My son and I enjoyed watching this

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2005)

I was prepared for this to be a "reeker" as my late, wonderful Dad used to call bad movies.
It wasn't.
I've heard some say the characters could have been more developed a la "Spider-man" of 2002. That would have been asking a lot, perhaps for a movie four times as long, which this certainly didn't need to be. But I appreciated Michael Chiklis' Ben Grimm/"The Thing" and even the somewhat heavy-handed Chris Evans' Johnny Storm/"The Human Torch". I honestly liked the "Bridge scene" where the FF were essentially introduced to the public. (And to cheering throngs much like "Spidey" was three years earlier.) The way "Mr. Fantastic" wrapped himself around "The thing" to try and get him to cool down was, to my recollection, right out of the Marvel comic book...nicely done.
And where I was at (Rogers, AR) there was applause at movie's end, which seemed to be in homage to a nice flick instead of a merciful ending. I was hoping for some superheroes with a bit of personality (although "Reed Richards" was a bit wooden) in a non-stylized, realistic looking city, much like "Spider-man's" New York, and IMO this movie delivered what I wanted.
Right now (July 14) less than a week after the FF opened the worldwide take stands at $91 million. More money at the box office does not necessarily make for a great film, but I think this one may have surprised a few people. And, apart from some rough language in the film and one or two scenes, I'm glad that it did.
(As a sequel, I personally would love to see a non-politically-correct film of the FF taking on the old soviet apparatchik Ivan "The Red Ghost" Kragoff and his super-powered gorilla, baboon and orangutan (also bombarded by cosmic rays) done in today's state-of-the-art computer animation, but that, too, might be asking a bit too much in an era when most "westerners" under 18 have no clue what the Soviet Union was...)