Not One of the Best Superhero Flicks Ever, But Cheesy Fun

Rating: Null/10 (1 May 2012)

So when I was a kid, I went through multiple phases of who my favorite super hero was. For quite a bit of time, it was a shared spot by all members of The Fantastic 4. When I saw the first movie, I thought it was awesome. And then in the middle of my FF phase, "Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer" came out. But what I got, wasn't quite what I had expected.
Set about a year or two after the previous film, Reed Richards and Susan Storm are about to be married. But on their big day, things take a turn for the worst as a mysterious being shows up who is digging giant holes in the planet to the earth's core. The U.S. army task the Fantastic 4 with stopping the Silver Surfer before he destroys the planet. At the same time, Victor Von Doom, aka Doctor Doom, has been resurrected and after encountering the Surfer, goes to the army to help Reed, Johnny, Ben, and Susan stop the Surfer. It is revealed that the Surfer is actually a herald for a greater threat, known as Galactus, an entity that devours planets for energy. Victor steals the Surfer's board and now the Fantastic Four have to save the world from the combined threat of Doctor Doom and Galactus before either one control the planet.
As far as acting goes, superhero movies from the 80's to the late 2000's are pretty generic with their acting skills. There are exceptions like Christopher Nolan's Batman films and Bryan Singer's X-Men films, but for the majority of it, the acting is never something the films thrive on. 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' is one of those movies. The performances are bland and as good-evil as Hollywood gets. The only one in these films who I think played their character to a T is Chris Evans as Johnny Storm. He embodies the Human Torch much more than Captain America in my opinion.
The action in this film is pretty good for as far as super hero films used to go. With one's like "The Dark Knight" and "The Avengers" these days, where the action is really insane or thrilling, it's amazing. But in the 2000's, anyone will remember that nothing really mind blowing happened in super hero films until 2008. For a summer popcorn flick, 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' has good action. The problem is it's done all too fast and feels really rushed. I don't think there's a better example than the fight in the forest with the Silver Surfer. When Surf is flying around and smacking missiles away like they're nothing, that was awesome. But it all ends in like one minute when Susan turns on some device and it's like "Well, that was short".
For one thing, I always thought bringing back Doctor Doom was a stupid move by the writers. They should have stuck with it like the "Spider-Man" films. Kill the villain, he's done for good. But in a logic defying move, Fox somehow bribed Julian McMahon to come back. This is my least favorite part of this film. I though Victor was a good villain in the first "Fantastic Four", but here, he takes a back seat so the Surfer can have the spotlight. Understandably, but still, it feels like Doom was added last minute just so they had an excuse to bring back a familiar face. It certainly feels that way with his relevance in the film. When Victor once again becomes Doctor Doom, he has a dumb new silver cape, which I always though looked stupid. I mean, it's always been green. Don't mess with tradition.
Now the whole movie, Johnny's powers have been in flux. After the Surfer attacked him, Johnny can temporarily trade powers with the other members of the team. But when the final fight happens with Doom, it's not the Fantastic Four teaming up. Instead, Johnny goes solo absorbing all the Four's powers and just beats the crap out of Doom. Then Ben takes a crane and home-runs Doom into the ocean and they act like everything's fine. He survived being burned and flash frozen; you don't think he could survive taking a swim? It was obvious that the writers were suggesting that Doom would return in a third Fantastic Four film, but I'm glad that never happened.
Honestly, the Silver Surfer sucks in the movie. Aside from the Surfer's powers,there's nothing really cool about him. He's a cardboard cut-out of a character. In the finale of the film, the Surfer sacrifices himself to destroy Galactus. That's right, the Fantastic Four don't stop Galactus, the Surfer blows himself up using the board's power. I think this was a really cheap move by the writers. It's like, instead of really thinking of a cool way for the Four to even fight Galactus, they took the lazy way out and were like "Well how about the Surfer stops him?" and they slacked their way from there.
My final gripe about this film. Galactus. Anyone who has read the comics, or played Marvel Ultimate Alliance knows who Galactus is, what he looks like, and how unstoppable he is. Instead of the purple colossus of doom that Galactus has always been, the writers turned him into a space cloud. It looks like something out of a Roland Emmerich film, not an intergalactic super-villain.
I know I've gone on a long bitch-fest about this flick and you probably think I hate it. Well, you're half right. I used to hate it, but after re-watching it the other night I found myself highly enjoying it. Despite the things I hate about it, I found that it's very good, cheesy fun.