FANTASTIC FOUR

Main Cast:

Ioan Gruffudd ...Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic
Michael Chiklis ...Ben Grimm/The Thing
Jessica Alba ...Susan Storm/The Invisible Woman
Chris Evans ...Johnny Storm/The Human Torch
Julian McMahon ...Victor Von Doom/Doctor Doom

Well, Fantastic Four opened nation-wide yesterday and has so far managed to get a wide mixture of reviews. I've heard everything from "It's great!" to "It's a pile of crap!"

I must confess that I found it somewhere in the middle. This movie, as with any comic and especially superhero-based movie goes, must be met with a certain lack of realism. If you go into any comic movie, be it Batman: Begins, The Hulk, or Howard the Duck and expect Casablanca then you are bound to be disappointed. That being said, I went in expecting it to be cheesy and found that it more than met my cheesy-expectations.


Plot a.k.a. SPOILERS:

The movie decides that time is of the utmost importance and gets us right into things with Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) and Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) seeking monetary assistance with a research project from one Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon). Now, whoever thinks that getting help from a guy with the last name "Doom" is a good idea needs his head checked, but I digress. Victor agrees to help them with their little science project, but with evil intentions.

We then meet Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) who apparently had a relationship with Reed earlier and is still hung up on him. Why? Can't tell you as he is about as big of a dork as you can get. Along the way, Sue's brother, Johnny (Chris Evans) shows up and acts like the stereotypical cocky jerk.

Flash forward to their adventure in space where things go horribly wrong and they are all exposed to cosmic radiation. Oh no! Flash forward again and they are now on earth. How? When? Apparently, those are not important questions.

Eventually, their powers all begin to manifest. Reed gets stretchy powers, Sue can become invisible and project force fields, Johnny can turn himself into a living being of fire and Ben is now made of living rock. They each react to their powers differently, some love it, some hate it, others are more concerned with still being a giant dork to care much.

Enter the NEW and IMPROVED Victor von DOOM!! He also got new powers. He is made of a bio-metallic substance and can shoot lightning from his hands. Who needs to follow comic book origins with ideas like these!? Doom decides that he likes his new powers and wants to eliminate the competition.

Wackiness ensues as the Fantastic Four must put aside their differences and their own insecurities to stop Doom and save the earth.

So yeah, that's the movie in a nutshell.

End Plot a.k.a. SPOILERS


The Good:

-Ben Grimm/ The Thing/ Michael Chiklis: He was no Commish, but he still did a good job, especially considering he was covered with more make-up than Gene Simmons. He did a good job of portraying the character and also showed a human side to the situation, despite being the least human in appearance. Maybe that's a good moral lesson for everyone.

-Johnny Storm/ The Human Torch/ Chris Evans: Ok, the role of the cocky, woman-loving character isn't a stretch for him (Not Another Teem Movie anyone?), but Evans still added a much needed comedy element to the story. His interaction with Chiklis was good and the Human Torch effects were awesome. Speaking of which:

-The Special Effects: Top notch. No, they didn't revolutionize anything, but they did what they had to. They turned four actors into four super heroes.

The Not-So-Good:

-Reed Richards/ Mr. Fantastic/ Ioan Gruffudd: First off, this guy has waaaay too many unnecessary letters in his name. Second off, his acting made Pauly Shore look like an acting genius in Bio-Dome. His acting skills were almost non-existant and he looked scared of everything. Reed Richards is supposed to be a cocky genius. This guy came off as a scared pussy who was kind of smart.

-Susan Storm/ The Invisible Woman/ Jessica Alba: Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed watching her dance in Sin City as much as the next guy, but this role was just not made for her. Putting aside trivial things like her and her "brother" having no family resemblance whatsoever, Alba just can't play the emotional foundation-type character. She came off to me as Jessica Alba with blond hair and not as Sue Storm, emotional core of the Fantastic Four (rhyming not intended, yet clever anyway).

-Victor von Doom/ Doctor Doom/ Julian McMahon: McMahon's acting was fine in the movie. He did a great job of playing a power-hungry businessman with lightning powers, but he was not, in any way, shape or form, Victor von Doom. It pains me to think that Stan Lee, the guy who created the Fantastic Four and even acts in the movie could approve this. Dr. Doom is a metal guy with lightning powers!? WTF!? Latveria is only mentioned like twice!? WTF!? Doom is a megalomaniacal mastermind who rules his own country. He has outsmarted cosmic beings before. The movie's Dr. Doom? Well, he got gooched by a board of directors.

Fantastic Four is a fun movie. It is good to take the family to, although I must caution that there is some violence that might be disturbing for the kids. As comic movies go, it is no X2 or Batman: Begins, but it gets the job done. The job being: entertainment. I find that this movie is better if you know less about the actual characters. Someone who doesn't know the comic book version of Doctor Doom from a coat hanger might think the character of Doom in the movie was great. I found that the parts of me that weren't satisfied were the geeky, comic fan-boy parts. The parts of me that went in wanting to see cheesy action and stuff getting blown up was more than satisfied.

Final Tallies:

Acting: 6/10
Directing: 7/10
Story: 6/10
Characters: 5/10
Entertainment: 7/10

Fantastic Four gets 31/50. I've seen better, but I've also seen Glitter.

Seeing as how this is my first movie review, feedback would be great. Feel free to comment here or send me a PM. let me know what you thought. Thanks for reading. Until the next movie...

-Obsidian

hey ive seen Gigli....anyways i thought it was pretty good,i loved Johnny Storm/Chris Evans,he was their perfectly with Mike Chikiles/Thing