Finally, a fun summer movie! (plot details mentioned)

Rating: 6/10 (15 June 2007)

The first Fantastic Four movie was a fun comic book movie, that suffered from being a strictly by the book origin telling. In this one however, having the characters established means they can simply get on with telling the story.
The plot is actually simple. A mysterious figure on a silver board is causing havoc around the world and the military call in the Fantastic Four to help. They then discover that the figure is only the START of the problems the world faces.
After the overlong three-quels Spider-man 3 and Pirates 3, it's pleasant surprise that we've finally had a summer movie that is funny in places, tells it's story without over-staying it's welcome. The special effects are impressive, the action sequences are not bad. But I have to say that for a summer blockbuster there's not as much action as you'd expect but that does give time to develop the characters, which it does quite well.
As far as the actors go, Chris Evans easily walks away with the film. After the 2 Fantastic Four movies and Sunshine I think he could be a huge star in the making. His double act with Michael Chiklis is wonderful. They make the Human Torch and Thing characters you want to spend time with. As for Ioan Gruffudd, he seems more relaxed this time out as Reed Richards, and he does get the best speech in the movie. All I'll say on that, is geeks, your time has come!! Jessica Alba may not be the best actress in the world, but she's better than some critics have said, though the blue contact lenses do take some getting used to. As a group though the charisma and chemistry between them is convincing.
However, the stumbling block of the movie are the villains of the piece. First, bringing back Doctor Doom is a mistake. He just seemed to be in there, so the FF have someone they can fight.
The Silver Surfer is a let-down too. Not the CGI used to create him, but the use of the character. He's not really developed and doesn't really do that much but yet in the end he has the key role at the end. As for the alien entity Galactus, all we see are these huge clouds in space. I've no idea what the character looks like in the comic books, but I was expecting more.
All that being said though, I did enjoy it. It's a better movie than the first, and after the disappointments of Pirates 3 and Spider-man 3, a lot of fun.