Not too bad, but far from good

Rating: 4/10 (17 July 2005)

First, let me say that I'm not sorry I went to see this movie. I've been to see all the recent crop of Marvel universe based movies and, while some are better than others, I haven't regretted one, and will continue to go see whatever Marvel and the studios give me. Yes, I am a sheep.
All of these movies have fallen, in my humble opinion, into two groups: the really good, and the poor to not so good. Before FF opened, I hoped it would break the monopoly on the "really good" group held by the X-Men (1 & 2) and Spiderman (mostly 2.)
Well, we can't have everything we want, now can we? FF is firmly in the middle of the "poor to not so good" group. Mildly entertaining. Four stars (no pun intended.)
I won't rehash the plot, as more than enough other commenters have done that quite adequately before me. My complaint is that the story, the script, and the acting for this film are all bland and mediocre, with only two particular exceptions.
Story-wise, it is all extremely straightforward; no twists, no surprises, nothing remotely thought-provoking. Ten minutes into the movie, you know exactly what is going to happen all the way through to the end. The first exception is here: there is one story point (which comes very near the end of the film) that was not altogether obvious until 20 or 30 minutes in.
The acting was almost universally flat. Emotionally important lines had an air of boredom, and joyful lines were merely glib. The second exception is here: there has been much made of Michale Chiklis's performance as Ben Grimm, and it is somewhat deserved. I have no doubt that Chiklis may be fine actor (I have seen none of his other work) but his performance here was second rate. All of second, mind you, no worse. It was a competent, adequate performance which shone only by comparison. (Stan Lee makes his customary cameo appearance, and is perhaps the most animated actor on the screen.)
The script was altogether uninteresting, without exception. Watch the trailer or read the "Memorable Quotes" page here on IMDb. It is likely you will ask "Is that the best they could come up with?" Yes, it is.
Still, as I said, I'm not sorry I went to see it. And, as I said, I will continue to go see whatever comes out. There has been much speculation that FF2 (or whatever the sequel will be called) will be better now that the character establishment is out of the way. I sure hope that's right.