Not quite the comic book I would read

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2007)

The curtain goes up, you get your precursor to the story, the camera finally comes to the stars of the show. I had a flag of warning at that moment: Thing's rocky shell seemed somehow less weighted, he moved far to easy in it unlike he did in the previous installment; Sue was.. well... there was way too much hair spray; Johnny and Reed were just too clean. I'm sorry, but that seems to go against the trend to make things more believable in this decade. Batman Begins was almost perfect. Life for the Bat to be was dirty, violent and full of misery. You could at least feel some of his pain. The relationship between Susan and Reed were almost Barbie-ish. I was pleased to see Alicia (Kerry Washington) return - at least thing had some intimacy to balance his clobbering ability.
While the movie had many weaknesses, as a story it was good. The Silver Surfer was undaunted in his focus, preparing the earth to be consumed by his master Galactus. For the most part, if I was between the ages of 12 and 21, I might have enjoyed it more... especially if I had read the graphic novels of the Fantastic Four (Then again, maybe not - specially if I was a purist). But reluctantly, as an old fat, I could watch the film and be critical of it simply because there really wasn't much there in the offering plate for me to munch on with a pleasant demeanor. The CGI, though good in some spots (the Galactus cloud creature as it starts to penetrate the Earths atmosphere was quite well done, and the Silver Surfer reminiscent of the T-1000 in Judgment Day), there were many other uses that just didn't seem to rise to the polish expected in a live action/CGI film.
Aside from being almost short in it's running time (92 minutes), the story sometimes confused children, which was evident in the amount of chatter going on around me and my friends. There was one adult that took calls all the way through the film, and a carpool of kids behind us were eating something that required removal from a crackling cellophane that just got extremely annoying after the first 20 minutes. Parent bringing their 3 to 6 year old kids to this thing are just totally oblivious to the sensibility of raising children. They probably couldn't get a baby sitter, so they just allowed their kids to wanter the rows of seats and play on the outside isle steps. For a viewing audience, especially for this grumpy old turd, it just did nothing but aggravate the review of this movie to almost a negative experience.
Mom? Dad? If your little kiddie seems to not really be interested in the film or is totally confused by it, it may mean the tyke is not ready for this stuff at this time in his/her development. Maybe your should wait for the DVD and pass up the theater experience. OK???? Thanks!