'Fantastic Four' Early Reactions Are Overwhelmingly One-Sided
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Most of us are going to have to wait until this weekend to see "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" but on Monday world premiere was held at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.
If the early reactions on social media are to be believed, Marvel fans are in for the best Marvel movie in years. The reactions are extremely one-sided, with critics praising the cast, the story, the score, and the production value.
Read More: John Malkovich Cut From 'The Fantastic Four'
A common sentiment among the reactions is that "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" represents a welcome return to form for Marvel.
Critic Nick Zednik wrote the film "is pun-intended, fantastic and the best pure MCU film since GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and that's not hyperbole The story is clear, tight, and the family dynamic is so emotionally effective. Giacchino score rocks. Visually astounding. Galactus was great and it's just the right amount of everything. Vanessa Kirby ate and left no crumbs. Kirby and Stan would be proud of this one."
#TheFantasticFour is pun-intended, fantastic and the best pure MCU film since GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3 and that's not hyperbole The story is clear, tight, and the family dynamic is so emotionally effective. Giacchino score rocks. Visually astounding. Galactus was great and… pic.twitter.com/xps7GsCJDZ — Nick Zednik (@NickZednik) July 22, 2025
Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps".
Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Ben Grimm/The Thing in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps".
DISNEY
Vanessa Kirby's performance as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman seems to be the standout of the film, as evidenced by the praise in the rest of the reactions.
For example, Lyra Hale writes of the cast, "Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn & Ebon Moss-Bachrach were fantastic. But Vanessa Kirby? Oh she ate."
Likewise, Jack McBryan said, "All 4 of the main cast members kill it, with Vanessa Kirby being the standout."
#TheFantasticFour is on par w/ #Superman when it comes to a story about hope, love & family. It's also probably the easiest access point for people that want to get into Marvel. Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn & Ebon Moss-Bachrach were fantastic. But Vanessa Kirby? Oh she ate 💅🏻👑 pic.twitter.com/qKoRJNm58V — Lyra Hale ✍️🇵🇷🏳️🌈 (@MsLyraHale) July 22, 2025
#FantasticFour is the most visually stunning and tonally distinct MCU movie yet. All 4 of the main cast members kill it, with Vanessa Kirby being the standout. Giacchino's score is an all timer. You will regret not watching this movie in the biggest theater possible. pic.twitter.com/1gdoH71LuD — Jack McBryan (@McBDirect) July 22, 2025
The visuals of "The Fantastic Four: First Steps are receiving a lot of positive attention overall, but in particular, everyone seems to love Ralph Ineson's incarnation of the world devouring Galactus.
"Matt Shakman delivers the goods with an emphasis on character and story while still providing the most gorgeous visuals ever conceived for a MCU film," Dan Marcus write. "The anatomically correct Galactus has a huge part."
Cris Parker warns, "Galactus is a spectacle that MUST be seen in IMAX."
Simon Thompson writes, "Genuinely engaging lead performances, thrilling action, and the most formidable villain in a cycle."
THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS is the best MCU film in ages. Matt Shakman delivers the goods with an emphasis on character and story while still providing the most gorgeous visuals ever conceived for a MCU film. The anatomically correct Galactus has a huge part. Loved this. pic.twitter.com/2BwfkiyIgH — Dan Marcus (@Danimalish) July 22, 2025
#FantasticFour The MCU nailed it! The stake haven't felt this high in a long time. All 4 members of the team play the roles exceptionally & share perfect chemistry. Galactus is a spectacle that MUST be seen in IMAX. Best balance of tone in an MCU film. I LOVED so much about this! pic.twitter.com/tGMEQnb7MV — Cris Parker (@3CFilmss) July 22, 2025
#FantasticFour is the most consistent and satisfying Marvel Universe for a long while. Genuinely engaging lead performances, thrilling action, and the most formidable villain in a cycle. Brilliant use (not overuse) of the powers. It's a really good time - and it looks amazing! pic.twitter.com/FdwdXUvGWC — Simon Thompson (@ShowbizSimon) July 22, 2025
"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" releases in theaters July 25. Tickets are on sale now. The film is directed by Matt Shakman. It stars Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Paul Walter Hauser, Natasha Lyonne, Julia Garner, Ralph Ineson, Mark Gatiss, and Sarah Niles
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Vox
21 minutes ago
- Vox
If you don't get Labubus, that's the point
is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic. Some creatures only come out at night: vampires, werewolves, and now the latest member of the after-hours club: hopeful Labubu collectors. If you're not already in the know, that last group might feel as mysterious as mythical creatures. It only adds to the toys' mystique that the window when you can officially purchase the mega-popular trinkets — sold in limited drops, like fashion collabs and sneakers — only opens for a brief time on seemingly random nights (usually at 10 pm Eastern). Enthusiasts say that successfully getting your hands on one of the approximately half-foot tall plastic-and-vinyl bunny-eared ghouls with a rictus grin feels like doing the impossible, or at least something more impossible than spending $27.99. With their faces illuminated by the glow of their smartphones, credit card numbers locked in, fingers at the ready to click and add to cart, for Labubu hunters, there is no duty, no bedtime, sometimes no supper — only Labubu. Vox Culture Culture reflects society. Get our best explainers on everything from money to entertainment to what everyone is talking about online. Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. According to lore, Labubus are a tribe of mythical female elves called The Monsters that live in Nordic forests. According to Pop Mart, the toy and design company that produces the dolls, Labubus are a character-driven franchise, largely consisting of plushies, figurines, and accessories, that brings in over $400 million in revenue. And according to their most fervent fans — the people who have made Labubu a success in the hundreds of millions of dollars — Labubus are pure joy…if you somehow manage to get your hands on one. If only the other things we spend roughly $30 on could bring us such glee. Yet, many others do not find any delight in that idea. Some assert that the Labubus craze represents capitalism in its latest stage, thanks to a perfect storm of technical uselessness, jacked-up reseller prices, celebrity endorsement, and forced scarcity. Others think the little goblins are aesthetically ominous, even ugly. But that division — and the strong feelings on both sides — might just be exactly how Labubus became such big business. Understanding why some people can't get enough of the toys (and the chase), gives us a window into bigger questions about what makes us happy, what makes us feel in-the-know, and what someone's really buying when they purchase a monster of their own. Hate only makes Labubus stronger When people talk about Labubus, they're likely referring to the mega-popular 'pendant' versions that come with a sewn-on ring that's designed to clip onto bags and belt loops. These sell out in minutes. But if you do get your hands on a Labubu — from one of Pop Mart's limited drops or on the secondhand market at a serious markup — you'll find their bodies are soft, and small enough to fit in a fist. They come in a variety of colors, and often sell as sets. Other pieces in the Labubu line include bigger dolls (retailing for $299), accessories like phone charms, and all types of figurines and plushes. No matter the size or brand collaboration, all Labubu products have one thing in common: They exist to be seen and displayed. Labubus don't actually do anything, which may add to some of the general perplexity surrounding them. 'I've always been drawn to creatures that live in the space between fantasy and reality — characters that feel both familiar and mysterious,' Kasing Lung, the original artist who created Labubu, tells Vox. Growing up in the Netherlands and around Nordic and European folklore, Lung wanted to reflect those inspirations — mischievous, endearing, strange — in Labubu. 'She's not overly detailed or complicated, she has a big smile, wide eyes, and a little bit of mischief in her expression,' Lungs says of his original design. 'Labubu is playful but not perfect — she has sharp teeth, messy fur, and a bit of wild energy. She's cute but also a little weird, a little unpredictable.' The duality of Labubu has turned the playful imp into a bit of a Rorschach test; humans are wired to have a strong reaction when they see a Labubu. Some people feel intense love. Its big eyes and big head are reminiscent of what researchers call 'baby schema,' traits that appear in infants and toddlers that trigger parental synapses, and euphoria in our brains. But no matter how much baby schema Labubu employs and whatever brain receptors they set off, some may still find Labubu unappealing. They have mouths that almost stretch from one end of their faces to the other, which give the toys a sinister edge. They have prominent, protruding brow bones, tiny claws, and sometimes bare their jagged teeth. In combination, these slightly alarming characteristics may explain why some people find them to harbor dark energy. 'They're so cute-ugly,' says Tyler Renner, a man in possession of two Labubus, living in California. Renner, 34, was initially drawn to Labubus, but for a while kept his desire for them a secret. They're divisive, he reasoned. Not everyone understands how something so menacing could come back around to being so adorable. But the more Renner posted his dolls, showing off their custom-made clothes and freaky little faces, the more support he got. He received secretive DMs from closet Labubu-lovers, wanting to know how they could procure their own. Renner and one of his customized Labubus. Courtesy of Tyler Renner Elizabeth Mitchell, a mom from the Washington, DC, area, echoes Renner's so-ugly-it's-cute horseshoe theory and clandestine love affair. 'It's goth meets Hello Kitty,' says Mitchell, who sees her devotion in terms both anthropological and biochemical. 'Either you have the 'Tribe Labubu' brain parasite or you don't.' According to a Pop Mart spokesperson, Labubu tends to be most popular with women between the ages of 18–30. During the current popularity boom, though, Labubu's fan demographic has aged up and its gender appeal has broadened. While children certainly enjoy Labubu and want them, they are probably not the ones logged into Pop Mart's app with credit card security codes at the ready. And because one doesn't really 'play' with Labubus aside from displaying them, possibly in festive outfits, toy designers consider Labubus as much an object of design than a traditional kids' toy. Still though, there are people who might be able to better resist baby schema, who don't succumb to brain parasites, who find them not 'cute-ugly,' but just plain ugly. On TikTok, a corner of the internet brimming with Labubus, Labubu lovers, and Labubu haters, their creepiness is often a popular subject (a sore one for fans). Being so intensely polarizing is what makes Labubus so successful, says Vincent Scala, a toy designer and illustration professor at the School of Visual Arts. If Labubus themselves were ignorable, if the reactions they elicited were simply lukewarm, they wouldn't command such a deep yearning. Some may not care one way or another about the way the dolls look, but simply hate the idea of an unavoidable mania brought on by cute junk. Scala and other experts I spoke with pointed out that Labubus may remind a lot of people (especially millennials and Gen Xers of a certain age) of Tickle Me Elmos, Furbys, and Beanie Babies; toy fads that burned hot and bright and died out just as fast because people got bored with them. These core viral toy memories — coupled with millennials historically preferring experiences over material objects — might elicit an ennui or confusion about the Labubu obsession, if not an outright hostility. 'Furby, I think, is probably the closest — as so many people loved it, just as many people hated it,' Scala says, noting that 'the amount of hatred just sort of feeds into the craze' and that all the attention 'makes people want it more.' One would think that producing something everyone generally wants would be better for business than creating something only some people want. But that misses something important about human desire. Jared Watson, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business who studies the extensive subject of consumer behavior, attributes part of Labubu's success and its virality to its volatility. If everyone wanted and had a Labubu, the average person would have some kind of idea of its value. But fans and experts say that when buyers push past uncertainties about worth or childishness, they are rewarded with social status, or at least belonging. When complete strangers compliment the Labubu on the street, owners experience a unique kind of joy. 'You don't get the same sort of rush when everyone is in on the secret,' Watson says, comparing it to the euphoria of sharing a love for a new movie, an undersung TV series, or an emerging musician that the general public hasn't hopped on yet. 'But once everybody's there, it's not as exciting anymore.' That mass adoption isn't a problem for Labubus though: Pop Mart has set up the market so they're not so easy to get your hands on. Labubus are like gambling, basically Buying a Labubu requires either a lot of time or a bunch of money. If you're willing to pay more than its retail asking price, you can find $27.99 Pop Mart Labubus on resale sites like Stock X or eBay going for $60, $120, even $280. If you want to purchase them from the parent company, it requires strategy and luck. Pop Mart's checkout process is something of an obstacle course. Go too slow and faster clickers will gobble up the stock. Go too fast and Pop Mart's system might flag you as a reseller bot, like the kind that scoop up all the best concert seats on Ticketmaster. If you make it through the digital gauntlet, you obtain what's known as a blind box — there's a Labubu inside, but you don't know which one is yours until you open it. Those individual blind boxes usually belong to Pop Mart's three main Labubu pendant collections — Sweet Macaron (Labubus are named after desserts and drinks), Have a Seat (Labubus are all in sitting poses), and Big Into Energy (Labubus are named after emotions) — each collection has six different Labubus, and each one has a rare, secret Labubu that appears in 1/72 boxes. That makes for 21 regular attachable Labubu characters in circulation, not counting special series and collaborations (Pop Mart's entire Labubu line is expansive, if not overwhelming). Purchasing a Labubu can allegedly trigger euphoria, and perhaps some of the same risk-reward functions that gambling does. Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images For first-time buyers, this means any box will contain a fun, random surprise, but for collectors, the more Labubus you buy, the more likely you are to end up with duplicates. If you're lucky, though, there's a small chance of scoring the special 'secret,' the plush equivalent of Willy Wonka's golden ticket without any chance of dying at the hands of a maniacal candy tycoon. Some fans will purchase box after box chasing the secret. Carmin Newman believed herself to be one of these lucky people; and indeed she has procured over 30 Labubus since committing herself to the cause. To get the first of her Labubus, Newman researched when new stock would drop. She recruited 'a little team' to converge on the app. Her squad had their clicking fingers ready in the seconds right before Pop Mart's replenishment, and scored a complete set of six, then another, then one more. Yet Newman says she doesn't like any of the Labubus she's obtained. Related After the Beanie Baby bubble burst Labubus are a hit with kids in Newman's neighborhood, and those kids' parents were ready to pay resellers double or more for the little ghouls. That waste activated her. No one was going to spend more than $30 for a Labubu on Newman's watch. 'It's totally a game now,' Newmans tells me, explaining that scoring Labubus feels like winning. The rush of getting one retail and not paying a reseller is, in her eyes, better than actually owning one. She swears her goal is one more set, from one more drop. 'Then I'll be done,' Newman promises, before admitting with a laugh that she might need 'Labubus Anonymous.' Ginger Pennington, a professor at Northwestern University who studies consumer psychology and human motivation, points out that Labubus tap into many of the same psychological and emotional mechanisms that gambling does, from the company-induced scarcity, to the randomness of the blind box, to the instant gratification or disappointment of acquisition. She explains that the drop process and blind boxes actually take advantage of the dopamine hit with a negative outcome. 'Even though it's super, super disappointing,' to not get a Labubu, or to get one you already have, 'it actually doesn't dampen your motivation,' Pennington says. 'It just makes you want to go and try again.' Instead of dwelling on the disappointment — or giving up — collectors focus on the part that felt good. For nearly a decade, we've heard about how millennials have driven an economy that values 'experiences' over 'stuff,' and that doesn't seem to be changing. Perhaps the fact that millennials (and Zoomers) are loving Labubus isn't a contradiction; maybe it's the high of the chase that makes these dolls so desirable. Or maybe it's all about those big baby eyes, the unnerving smile underneath them, and the satisfaction in knowing some people just don't get it. One thing is for sure, Labubus are not for everyone. Pop Mart, to massive profit, is making sure it stays that way.
Newsweek
21 minutes ago
- Newsweek
Puppy Playing in the Dark Discovers Shadow—Owner Can't Cope With Reaction
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Newsweek
an hour ago
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Woman Adopts Two Rescues, Captures Moment They Realize They're Finally Safe
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A woman in England has melted the hearts of viewers on TikTok after sharing a quiet yet powerful moment between her and her newly adopted dogs, Miso and Pickle, as they settled into their new home after being rescued from Romania. The dogs' early bond with their new owner was chronicled in a video by @ which was shared to the platform on July 29. Viewers were able to see the two skittish dogs hesitantly stepping into their new life, gradually warming to the unfamiliar setting. Within an hour, they transformed from appearing fearful to showing the first signs of trust and connection. The short clip has been viewed more than 300,000 times and liked by over 23,000 users, striking a chord with viewers around the world. The footage begins with the dogs arriving at the woman's home in England, after traveling from Romania. At first, they are reluctant to enter, clearly unsure of their surroundings. An overlaid text on the video documents the first meeting step by step: "Nervous to come inside at first...I offered some seems very keen but Miso is still a bit but still him some space to the new approach to sniff...'I feel safe with you...I think we're home.'" By the end of the clip, the pair are captured nestled comfortably against their new owner, a moment of peace replacing their earlier anxiety. The caption accompanying the post read: "First hour with my Romanian rescue dogs. They were tired, scared and hungry for love. They melted my heart the moment I saw them. Welcome home my babies." What resonated with viewers was not just the animals' adjustment, but the understated demonstration of patience and empathy it took to help them feel safe. In the span of a few short clips, the dogs were shown relaxing their guard and embracing their new home. The pet owner has quickly drawn admiration, with viewers praising the calm and respectful introduction to a new environment. "Who are you and why are you making me cry at this time in the morning?" one viewer commented. "Like seriously who do you think you are. I love seeing the dogs' bodies relax, and their body language change over the course of the hour. They knew so quickly they were safe. Following to see how these precious babies learn to love life." "Wow this is so wonderful to see," another added. "We have adopted two Romanian street dogs over the years, and it is tough at times, but these guys are doing so well. Thank you for adopting them. Such lucky dogs." "I just finished a [12-hour] night shift, and this just made me go to bed feeling happy," a third viewer shared. "I know two angels are forever safe." Newsweek reached out to @ for more information via TikTok. Stock image: Two mixed breed rescue dogs stand outdoors. Stock image: Two mixed breed rescue dogs stand outdoors. Getty Images Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@ with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
