Adolescent Fun? Absolutely. But calling it "Fantastic" is a stretch.

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2005)

Ah, summer. It brings to mind memories of beaches, ballgames and adventures to your favorite swimming spot with your best friends. It was a time when you could let your imagination get the best of you as you day dreamed of what you'd be when you grew up. Maybe there would be a trip to outer space... And, hey, wouldn't it be wicked cool if you and your best friends somehow got super-powers on the trip and came back home to pal around and amaze everybody? If that's all that you are looking for in a cineplex adventure, then the "Fantastic Four" is right up your alley.
Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffud) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chicklis) are at the end of their list of potential backers for an orbital research experiment when they come knocking at the corporate door of Reed's old MIT classmate, Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon). Victor makes them a loaded offer, but with a short window of opportunity, they can't refuse. Along for the ride is Victor, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, whose character is Victor's own researcher, girlfriend and Reed's ex) and Sue's brother, an adrenaline-junkie pilot named Johnny (Chris Evans). The science behind the trip is so far-fetched that it makes "Frankenstein" seem like an article in The New England Journal of Medicine by comparison, so there isn't much point in going into detail. Once on the station, the phenomenon they have come to observe acts erratically and ends up irradiating this party of five. Things seem alright for a few days until they each begin to exhibit differing symptoms of exposure. The various abilities to stretch, turn invisible and become an impervious rock monster have Reed, Sue, and Ben all in a struggle to accept what has happened to them and try to find a way to reverse it, while Johnny has a ball lighting himself on fire and flying as a side effect. Victor is the slowest to develop because he was in the safest part of the space station, and he is more concerned with how the failed experiment managed to damage his face, company, relationship with Sue and reignite his envy of Reed. Care to guess who becomes the villain as the movie progresses? Wanna' bet there's a showdown?
It mostly hits its intended target of being a purely adolescent bit of summer entertainment, but the pubescent charm cuts both ways and misses some details. When Johnny gets Ben to smack himself in the face with a cream pie, it is a laugh-out-loud bit of slapstick that would make the Three Stooges envious. But it seems odd when a firefighter at a rescue scene is the one giving them cues on when and who should speak to the press corps that have gathered. And when Ben's fiancé (Debbie, played by Laurie Holden) comes out of her apartment and crosses the street in the middle of the night in only a thin negligee, the director, Tim Story, has gotten almost voyeuristic. Sue wears glasses with her hair up in campy style to signify that she is a scientist, but it's more about justifying packaging Jassica Alba's figure in a tight top than costuming the character. The film's objectification of women is its only serious downfall, but it has plenty of company in the school of campy film making. The one thing the movie does to balance the gender scales are the 2 scenes where Johnny ends up naked (hidden by water and then a jacket tied to his waist) after he burns his own clothes off. However, this is not a film with any real subtext and has no intentions of being one, so these things slide by.
Comedy seems to be the real focus Tim Story has brought here from the comic book. This is not about revenge (Batman Begins), bigotry (X-Men), repression (Hulk) or even accepting your place in the world (Spider-Man). This is a gee-whiz adventure with current and believable - but not great - special effects. Even John Ottman's score is surprisingly pedestrian in comparison to his striking music in "X2". But it is light-years (in both effects and style) beyond Roger Corman's unreleased 1994 "Fantastic Four" production, which was made mostly to hold onto the franchise rights. The best things here are the characterizations of Reed, Ben and Johnny. The script takes the actors right where they are supposed to go. The Sue Storm of the comics is the steadfast moral center of the team, but the script makes her a little bit too generic and too young. Although, to Alba's credit, she does attempt to make the role her own. The villain, Doom (the evolved Victor), is deflated from the comic book. Doom was an endlessly evil and obsessive character who was meticulous in each detail of whatever scheme he was planning. He garnered his power through political manipulation, his own science and black magic. That the character in this movie had no back-up plan for the mission's failure and to watch him unravel over his jealously about Reed's success with the press and Sue just reduces him to "villain of the week" status. However, Julian McMahon clearly had fun playing the role, and that translates well for the production.
"Fantastic Four" is another entry into the rapidly growing comic book genre of films. It goes its own route by not taking itself as seriously as other translations, and it is better for it. (How can you not have a little love for a movie that makes room for the series creator, Stan Lee, to stroll up and deliver the mail to the heroes? ) However, pandering to the audience makes the film stumble in places, and I'd be curious to see what a more adult director might do with a sequel.
($56 million on the first weekend? Yeah, the studio will make a sequel.)
Originally 6 out of 10
Revised to 5 out of 10