Another Tim Story debacle

Rating: 3/10 (8 February 2008)

Seriously, how does this man get hired? Twice now he and writers Dan Payne and Mark Frost have taken the dynamic, sci-fi adventure stories of the Fantastic Four and turned them into limp, half-hearted mush. Although this one doesn't have as many bad shots or embarrassingly edited action sequences, none of the action in this film has any real excitement -- everything feels rote, as though the plot mechanics required some blast from Doom or rubbery move from Reed. Imagine how exciting the climax would have been if the Silver and a humanoid Galactus (a la the comic book) duked it out, instead of the atrocious, "Superman Returns"-style climax Story and crew have handed us! Furthermore, the "family" theme is represented by having the Four bicker and then make cute. "Spiderman" has demonstrated that comic book movies can have more rounded characters. Only Chris Evans seems well cast and to enjoy his role. I'm sure Avi Arad is satisfied whenever he looks at this bank account but from an artistic and pop-cultural standpoint, the best thing that can be said about the "Fantastic Four" movies is that they are soon to be forgotten.