In the last several years there have been several movies made that are based on comic books. I have seen most of them and enjoyed them at least somewhat. I do have my favorites. Fantastic Four is the newest comic book movie to make it to the big screen. I did enjoy the movie, though I felt it wasn't as good as it could have been.
Reed Richards, a scientist, was hoping an old friend, Victor Von Doom would finance a trip into space for research. Reed was wanting to go to the space station that Victor owned. Ben Grimm wasn’t happy that Reed was going to Victor. Susan Storm worked for Victor and shared a past with Reed and Ben. Victor agreed to the proposition, figuring he’d make a fortune. He was going to the space station as well. Susan’s brother Johnny was the pilot for the trip. Johnny and Ben didn’t get along. Things with the mission didn’t go as planned and they were exposed to some kind of cosmic radiation wave.
Once they were back on Earth, they realized that their DNA had been changed and they had unique new abilities. Reed’s body could stretch like rubber. Susan could become invisible and she could create force fields. Johnny’s body ignited in fire. Ben was the most changed. His entire body turned to rock and he was very strong. Victor was having some problems as well, though he was keeping them to himself. Johnny was happy with his new ability and wanted to use it for fame. Reed and Susan were working to try to find a way to reverse what had happened to them. Victor wasn’t happy that Susan was spending so much time with Reed.
Like many of the movies based on comics have done, Fantastic Four took the time to introduce the characters and explain how they came to have super powers. Reed wanted to travel to space to do research on some kind of cosmic wave. The problems came up when the wave arrived at the space station sooner than it was expected. There was a lot of scientific stuff in the movie since Reed and Susan were scientists. Many of those things didn’t make a lot of sense to me. I thought that the explanations could have been handled better. When Reed started talking about his scientific research, I felt like it went right over my head. All five of them that were on the space station were exposed to the same cosmic wave but it changed them all differently. It wasn’t shown or explained how they got back to Earth after the wave hit the space station. They all woke up at a medical facility that Victor owned and the impression was given that they had all been unconscious since the wave hit. That wasn’t anything major, though I did wonder about it. Another minor thing I noticed was related to Reed. After the accident, he had a little bit of grey hair around his temples. In scenes after he first noticed the grey hair it was lighter and then it would return to the same amount as was there before.
Shortly after Fantastic Four started the cosmic wave hit the space station. It wasn’t long after that when the characters started to notice the changes that their exposure to the wave caused. Once that happened, it wasn’t long before there was more action in the movie. The action scenes were well done and worked with what was going on. The movie didn’t work as well during the non action scenes. The pace was very uneven throughout the movie. Things would be moving along at a good speed and then something would happen that completely threw the pace off. Many of the scenes between the action sequences were very slow and even boring. This was a long movie and it did seem like something could have been cut.
Of all the characters, I think Ben Grimm went through the biggest change. He was rock all the time. The others could control their new abilities and stay in a more normal form most of the time. Before seeing the movie I had heard that a costume was created for The Thing instead of using special effects after Ben changed. After seeing the movie, I saw a short special about the making of the movie that did show Michael Chiklis, the actor who played Ben/The Thing, wearing the suit while filming some scenes. I think that worked for the character and did make it seem more believable. I do think that special effects were used for the abilities of the other characters. The effects did look well done, though the scene where the cosmic wave hit the characters looked a little strange. It may have just been the expressions on the character’s faces. It was mainly Susan. She had some strange expressions at other times as well and something looked off when she was using her ability for force fields a few times. Susan did go invisible in some scenes when it really wasn’t necessary. I think some of that was done just to show off the special effects.
Before seeing Fantastic Four, I knew the basics of the story about the characters. The movie is based on the comic book of the same name that was created by Stan Lee. He also created several other popular comic books. I knew what abilities the characters would have and that they had been involved in some kind of accident. I didn’t know all the specifics so I don’t know how close the movie stayed to the source material. I didn’t know really know about Victor before seeing the movie. The only thing that I had some trouble keeping up with was the scientific research that Reed was doing. I did manage to keep track of everything else fine and I really wasn’t lost on the plot overall.
Fantastic Four was really about five characters. I didn’t think that there was enough development for most of the characters so it was hard to care about them. They all knew each other since college, though it did take a little while for that to be explained. Reed was a brilliant scientist that tended to have bad luck. It was made clear, over and over, that Reed was cautious about making decisions. That did get old. Ioan Gruffudd, who played Lancelot in King Arthur, was fine as Reed. Susan Storm was also a scientist. She had gone to college with Reed and the two had been involved. Susan did seem to be too young for her position and to have gone to college with the other characters. The relationship between her and Reed didn’t work as well as it should have. Some of their interactions did seem forced. I didn’t think Jessica Alba was anything special in the part. She was stiff in several scenes and I think someone a little older would have worked better. Men will probably enjoy seeing her in the skin tight very low cut outfit she wore in a few scenes. She was shown in her underwear once or twice as well.
I didn’t like Johnny at all. I hated to see him turn up in scenes because he was so annoying to me. He was very arrogant and cocky. He didn’t think before he acted. He was insensitive to others in some scenes. I found it very hard to believe that he’d ever been in NASA or that he was responsible enough to be a pilot. He and Susan bickered like little children more than once, which also annoyed me. Chris Evans was all right in the part. I didn’t recognize him even though I saw him in Cellular last year. I liked his character in that movie much better. I thought that Ben was the most likable and sympathetic character. He was changed the most and lost the most as a result of the accident. He was really the only character I cared about. Michael Chiklis did a very good job with the part. Victor was very wealthy and powerful. He had gone to college with the others, but I was never sure just what scientific knowledge he did have. He seemed to be obsessed with making more money. Julian McMahon was great in the part. I liked him in Charmed and last year I got hooked on his current series, Nip/Tuck. Stan Lee had a small cameo.
CAST
Jessica Alba - Susan Storm
Michael Chiklis - Ben Grimm
Chris Evans - Johnny Storm
Ioan Gruffudd - Reed Richards
Julian McMahon - Victor Von Doom
Fantastic Four was entertaining though I ended up ultimately being disappointed because of the small problems with the movie. I felt like it was missing something. It is worth seeing if you like movies about comic book characters, but it isn’t one of the best ones.
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