Comfortable slippers for $130 million

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2007)

I am back from the encounter that I have anticipated and dreaded for the past two years...back, from seeing FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER.
Somehow, I never thought I would come away from it quite like this. I think maybe it's not a great movie. I do think, however, that it is a good summer popcorn movie. And I also think that it is a TERRIFIC Fantastic Four movie! Basically, the studio spent $130 million just so I could feel like I was putting on an old, comfortable pair of slippers...returning me to a comic book that I had started reading at the age of 10 (and stopped reading at 25).
The bantering and bickering between the team here is absolutely perfect, and had me chuckling and even laughing throughout the film. It's enough to overcome certain weaknesses, like the FF's uncomfortable alliance with the military, and the apocalyptic effects-laden ending where the team sort of becomes irrelevant (although another huge CGI piece, involving a fight with the Surfer on the Thames, manages to keep the FF very much in the foreground). Johnny's adaptation from immature, egotistical teenager to immature, egotistical adult still works completely, Ben is much more comfortable in his rocky skin, Reed is right there sneaking in more work behind Sue's back, and Sue still dreams of nothing more than a normal life. The Surfer might have been CGI, but I had no awareness of that fact at all while watching. And even my dismay at seeing Doctor Doom bounce right back in movie number two--seeming to be more of a limited mindset to the franchise (a la Lex Luthor, Magneto, Green Goblin, et al.) than a statement about being the big nemesis--evaporated completely when I realized they were playing out another classic storyline from the original comic.
Ninety minutes might have sounded short to me, but the movie was perfectly packed with character and action, and fully satisfying at its conclusion, leaving me exhilarated and feeling like I had champagne in my veins. As a matter of fact, I was tempted to stay and watch it a second time--which has me totally flabbergasted, considering no movie has given me that urge for something like 25 years! I can only hope this does well enough to bring us a third film in the series, and that the filmmakers are comfortable enough with it to feel they don't have to once again destroy the world merely to justify the making the movie.