F4 Purists Won't Like It, But It's Still A Lot Of Fun

Rating: Null/10 (29 June 2007)

The Joe Cool Experience: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer(2007)
Starring:
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invisible Woman Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing Julian McMahon as Dr. Victor Von Doom Doug Jones(body)/Laurence Fishburne(voice) as The Silver Surfer
Plot: Trying to prepare for Reed and Sue's wedding, in addition to adjusting to life as celebrities, the Fantastic Four soon face threat to the entire world. The Silver Surfer, Herald of Galactus, has arrived on Earth and is preparing the planet for Galactus' consumption. In addition to all of this, Doom is back to cause problems.
I am one of the few who actually liked Fantastic Four. While I admit it was very flawed, I think the depictions of Human Torch and Thing were right on the money both in look and performance. I had hoped this time around they would up the stakes and give us a better movie, and it turns out they did. They brought in The Silver Surfer, brought back Doom, and added a lot more action. They knew what they were doing. Take what (some) people thought worked, the popcorn like action feel of the first one, and turn it up a notch.
Here's what I didn't like about it. The comedy feels forced and doesn't always work. And there's more of it than there needs to be. Tender or serious moments are quickly interrupted with a joke, lest the audience have to actually think or feel with anything that's presented to them. This felt like they were going for a little bit of parody. There shouldn't be that much comedic elements when we're supposed to be in suspense over whether or not the world will end.
This movie may not win any awards, but I had a lot of fun and was very entertained. What more can you ask for from summer action fare? Chris Evans once again brought it as The Human Torch, making him just as arrogant as the comics, but at the same time, and I was amazed by this, we see Johnny mature a little bit and have some character growth. Michael Chiklis already explored The Thing the last time, so he was just kind of going by-the-book here and didn't do much. Julian McMahon didn't overact as much, which is all you can really ask. I still don't think Reed and Sue are cast right but we'll ignore that.
They change a few elements of the comics, such as Galactus and the Super-Skrull. Galactus is a drastic change from his comic counterpart, but I feel that it works here, and for all we know it was meant to be a glimpse before we get the real Big G. Who knows? Super-Skrull was more of a concept as the actual character did not appear. F4 purists will probably be disappointed at this movie, I'll let you all know that. I didn't read too much F4, so I'm not as upset that things were changed.
Overall, This movie had everything it needed to succeed, great action, The Silver Surfer doing his thing and just was a fun ride from start to finish. They succeeded in being better than the original, and out of the three Marvel comic movies to hit this year, this one is the best.
Rating: ***1/2 of *****