Should have been better

Rating: 4/10 (17 July 2007)

... Or to give it it's proper title, "Fantastic Four 2: The Contractual Obligation".
OK. That's very negative. As a superhero movie pitched towards very small children, I suppose that there is nothing wrong with "4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer", but really it should have been so much better. I know that a lot of people didn't like the first "Fantastic Four" movie very much, but I did (it was big, silly, technicolour fun), and sad to say it, "4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer" is nowhere near as good.
The great assets of the first film were Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis and Julian McMahon. The film came alive whenever those actors were on screen. This time round they sleepwalked their way through their roles (I'm sure I saw one of them checking his watch), leaving Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba (very nice to look at, but I hated your hair this time, Darling!) to drown in a plot of bad jokes and semi-romantic mush (both of which I sometimes have a disturbingly high tolerance for, but not this time). The Silver Surfer effects are magnificent, but the least you can expect in a Summer blockbuster are good special effects.
Should have been better. Much, much better.