The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Directed by Matt Shakman
Starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson
Marvel Studios
Release date: July 25, 2025

Non-spoiler first thoughts (mostly written in the car on the way home from the movie theater) on The Fantastic Four: First Steps:

Marvel Studios churned out an enjoyable film that does justice to these classic characters, making them all likable and competent. I love the film’s retro-futuristic look (not a cell phone in sight) and color scheme. While this is the “first steps,” it’s not an origin story, with the groups’ superpowered circumstances summed up quickly at the start on the team’s anniversary. This allows the danger to present right away and the action to get going fast.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Director: David Leitch
Writer: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13| Minutes: 136
Release Date: Aug 2, 2019

I am probably not the right person to be reviewing a film from the Fast & Furious franchise. The 2001 original did so little for me that I ignored all the following sequels, even after Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joined the party in 2011’s Fast Five. The franchise was originally built on a criminal underworld of car racing then evolved into a globetrotting Bond-esque stunt show on steroids forgoing logic, gravity, and physics for utterly ridiculous action set pieces and larger than life actors and characters. Despite not being a fan of the series, I felt compelled to see the spinoff film Hobbs and Shaw due to the undeniable chemistry of the two leads and a vibe that reminded me of some of my favorite silly action films of the 1980s, namely Commando and Tango & Cash.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
Director: David Leitch
Writer: Chris Morgan, Drew Pearce
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, Idris Elba, Vanessa Kirby, Helen Mirren
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13| Minutes: 136
Release Date: Aug 2, 2019

There’s no denying that the Fast & Furious franchise has been through some crazy things. What first started out as a humble cinematic look at illegal underground street racing has since supped up into a global phenomenon where Dom and his family – a strong theme that courses throughout the franchise – do things like drive cars out of planes in mid-flight or sling torpedos across a large stretch of ice. Oh, there’s also the occasional cars stunts, bone crunching fights, and cheesy one-liners.

But now it’s time for the franchise to venture outside of its wheelhouse with Hobbs & Shaw, the first Fast & Furious spinoff. In it, Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) and Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), two people who don’t even belong in the same room together much less be paired up on a mission, work together to save the world from a cyber terrorist organization bent on evolving humanity by augmenting them with their technology and purging out the weak. Are these two incompatible people up to the challenge? Or will they let their egos get in the way? Of course they are, and it’s how they reach that point that can be simultaneously fun and infuriating. My full review here below.

The characters of the Fast and the Furious film franchise has prided themselves as being a part of a family. It doesn’t matter if the skin color is different. But when it comes to family by blood that is a bit of a different story. We will get to see a little bit of that play out in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the first spinoff of the franchise.

In it, Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson) is forced to team up with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham) in order to stop Brixton (Idris Elba), an enhanced human, from reclaiming a virus that Shaw’s younger sister (Vanessa Kirby) stole from him. Check out the trailer below.

Universal Pictures may have released the first trailer for Fast and Furious Present: Hobbs And Shaw this past weekend, but the studio is still revving up the spinoff’s marketing campaign with a Super Bowl spot. The studio has had a presentation showing off some of their upcoming films during the big game, so it should come as no surprise that we are seeing a spot for the spinoff. I’d just never expected that we’d see one so soon. Check it out here below.