Fantastic Four (2005) ***

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2005)

Intending to study cosmic rays, scientist Reed Richards blasts off into space along with his companions Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Johnny's sister Susan, and a rich but nasty industrialist called Victor Von Doom, who has financed the experiment. They meet terrible fates when they are tragically bathed in the rays, and as a result are endowed with different special powers... Reed is able to stretch his body indefinitely; Johnny can turn himself into a flying human torch; Susan becomes able to make herself transparent, and unfortunate palooka Ben Grimm is turned into an over-sized hulking monster consisting of orange-ish rocks. Victor Von Doom's body gradually begins to transform into metal, and he becomes the infamous villain "Dr. Doom", now out to destroy the "Fantastic Four" (as named by the media).
This is not a pretentious or heavy-handed concept; this is a comic book story first and foremost, with the added quality of having characters we can get somewhat involved in. The film chooses to center itself more on the origin of these unusual characters and how their unnatural transformations are affecting them, and that's fine by me. Nowhere does this work better than through the sad and pitiful characterization of poor Ben Grimm, alias The Thing (perfectly played by Michael Chiklis), who gains our sympathy and delights us with the clumsiness and despair of his unwanted predicament. He has our hearts in his hard, bulky, four-fingered hands. He can also be funny as he constantly gets teased by Johnny Storm, who's always trying to get the best of the poor misfit. This was my very favorite element of the film, and it was in perfect harmony with the original comic book. I liked that the Thing's look was achieved through an actual body costume, rather than needless CGI, which didn't help the lousy HULK movie.
Johnny the "Human Torch" can not only be antagonizing to gullible Ben Grimm, but equally annoying to us as well with his boyish and gung-ho eagerness to accept his fiery new persona a bit too readily. But I suppose this helps bring some contrast to the proceedings, as Reed Richards as the rubber-man is kind of bland, and Sue Storm doesn't get to do much when she's not stripping down to become invisible (she's played by the ultra-attractive Jessica Alba, who's decent enough in the role, by the way).
Not a great film, but a good one - and certainly enjoyable enough for a Marvel Comics fantasy. It would be nice to see a sequel now that the beginnings and problems of the lead characters have been effectively dealt with. I'd love to see Michael Chiklis climb into that Thing costume at least once more as he yells: "It's Clobberin' Time!" *** out of ****