Norrin Radd rules!

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2007)

Yes, if you liked 1 you'll like 2 and if you didn't, you won't (and you won't like it if you expect to see the source material faithfully reproduced without tweakage). And I didn't see any Galactus helmet silhouette anywhere apart from a couple of points where I kind of almost persuaded myself a bit that I might have seen something which kind of reminded me a bit of what it might look like if it had been there except maybe I was just imagining it.
But what of the film itself? Well, don't expect any deep themes - there's the underlying theme of family, of course, but it's gentle and understated. And don't expect profound subtext - there's Johnny taking on some responsibility when it counts, of course, and the Surfer fighting his "programming" in order to do the right thing, but these are simply part of the story, and not nailed up as an object lesson.
They got the group dynamic right in the first film, and that still holds strongly in this one - no messing with a successful bit of the formula. Doom - well, I simply have to get used to the fact that the Dr Doom in these movies is an entirely different character to the one in the comics. An OK villain, but a lightweight. And he doesn't speak with a Bela Lugosi accent.
Galactus - I can cope with the cloud. It works, in this context. The film has a cosmic menace, but it deals with it by reference to its effect on people. You get a glimpse of the cosmicness, but the people are the important thing.
The Surfer is nailed perfectly. They have captured the air of injured nobility, of tragic predetermination, in both Doug Jones' physical performance and Laurence Fishburne's voice-over. This is Norrin Radd, in every way. And for those who raised the Chrome Surfer criticism, that's dealt with too - he is indeed silver for much of the film, it's only when he's powered up that he becomes reflective.
Don't expect depth, expect fun - 92 minutes of action-packed Fantastic Four comic. This is EXACTLY what I would expect a comic movie to give me. It is much more entertaining than the overly angst-ridden Spidey 3. My parents, who rated FF1 very highly (more so than the Spidey movies, and on a par with the X-Men movies) will love it, my son (23) loved it, and I loved it too.