Rating: 2 out of 5
Short version: You'll forget about this terribly miscast movie (that is *almost* made bearable by Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans) as soon as you leave the theater.
In this post about the Fantastic Four movie, I said:
"It's the first one [trailer] that actually shows the tiniest bit of depth as opposed to a low cleavage, snappy dialogue, special effects bonanza of a movie."
I'm here to tell you that the "tiniest bit" is all you're going to get in The Fantastic Four as far as depth of character. On the bright side, Michael Chiklis (as "The Thing"/Ben Grimm) and Chris Evans (as Johnny Storm) both do a great job individually and as an ever-arguing pair. On the other hand, when the best performance in a movie comes from the off-screen puppeteers manipulating a latex mask, you know you're in trouble.
I suppose I should get to a few details about the movie...
The film opens with Reed Richards (played by Ioan Gruffudd) and Ben Grimm arriving at Victor von Doom's corporate building. The fact that von Doom (played by Julian McMahon) has a huge ego and that Richards, although (supposedly) brilliant, has all the self-confidence of a scrawny, pimply-faced 14 year old is immediately established. How it is that Reed and Ben came to be friends isn't really established, and after Reed's presentation we learn that von Doom, Richards, Ben and Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) all know each other from way back when.
Reed needs von Doom's space station in order to conduct genetic experiments in the midst of some sort of cosmic cloud that will be passing close to Earth's orbit. Reed is a pie in the sky scientist who is supposedly a genius that can't seem to find practical applications for his discoveries. Von Doom is a capitalist and a pragmatist who only looks for the profit to be derived from scientific discoveries.
Von Doom agrees to allow use of the station (for a 75% cut of any forthcoming profits). They go on up, cosmic storm hits, experiment fails and they return to Earth apparently suffering no ill effects. Of course soon their powers start to manifest and they have to deal with the effects this will have on their lives, especially Ben Grimm who is turned into a rock-like monster.
Article comments
1 - Bill Wallo
Sounds downright horrible. Maybe I'll check out the DVD when I can't find anything else to watch. :)
2 - Screen Rant
It wasn't *horrible*, just... weak. If it was awful I would have given it 1 or 1 1/2 stars. Like I said, Chiklis was good and Chris Evans was fun to watch.
Vic
3 - Billy Shears
Save your money--go see Batman Begins again.
4 - Bat Boy
Right on. Out of 5 I would have gone with one and a half, but maybe I am just splitting hairs. I agree with the stuff you said, except with a more sarcastic undertone.
Here is what I said about the Fantastic Four
5 - Screen Rant
Batboy, eh, it didn't make me mad via it's badness... it was more like indifference.
I would call "The Punisher" a flaming pile more than this one.
Vic
6 - Bat Boy
Unfortunately... no, fortunately, I dont have the punisher in my have-watched profile. I could note, however, that I thought daredevil was a better film than F4.
7 - Tan The Man
Nice review... just watched it, and I almost completely agree with your thoughts... I didn't think it was as horrible as many of the reviews floating around. It was what it was - a comic book movie - and it was entertaining at the very, very least.
8 - RJ
Well, it was good enough to knock WOTW out of first place, at least for a week...
9 - jennings
^Ummmm, just because Fantastic Four sits at the top of the box-office does not mean it is a good movie. (By the way, it is going to sink like a stone next weekend)
10 - Tan The Man
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory will probably hit $50 million next weekend, I predict.
11 - Tricia
Puppeteers didn't do the movements for Michael's mask. He had to figure out how to control it, so it would reflect his emotions. (At one point, Tim Story thought Chiklis was angry at him. In reality though, Chiklis had a neutral expression, but the makeup and mask showed an angry face for some reason.)
12 - Trakx
I hate to say it, but I agree on all accounts of this review. Unfortunately, and not to be the cynic, I seen this coming. Maybe one day studios will learn that when you take on an existing franchise you should take what you're given to work with; while we might expect the setting to change from the 1960's that they were started in to the 2000's, there is no need to change the characters to make them younger and hotter.
I am a HUGE Doctor Doom fan and this movie totally killed him in it. If you knew nothing of the comics, you wouldn't watch this loving OR hating him. When has fighting a businessman ever become intimidating? Fighting a gypsy who brought himself from poverty in a third world country to a prestigious college here in the States due to his amazing technological genius catching the eyes of recruiters, to returning home to defeat the standing monarchy and establish himself as king... now that is a man I could come to fear.
This Doom in the movies might be intelligent, but he doesn't know sorcery. He can't switch minds with others ("Ovoid Mind Transfer"). He can't invent revolutionary technology. He doesn't have, nor will he ever show to have, any robotic duplicates of himself that rival that of Spielberg's A.I. movie.
But since they scratched all that, they've instead put him up there with the other Fantastic Four to be given powers along with them - his now being a metal skin and some sort of control of electricity.
This certainly isn't the same Doom who once defeated the Beyonder, Silver Surfer, and Galactus.
Maybe this Doom was a left over henchman they had for the Punisher or Daredevil movie that they renamed from "Warehouse Goon" to "Doctor Doom".