Not art by any means, but very fun.

Rating: 5/10 (18 June 2007)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer - After the death (er...statuizing?) of Dr.Doom the Fantastic Four think life is back to normal. Reed Richards (Ioan Grufford) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) make plans to get married, but are interrupted when the Silver Surfer (Doug Jones/Laurence Fishburne) shows up, trying to destroy the earth and it's up to the fantastic four to deal with him, as well as with the return of Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon).
Let me start off by saying that I was never that big a fan of the FF comics (More Batman and Spiderman). I liked the powers and all, and they had some good stories, but they always struck me as the Brady Bunch of the Marvel universe, so squeaky clean and loved by all. And Marvel was always at their hokiest when they tried to get into science. And dear god, WHY did Dr. Doom always narrate his actions in the third person? Still, I liked 2005's "Fantastic Four" film, which was stomped on the throat by just about everyone (This one has been as well). Not serious enough. Alba couldn't act. Dr. Doom wasn't Darth Vader blah blah blah. That film was a brainlessly fun piece of fluff and so was this one. Everyone's been spoiled by the Batman Begins masterpiece.
Let me start with the performances. Grufford is somewhat subdued as Richards, though he gets to show some spunk and initiative this time around. Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis have a great little repartee together as The Human Torch and The Thing respectively. Alba has gotten better than last time. She's still not what I'd call an actress, but she's not bad. She doesn't whine or detract from anything and has some funny moments. And I didn't give a crap about how bleached blonde she was. The powers all look good but with a few cheap-looking glitches with Mr. Fantastic. The Surfer looks fantastic but I do wish Doug Jones had gotten to voice-over instead of Fishburne because aside from a few sad looks and gestures they could've had anyone under all that CGI. Don't get me wrong, I like Fishburne and he speaks well without getting too melodramatic, but I love Doug Jones' stuff.
The opening 10 minutes of the movie are pretty weak, but it gets much better with the wedding and the Surfer/Torch chase that I'm sure everyone's seen by now with the trailers and all, but it's somehow been given more intensity and fine polish for the film. There are several other action sequences and the movie offers up decent action for a PG film, as well as a particularly cool way to off someone, but I want more. I feel like they used a bunch of the action up in the trailers and TV spots, but there's still loads of cool bits of CGI and whatnot. It's all great turn-your-brain-off stuff. The jokes are well played, but the film lacks a little for seriousness. And I wish Julian McMahon had been given more evil crap to do, cause I like his stuff. There were very few moments where I wasn't enjoying the film.
Galactus was a small disappointment, not because he wasn't true to the original comics (which he was). I know there are a huge legion of fanboys livid about that, but I don't think they'd be too happy about a 70 story tall guy in purple Viking armor either. The problem with him/it was there was a certain feeling of awe and magnitude lacking in his arrival. He was also dispatched too easily, which makes me feel that there was no good way to end the movie in a very satisfying way, cause the way the comic ended sucked too.
It's a fun movie that you have to turn your brain off to enjoy, because there are stretches of "scientific" crap (like the comics) that make you go "Huh? a pulse what?" It's not art, and the movie gleefully acknowledges this and still makes you have a good time. It's fun, it's funny, and it's light-hearted. a C+