Still Mindless Fun, Slight Improvement on the First

Rating: 7/10 (20 May 2011)

I've never been much into the Fantastic Four. I think Thing is dynamic and Doctor Doom is interesting. But I never much cared for the others. They did get interesting in the Civil War when they broke up and started fighting each other. However, I really can't think of a specific FF story that stands out from the others, certainly not like Spider-Man's Death of the Stacys or Iron Man's Armor Wars, other than the coming of Galactus.
The first movie was largely a disappointment. But that just means I got my disappointment out of the way and found myself enjoying this one. Sure the problems remain, but they don't seem as crippling. I already know that Doom, Reed, and Sue are miscast so I can merely accept them here for what they are.
Everyone does seem to be trying just a little harder this time. Gruffudd is still plodding along with the technical jargon, but he seems a little more comfortable with it. Alba is still there to be breasts that walk with another scene thrown in just to show off her body, but she does show some improvement. Even Tim Story seems to be trying to be more than just mediocre.
I really liked how they humbled Johnny this time around, so he isn't merely an arrogant jerk. Sure he tries to be, but they show there's more to him than that. However, I didn't care for how Thing is basically there with not a lot to do. They seemed to lose that tortured inner self that made him so interesting in the first. I also enjoyed the publicly known heroes aspect of the story. Sure, Iron Man 2 did it so much better, but they were the first to try it and there are some interesting aspects in it all.
Doctor Doom is a little more, but not entirely, like we know and love him. I like that they show him doing more than just hating everyone else and actually developing some kind of evil scheme. It's just a shame that they didn't push that more.
The real stand out of the movie is the Silver Surfer. He stole the spotlight in the original comic story and steals the movie. Surfer is, by far, the most dynamic character in the movie. There's little hints of his story that they would have expanded on in the proposed SS spin-off. Doug Jones is perfect for him. He perfectly captures those iconic Surfer movements. Though I wish they kept his voice rather than bringing on Fishburne, which just seemed unnecessary. Jones fit the voice just fine, and it seems Fishburne was brought on because he was the cool guy from The Matrix.
I know many people bemoan the portrayal of Galactus here, but I liked it. Sure they go with the Ultimate Gah Lak Tus cloud rather than the 616 giant, but it's not like the movie is really hurt by not seeing the giant. From what I read, they would have shown the giant Galactus in the SS spin-off. I do appreciate that they left some mystery to it/him to be explored later.
Neither of the Fantastic Four movies were anything that could be considered classics. They were more meant to be mindless popcorn films. This one showed that with time they may have made them more than that, but I'm certainly not sad they're not making a third. Brief aside, if they do reboot the series, I truly hope they bring back Evans and Chiklis as they were certainly the bright spots in this dull series.
It's fun taking for what it is. But there's still some problems preventing this from being a great film. My rating 7/10.