While we fully encourage you to see both movies on the big screen, with Marvel's The Fantastic Four: First Steps and DC's Superman opening in such close proximity, a bit of friendly (and some not-so friendly) competition was inevitable.
Though First Steps doesn't hit theaters until Friday in North America, the review embargo lifted yesterday, and the movie is already "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes at 87% based on 134 reviews. James Gunn's DCU reboot is slightly behind at 83% with 440 reviews counted.
Reviews for Fantastic Four are still coming in so there's plenty of room for that score to fluctuate, but we don't anticipate it dipping much lower, and there's a good chance both movies will wind up with the exact same RT score (how on Earth will we argue about which one is better).
Though Rotten Tomatoes is the more popular aggregator, for many, Metactitic is a more reliable and accurate gauge of a movie's critical consensus, and Superman (68) has flown ahead of First Steps (64).
None of this really matters at the end of the day, of course, but reviews do tend to wind up being part of the discourse surrounding every superhero movie, so it's always interesting to see where the critics land.
First Steps stars Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us, The Mandalorian) as Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning) as Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things, A Quiet Place Day One) as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Punisher, The Bear) as Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, and Julia Garner (Wolf Man, Ozark) as the Silver Surfer.
Ralph Ineson will play Galactus, and Natasha Lyonne and Paul Walter Hauser are also on board in undisclosed roles. John Malkovich's Red Ghost has been cut from the movie.
"Set against the vibrant backdrop of a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world, Marvel Studios' The Fantastic Four: First Steps introduces Marvel’s First Family—Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn) and Ben Grimm/The Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) as they face their most daunting challenge yet.
Forced to balance their roles as heroes with the strength of their family bond, they must defend Earth from a ravenous space god called Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his enigmatic Herald, Silver Surfer (Julia Garner). And if Galactus’ plan to devour the entire planet and everyone on it weren’t bad enough, it suddenly gets very personal."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is set to hit theaters on July 25, 2025.