I thought the Fantastic Four movie was okay. I could be clever and title this review that in some way plays off the word fantastic, such as ‘Okay Four’ or ‘Pretty Good Four’, but it’s already been done. The movie wasn’t as fantastic as Batman Begins or the Spiderman or X-Men movies, but it was much better than The Punisher or Daredevil.

I’ve always thought the Fantastic Four were sort of like understudy superheroes. Not any one of them is cool enough to be their own superhero and go solo, so they have to group together. The X-Men are a group as well, but there’s been plenty of side stories based on individual characters from that group, especially Wolverine. Power figures like Superman, Spiderman, and Batman are very well known even to the non-comic crowd, but I think the average person may not know who exactly the Fantastic Four are and what they do.

The plot of the movie involves a solar radiation accident on board a space station that results in genetic alteration. An extremely rich and handsome scientist and businessman named Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon of TV’s Nip/Tuck) is funding the operation. His former colleague and rival Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffud, Lancelot from King Arthur) is heading up the research operation on board the space station and they are still at odds over the same woman, a scientist named Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). Sue’s brother Johnny (Chris Evans, Cellular) is a hotshot young pilot who behaves very much like Tom Cruise did in Top Gun. Rounding out the crew is the staple tough guy, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis of TV’s The Shield) who doesn’t get along well with Johnny Storm.

After the radiation exposure, Reed Richards turns into a rubber man where he can stretch his limbs out to astounding lengths. Sue Storms gains the ability to turn invisible and also control energy, sort of like creating force fields. Johnny Storm turns into the human torch and can ignite himself and toss fireballs while flying around. Ben Grimm turns into a giant orange Hulk-like man with rock hard skin and enormous strength. All but Grimm learn how to control and use their new powers, and his character has a lot of trouble accepting his new identity. So does his wife. Finally, with a name like Von Doom you know he will become the villain as his skin and internal bone structure turn into solid steel and he learns how to control electricity.

What made this movie okay instead of fantastic was that it didn’t have enough conflict. Most of the film is about how these people all deal with their powers and it isn’t really until the end that they fight Dr. Doom. There is a huge action sequence on a bridge where the four use their powers to stop a major traffic accident and there is another big sequence at the end when they confront Doom. Other than that, most of the action is focused on the individual characters and how they cope with or embrace their powers. It ends on a cliffhanger, and judging by the success of this movie’s opening weekend ($56 million) I expect the sequel to come out by the summer of 2007.

After seeing the stupidly horrible and ridiculous CGI Hulk, I was so pleased to see The Thing (Chiklis’ character) be a person in a costume. When you see a human being’s eyes behind the suit, it makes them more lifelike than anything that even the most talented computer animator could create. The CGI for Alba’s character was pretty cool though underused and the human torch was used more for fun than anything else. I though Reed Richard’s stretchy powers were a little disgusting to watch. It reminded me of Inspector Gadget. Dr. Doom’s metallic makeup reminded me of the liquid metal Terminator from T2.

Director Tim Story’s previous films include Taxi and Barbershop, one an action comedy and the other a dramatic comedy. Based on the trailers, I knew this movie would be overloaded with one-liners and humorous scenes, and I was correct. When a movie has five main characters, there is no way any of them can be fully developed and so they have to be quickly summarized through actions and snappy dialogue. Two screenwriters have credit for this film: Michael France and Mark Frost. France previously wrote The Punisher and Hulk, both of which I did not like very much, but not really for the screenplay. He also wrote Goldeneye and Cliffhanger, which were both excellent. Frost is a veteran writer from many older television series such as Hill Street Blues and The Six Million Dollar Man. I suppose they could have done a lot worse with this movie.

Fantastic Four is a pretty good movie and sets a lot of things up for a sequel. It wasn’t as action-packed as I wanted it to be and the characters weren’t quite as cool as the X-Men, but all in all it was not bad for a superhero movie. I think Hollywood just found another new franchise.


Recommended: Yes