The Fantastic Four 2.5 / 5
Completely underwhelming "origin" movie.
Chris Evans, last seen in 2004's Cellular, gives the best performance as the extreme sports playing, attention seeking, women chasing, Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch. He's the wise-cracking life of the movie. He has the funniest lines, like the one about how parts of Mr. Fantastic tend to be limp.
Michael Chiklis is also very good as The Thing. Watch for the tender moments when he reaches for his wife's wedding ring when his four fingers (four - in true comic book fashion) are far too large to pick it up.) Jessica Alba has as much screen presence as Katie Holmes and performs without much depth. Ioan Gruffudd (Lancelot from King Arthur plays Richard Reed, the nerdy scientist who lost girlfriend Susan Storm (Alba) due to his lack of risk taking. He plays the nerd role fairly well, but totally lacks the confidence and resolution to attract someone like Susan Storm in the form of Hollywood's hottest sex kitten, Jessica Alba. Richard Reed in the comic series looks older, too.
Victor Von Doom, the brilliant scientist billionaire palyed by Julian McMahon, is the cool and calculating power hungry tycoon, also after Susan Storm. When he becomes Dr. Doom, you can't help but think of Darth Vader crossed with Magneto, from the X-Men series. They site Latveria as his country of origin when in the comic series, it's Latvia.
The romance between Richard Reed and Susan Storm is not credible at all, and Reed's longing for her is enough to induce vomitting. The dialogue is as cheesy as you can imagine, perfectly suited for 8 year-olds but horrendous for the rest of us.
When you add it all up, you have what Marvel hopes will be the begining of another superhero franchise. They are bound to make a sequel if this one makes money, even though it is not as exciting as it could have been.
Look for Marvel's Stan Lee as the postman in the Baxter Building, and Terry David Mulligan and Ben Mulroney as reporters.
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Article comments
1 - Tan The Man
I thought they wasted that storyline between the Thing and Doom. It could have a been a huge emotional storyline to have extended in a sequel. I felt the same way with Blade and how they wasted Blade's mother, which would have fit the storyline in a sequel. GRRRR
2 - Triniman
You're right! That storyline didn't last very long. In fact, I wonder if as the Thing, Ben Grimm is a little dense in the head or is he always like that? I mean, he didn't see that Doom was against his buddies.
3 - Lani
i will give it 5/5 cause the is the best marvel movie i have ever seen
4 - sarah
naw. only good thing about it was ioan gruffudd's body in that costume. i mean, we have eight Hornblower shows to prove that ioan can be amazing, electric, and has freakily powerful screen presence- providing HE'S GIVEN DECENT DIALOGUE! king arthur was pathetic. 'don't bury me in our little graveyard scatter me to the strong east wind'? puh-lease. that didn't even fit with the conversation. what fantastic four lacked is what spiderman had: A DECENT SCRIPTWRITER!
and jessica alba sounded pathetic with her little 'i'm an intelligent scientist therefore i sound like a barbie' lines. Her saying solar winds are picking up speed are like the way reese witherspoon talked about endorphins in Legally Blonde.
5 - Nathan Dayspring Askani-son
Where to begin... umm....
Mr. Fantastic's name is Reed Richards, not Richard Reed, and in the comics, Doom is indeed from the fictional country of Latveria.
About the movie - it's disappointing in how the changes made from comic to movie were NOT beneficial.
In the comics, Reed and Victor were college best friends and roommates, and due to Victor's arrogance, he did not heed Reed's warning that there was an error in his calculations. He went ahead with his experiment, blew himself up, and blamed Reed - preferring to think that Reed tampered with his experiment rather than admit that he had screwed up - so they became enemies and rivals.
Doom's deceased mother had been a gypsy / witch, and Doom learned similar black arts and combined them with science to become a super villain. He was NOT a part of the experiment that created the Fantastic Four.
Doom went back to Latveria, overthrew the government and became king. With the power of his kingdom behind him, he now seeks world domination.
I think that's all a lot more interesting than "You stole mah woman, so I hate you!", which is basically what the movie is.
To say something nice though - I was impressed by the representation of their powers. Thing did not look ridiculous, and even Sue Storm's powers looked cool - though they weren't explained much.