More like the Mediocre Four. I know, that's a tired way of starting my review. It seems like anyone putting up a review about this movie has something like that near the top. The sad part is that it is so true. Watching this film you will, if you go, see some great ideas. Fantastic Four is full of great ideas and possibilities, but in execution it is completely frustrating. You will leave the theater shaking your head wondering how it could have gone so wrong. At the same time, however, I found the movie to not be as nearly bad as I was expecting.
I went in expecting another Herbie: Fully Loaded. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad, but it wasn't all that good either. The story is thin, actually, there really isn't a story. The majority of the film is exposition, the main conflict is thrust to the background, and good ol' Dr. Doom gets short changed.
The story starts off way too fast. They speed through some sort of explanation that gets our intrepid team into space. This is where they are exposed to the space storm that alters their DNA and results in the emergence of their abilities. For the rest of the film, the four are attempting to deal with these abilities, and trying to reverse them. Meanwhile, Doom decides to embrace his evil ways by using his newly discovered powers.
Let us take a look at our motley crew, and at the same time will see some of the ups and downs that we are faced with.
There is Reed Richards, aka Mr. Fantastic, played by Ioan Gruffudd. The first problem is that Gruffudd is not right for the part, I don't doubt that he could be a good actor, but this is not the material for him. I envision Reed as a stronger character than what we get, which is a more stuttering, timid character. Then there are the effects used to realize his stretching ability, let us say that they were not quite ready for primetime.
Next up is Susan Storm, the Invisible Woman, given to us by Jessica Alba. For as much as I love Ms. Alba, she is all wrong for this role. For one thing she does not do a very good job at delivering the, admittedly weak, lines. Plus she seems too young for the character. The effects are better though.
Susan has a kid brother, hotshot pilot Johnny, the Human Torch, played by Chris Evans. He comes off as possibly the best character. He plays up his abilities for fame and women. Played with a cocksure attitude, it hits the right notes. But to balance that, sadly, he is saddled with dialogue that will quickly date the film, plus he is accompanied by constant rock music.
The final member of the Four is Ben Grimm, the Thing, given to us by Michael Chiklis. Along with Johnny, Ben comes out pretty good as well. Ben turns into this orange rocky guy, who due to this change becomes depressed. A fine turn for Chiklis on the big screen.
On the other side is Victor Von Doom, from Julian McMahon. He does well with what he has, but there isn't a lot to work with. He doesn't get enough of the story to really develop into anything.
I do like that they gave a connection between Doom and our team. In the comics, Doom is the leader of the European nation of Latveria, which is mentioned in the film, whereas in the film, he is a member of big business. The problem is the development, they show him answering to a board of directors who are threatening to pull out. This doesn't really seem to fit with the powerful Doom, that I was expecting, he seems oddly neutered by this. Then there is the goofy, plastic looking mask for him. Then there is the love triangle with Sue, Reed, and Doom, it was poorly played and not fully formed.
Something I did like about the film was the way the four were made into celebrities, this is different from the other recent heroes on film. Most of the time the hero has a secret identity, not the Fantastic Four, they are public figures. Torch plays up the celebrity aspect, while Thing tries to avoid it and Reed and Sue try to deal with the repercussions.
It is a shame, this could have been so good. Some of the ideas are there, the rivalry with Doom, the dealing with celebrity, the different ways each of them deal with their abilities. The problem lies in a weak script, poor direction, and a bad case of miscasting. Somehow, the movie is somewhat watchable.
In the placement against other recent superhero movies there is the good like Batman Begins, X2, and Spider-Man 2, in the middle Hulk and Daredevil, and at the bottom are The Punisher and Elektra. This would fall in between the middle and the bottom.
Bottomline. I don't know, this really isn't a good movie, but it wasn't the disaster I was expecting. A couple of decent portrayals, a couple of poor portrayals, a couple of interesting story points, along with some bad. I cannot rightly recommend this, I hope that they do continue the franchise, but that they give it to someone who has a clue.
Mildly Not Recommended.
Also at Blogcritics.
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