Great summer movie!

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 2005)

Ioan Gruffudd is perfect as the geeky and unwilling superhero Reed Richards! What a great choice in casting! Ioan has the looks to be a superhero yet portrayed Reed Richards with just the right amount of nerdiness to come across as believable. Michael Chiklis was also a great choice in casting as Ben Grimm, something that surprised me at first; Jessica Alba, that Scarlett Johansson wannabe, was adequate but the movie didn't give her much to do. Maybe in the sequel?? Chris Evans as Johnny Storm was a hoot...he has more talent than the part required. Julian McMahon runs the risk of being typecast as the bad guy..give it a break, altho Nip/Tuck gives him a stretch...(sorry for the pun). Having grown up with the FF comics, the writing and directing kept true to the basic premise, thank heaven for Stan Lee's input, I am sure. As a 47 year old mother of 3 and grandmother, it was great to have parents, a teenager and pre-teen all like the same movie! The only problem with ALL of these superhero movies is that the bad guy, in this case Victor Doom, are all so predictable. Even my 11 year old could practically recite the lines Doom was going to say before he said them. Hopes are high for a sequel that gives the actors more of a stretch and shows some more "fantastic" special effects!! Thanks again, Stan! Make sure you still have a creative input clause in your contract! And make sure Ioan Gruffudd comes back as Reed Richards!