after the titular four have become established as the planet’s superhero protectors. Some flashbacks and exposition explain how the quartet flew off into space and got their powers, but “First Steps” isn’t an origin story.

Thanks to those previous movies, the characters should be familiar. The leader of Marvel’s so-called “First Family” is Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), whose ability to stretch like a rubber band feels like less of a power than his scientific intellect. Reed’s wife Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) can turn invisible and use some telekinetic powers, and her brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn)—the Human Torch—can manipulate fire and fly. Finally, Reed’s BFF Ben (Ebon Moss-Bachrach)—AKA “The Thing”—has mutated into a powerful rock monster who gives off Professor Hulk vibes.

As the film opens, Sue has become pregnant after years of trying, but the prospect of a super-baby feels ill-timed when a mysterious metallic woman on a surfboard shows up in New York City to announce the impending destruction of the planet. The Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) is essentially the Hype Man for an ancient being named Galactus (Ralph Ineson), who uses a massive—but luckily slow-moving—starship to eat planets from the inside.

Reed and co. set out to nip the problem in the bud, but following an unsuccessful battle in outer space, they return with a diabolical offer: Galactus will spare the earth if the Four give up Sue’s unborn child.

What follows is one of the more enjoyable recent Marvel films, and certainly one of its most unique voices. Setting the film on an alternate Earth allows director Matt Shakman to give “First Steps” a fun, retro future vibe out of the 1960s (when the comics originated), and it feels like the best use of Marvel’s multiverse concept. Combined with some dramatic space visuals and a tense score, “First Steps” checks the spectacle box.

The story racks up wins and losses. The plot is pretty straightforward, and even predictable in its final scenes, and some liberties with scale and timing might raise a few eyebrows. Combined with some hit-and-miss humor, the tone in its best moments achieves a genuine comic book feel, but some of the more cartoonish bits—like Reed Richard’s Stretch Armstrong routine—can feel jarring against the film’s more serious elements, such as an obvious Christian sacrifice theme that is only loosely explored.

Some fans have lamented Marvel’s gender-swap in the case of the female Silver Surfer, which creates a curious romantic dynamic between the character and Johnny Storm. More viewers may be taken aback by the obvious similarities to Pixar’s “The Incredibles”—which was reportedly inspired by the Fantastic Four, and may still be the best Fantastic Four movie. And regardless of your level of fandom, audiences in general will cringe at some rough CGI once Sue’s baby officially joins the cast.

Taken together, these issues don’t ruin “First Steps,” but they do suggest this is a movie best enjoyed at arm’s length. It isn’t so obviously rough that you have to “turn off your brain,” but where most modern superhero movies try to ground their stories and characters in a more believable reality, it helps to think of this one more in terms of its comic book origins. It’s a backhanded compliment to say “Fantastic Four: First Steps” is the best Marvel effort of 2025, but compared to its dour predecessors, it is a breath of fresh, if not fantastic, air.

“Fantastic Four: First Steps” is rated PG-13 for standard superhero action mayhem and some scattered profanity.

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I had mixed feelings going into “Materialists.” Part of me was excited to see Celine Song’s newest effort, since her first film, “Past Lives,” was one of my runaway favorite movies of 2023. But I was also apprehensive, since “Materialists” was packed with more traditional A-list actors like Dakota Johnson and Pedro Pascal (insert your favorite joke about Pascal being in everything here). Would Song’s voice get lost in the Hollywood machine?

Coming out of “Materialists,” I also have mixed feelings, but not because Song “went Hollywood” or anything. Her new film is thoughtful, well-written, and insightful, just like “Past Lives.” But where her first film’s melancholy left me with a feeling of knowing satisfaction, “Materialists” is more of a downer, with an ending that feels a little too bleak to achieve the hopeful note it’s grasping for.

The film centers around the love life of a professional New York matchmaker named Lucy (Johnson). To her, marriage is a business—literally and figuratively—and though she’s been quite successful at her job, having produced nine marriages, her grasp of marital success is tied to purely empirical factors like wealth, education, and in the case of men, height and hairline.

When Lucy meets an uber-wealthy financial guru at her client’s wedding, she thinks she may have stumbled on a unicorn. Harry (Pascal) is tall, handsome, and rich, but he’s also thoughtful, stylish, and engaging. He also seems to be genuinely interested in Lucy, which her own insecurities interpret as a red flag. But she pursues the relationship to be sure.

In the meantime, the same wedding brings her ex-boyfriend John (Chris Evans) back into her life. John is a struggling actor, working as an event server to keep up his share of the rent in an apartment that pales next to Harry’s 12-million-dollar penthouse.

It isn’t a unique love triangle. In fact, “Materialists” often had me thinking of “Reality Bites,” a similar movie I don’t think I’ve seen since the 1990s. In thirty years, the question hasn’t changed: is it better to pursue wealth and security, or to find “true love” in poverty and sincerity? Is that the only choice?

Even if the question is similar, putting Song in charge suggests “Materialists” won’t default to any cliched or routine endings. In fact, that’s one of the biggest challenges with a movie that doesn’t fit into the bounds of genres like a traditional romantic comedy. A lesser movie might have made the choice more two-dimensional and obvious, but Song tries to inject some cold hard reality and nuance into a relatable quandary.

And yet, the results are mixed. To help underscore the idea that what works on paper may not translate to real life, a subplot about one of Lucy’s clients takes a very dark turn when a set-up leads to a sexual assault. And though the lead characters try to say the right things, by the end of the movie you aren’t entirely convinced that their lessons will stick. But maybe that’s what Song is trying to say?

This is far from a Meg Ryan-brand romantic comedy, by intention, but the outcome of “Materialists” still feels a little too sober. Its characters struggle to find hope in the face of cynicism, and at best, a viewer hoping to make some sense of 21^st century dating will find a filmmaker who shares their pain. But the light at the end of the tunnel is still very fleeting.

Maybe it’s because dating in New York City really is that miserable and materialistic. Maybe Johnson’s depiction of Lucy just isn’t sympathetic enough. Maybe “Past Lives” just set too high a standard. “Materialists” is good, and good-intentioned, but the sum total of its parts feel more bleak than hopeful. 30+ years later, it seems that reality still bites.

“Materialists” is rated R for scattered profanity and mild sexual content.

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If you fall asleep about halfway through “Gladiator II,” you wouldn’t be faulted for feeling like you’d just seen a weak rehash of the 2000 original film. Up until that point, Ridley Scott’s sequel pretty much hits all the same notes he did the first time—a steely warrior with a clouded past loses his wife and freedom, winds up a gladiator, and works his way toward revenge against the Roman authority responsible.

This time around—16 years after the events of the first film—the steely warrior is Lucius (Paul Mescal), who we meet in Africa just as he’s about to lead a shoreline defense of his people against Roman invaders. The invaders are led by Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), who orders the death of Lucius’s wife Arishat (Yuval Gonen) (who to be fair, is part of a detachment firing arrows at the Roman forces). Lucius survives the assault, but is captured and shipped off to Rome be a gladiator. There he meets Macrinus (Denzel Washington), who manages the sword-and-sandal cannon fodder the same way Oliver Reed did in the first movie.

The good news is that things don’t play out the same way, and after a modest twist or two, “Gladiator II” pushes into enough unique narrative territory that you start to feel the film was worth the effort. Granted, enough threads connect back to the original that, unless you were a passionate fan of the first film, Scott’s sequel will feel too derivative. Of course, as a non-passionate fan of the original film, I could be wrong—maybe the passionate fans will call this derivative, too.

Beyond the story, you have to look at the performances and the action, and both criteria deliver mixed results. Mescal is a solid lead, though he’ll come up short in the inevitable comparisons to Russell Crowe. Washington is more memorable in his role, even if it doesn’t feel like an especially unique role for the actor; here he’s mostly doing what he does best, and that’s plenty to get the job done.

One of the more intriguing comparisons is between the original heavy Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), whose equivalent here is a brotherly duo of decadent Roman emperors (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger). They serve their roles well, but even combined they lack the violent and childish charisma Phoenix imbued in his character.

The action scenes are pretty solid—the opening battle is good enough that you come away wishing you’d see more of that than the hand-to-hand gladiator stuff to come. Some bizarre CGI monkeys that show up in one battle look too alien to be real, but most of the efforts look effective.

Overall, “Gladiator II” works as a watchable movie, but it doesn’t do quite enough to justify its status as a sequel. Just make sure you stick around past the first hour, or it won’t work in either case.

“Gladiator II” is rated R for some graphic bloody violence, as well as some sexual content.

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