Fantastic Four
By Jason Revill
The fanboy in me was looking forward to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, while my common sense was telling me to stay away. I was curious as to how well a movie could be pulled off that was based on such iconic characters as the Silver Surfer and Galactus that would seem silly outside of a comic book. Let’s face it the guy is a silver surfer, if that isn’t some sixties stoner crap I don’t know what is. Not to mention that while at the MTV Movie Awards (yes, I watched it) Jessica Alba called Fantastic Four the best family comedy of the summer and then the next day as if to cover her tracks kept saying how great an action movie it was. The marketing people seemed to be a little all over the place, so I wasn’t entire sure what I was in for, but in the end I was pretty satisfied.
With everything seemingly going right in the lives of the Fantastic Four- Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) are finally getting married, unfortunately they should have known better. In the middle of the service, Earth is invaded by the mysterious and powerful Silver Surfer. After attempting to stop him and failing the heroes find that the Surfer is just the herald for the planet devouring Galactus. It’s up to the Fantastic Four to team up with their arch nemesis Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) in order to save the planet.
Here’s what you need to know about the acting: Ioan Gruffudd is essentially a vehicle for Mr. Fantastic’s special effects. As his wife, Sue Storm, it falls on Jessica Alba to carry the domestic drama herself while at the same time be good looking, which she does well enough for a movie of this caliber. Unfortunately, Chris Evans isn’t nearly as funny as he or the filmmakers think he is, but he still pulls off the Johnny’s arrogance while giving a few laughs. Of the four I really am most impressed with Ben Grimm, not just because of Michael Chiklis’ work, but because in theory the character shouldn’t come off at all. Surprisingly, he along with the Silver Surfer do (granted it’s pretty obvious that Laurence Fishburne is doing some more of his Morpheus material for the paycheck, but it works well enough.)
My real complaints would have to be first that like Spiderman 3 they brought back characters for no real reason other than plot convenience. We didn’t really need for Victor Von Doom back; the result is that he just seems sort of flat and entirely superfluous. Instead of getting side tracked with his nefarious plan we could have had a more developed main story, which brings me to my nerd complaint. Galactus is kind of ruined here. I realize that a giant planet eating guy in a purple jumpsuit and funky helmet isn’t going to come off great, but neither does a giant shapeless evil. It’s hard to really build audience tension for what appears to be a thunderstorm.
Really though this isn’t a bad little movie. I think it may seem like its better than it actually is simply due to the fact that the other big summer action movies so far have been pretty much a bust. Both Pirates 3 and Spiderman 3 tried to do so much that they completely overextended themselves and ended up being muddled and a waste of time, regardless how much money they made. On the other hand Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer sets its tone pretty early and sticks to it. It may lose its way for a bit, but with a running time of about an hour and a half that doesn’t really take much time. I’d much rather a movie know exactly what it wants to be and deliver rather than try to throw everything it can think of at me for the sheer spectacle of it and fail miserably while wasting three hours of my time. In that regard the newest Fantastic Four succeeds and is far and away better than the original.
The Grade
- Story: B-
- Acting: B
- Visuals: B
- Originality: B
- Enjoyability: B
- Overall: B
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