Light fantastic

Rating: 5/10 (21 December 2007)

Undemanding, sit-back, in-flight entertainment, which is in fact where I viewed this comic-book sequel. I am a comic book fan (more a DC than Marvel guy, I must say) and so can accept this type of fantasy film if the notion takes me. The Fantastic Four seem on the whole to be a much lighter subject than such complex individuals as the troubled Batman and Spider Mans of this imaginary world and so the film must be accepted at a much lower level. The characterisations are about as thin as comic-strip paper, the humour forced and of course it's product placement all the way but the story rattles along with special effects (of a decidedly mixed quality) in almost every other scene. The actors barely merit mention, playing their clothes (should that be costumes) adequately and I also thought the Stan Lee cameo as stilted as it was unnecessary. As I stated above, the SFX are good only in patches, the computer generated Silver Surfer fairly leaps out of the screen and comes off best overall but Mr Fantastic's stretching capabilities seem to, well, overstretch the director and his team. In summary, I think I'd have preferred to have read a half dozen or so FF mags in the time it took to watch this big-screen adaptation but I can't and won't complain overmuch.