Not as bad as you'd think

Rating: 6/10 (11 August 2005)

Honestly, I gotta say it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. Even before it got universally panned across the board by critics I was still thinking "My God this is going to be the worst movie ever" just from seeing the previews. Thus it was with some trepidation that I allowed myself to be dragged to the theatre by my friend who wanted to see it. And I gotta say, it's not as bad as I thought it'd be.
Don't get me wrong, it ain't no gem. But it's some mindless entertainment that was actually fairly entertaining. Don't feel like thinking but want to be entertained? See this movie. I stress the "don't feel like thinking" part, because I can't say this was even a remotely clever movie. I am a huge fan of the intriguing mysterious thinking film-noir movie for entertainment (i.e Usual Suspects, Memento, Se7en, etc etc etc) but every once in a while you gotta let yourself just go. Hence this movie.
Alright, I in turn have been panning it nonstop. So what did I like? I'm not quite sure exactly, I have a hard time putting my finger on it. I guess it's that the script, while it won't win any awards, was adequate, especially since it didn't force any cheese-ball lines on any of the actors. The actors themselves are probably what did it for me the most. Von Doom is suitably evil though with just a touch of campiness so that it doesn't try to be strictly serious which would've ruined it. Johnny Storm is done well as the comic relief hotshot (har har, I made a funny), Reed Rivers is good as the genius but clueless head scientist, I actually felt pretty sympathetic towards The Thing during most of the movie, and I gotta say Jessica Alba for me was just okay as Sue Storm. Not great, but really she was there for her looks and not much else as it seemed. The dynamics between the actors and their characters worked out well enough to be believable, if barely.
Special effects were alright, plot was alright, dialogue was decent, actors were good, my biggest complaint would be the action scenes, especially the big end fight. I think the director's a little too gung-ho there and it all just kinda mashes together and isn't really remarkable or even very well done. But in the interest of campiness, hey it works.
Overall, if you got some money to burn you could rent it. Better yet borrow it from a friend. But it's not that bad.