What a pleasant surprise

Rating: 7/10 (19 June 2007)

Well, for 2 you could do a lot worst these days, as far as movies are concerned. I knew there was a sequel coming out, the first one despite being so bad and unfunny managed to still make big bucks putting itself close to another comic book juggernaut(Batman) at that same year. I had little to no expectations for this movie and come out somewhat surprised, as if Tim Story read the feedback from the first movie and complied, granted that the movie still has it's flaws, it's still an enjoyable experience. On the eve of Sue Storm and Reed Richard's much televised and awaited wedding, a strange object appears from outer space and starts making odd changes. The military asks Reed to built a tracking device(which he builds secretly without Sue's knowledge) to track down this object. Said object happens to crash Sue and Reed's wedding, Johnny follows the object, only to discover it's an odd silver humanoid alien with a board. Their first confrontation ends soon and while tracking it down, an old acquaintance/enemy(Dr. Doom) of the team offers a helping hand, but his intentions are anything but good. The plot is pretty much it, nothing too fancy about it and the right amount of confrontation with Sue having to deal with her celebrity status, and Johnny also feels hurt that the team might be in danger of breaking up and that his powers are getting out of control. Here's the good part, the special effects are nice(save for some cartoony and well, obviously CG), which is what you expect from a superhero movie these days. The humor is frankly better then the original and it's a feel-good, often non-serious movie, nor very dark. Now here's the bad part... for a movie that's called Rise of the Silver Surfer his screen time is fairly small(and so is his «boss»'s) and he doesn't really do much, it's like Fox and Marvel's advertising of X-men 3 and the Angel character, remember that? Don't expect Victor Von Doom to have a much better confrontation then he did last time, it lasts a while longer but not by much but thank God, the annoying voice is gone. The storyline is kinda silly, it's amazing how the team and the army jump from one point of the globe to another, considering it's all done under a week. Also, why does the army have a prison in Siberia and what was the point of that torture scene? It's a superhero movie aimed at younger viewers, mostly, but what was that? Finally, once again Chris Evans and Mike Chikilis steal the show, with Jessica Alba and Ioan Grudoff being just as bad as their original roles: charisma-free. Still, if you have a chance be sure to check it out. If you're into light-hearted superhero movies this is for you.