Fantastic Four 2 Better Then First One But Still Flawed

Rating: 6/10 (5 June 2009)

Fantastic Four Rise Of The Silver Surfer is better than the first one but it still has some flaws that are in the previous film. Director Tim Story does an okay job of bringing this movie based on a comic book to the big screen with more action and improved special effects but the camp factor hurts the movie as a whole. The cast are good in their roles including Ian Grufford as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/The Invisible Woman, Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/ The Human Torch, Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing, and Julian McMahon as their nemesis Victor Doom. Kerry Washington is all right as Ben's girlfriend Alicia but unfortunately she isn't given nearly enough screen time. Besides Evans as Johnny and Chilkis as Ben who stand out in the cast one of the best things about this sequel is the introduction of the Silver Surfer. In his first big screen appearance his character does leave an impression. He's played by Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne provides the voice for the character and they both do a solid job as the newest and more interesting foe/ally to the Fantastic Four. The rest of the cast are good in their small roles including Andre Braugher and Beau Garrett who at least try to bring life to their characters but unfortunately they lack screen time. As mentioned before the special effects and the action sequences are better then the first one but they're not as near as good as they could've been since none of them really even last that long. Some other problems I found with the film was that McMahon's character Doom didn't really need to be in it because they already fought him in the first one. McMahon makes for a good villain but his character takes a backseat to the Silver Surfer who at least to me is a much more worthy adversary with an interesting back story. A few other flaws were that it seemed Michael Chiklis lacked screen time too as The Thing and he wasn't involved in the action as much as he was in the previous one but he still turns in a good performance. The dialgoue wasn't the greatest at times either and the planet eating Galactus a popular character in the comics is given a brief cameo as this cloudy mist thing from outer space only showing up a couple times here and there before being easily defeated. With its problems aside however this sequel is still an entertaining comic book movie with good performances by most of the cast, just the right amount of action, some humor, cool special effects, and a little romance that keeps the film moving at a steady pace. If you're a fan of the first movie than you'll probably enjoy this one as well.