Good? maybe. Fantastic?...well...

Rating: 3/10 (17 September 2006)

Any comic-book fan would agree if I say that for us the main purpose of making a film adaptation of a Comic title is the chance to (finally) share with the whole world the magic and excitement that we know so well already. That's why some of the hard-core comic fans tend to be so vocal about an extreme radical departure from the source material. "If it isn't broke, don't fix it". And while I admit that giving Spider-man organic web-shooters was a big improvement on the character, I must also say that it was somewhat disappointing to me to see the movie portrayal of the Fantastic Four. For instance, MARVEL's greatest villain is Dr. Doom. A character some consider to be one (if not the main) influence to create the character of Darth Vader (from Star Wars) who is only cinema's greatest villain. Did you know that? So it is sad to see such a scarce development of the Dr. Doom character that I can't help but wondering if it was a serious attempt of telling the broad audience the potential of comic's first super-hero team / dysfunctional family or just making a movie for the sake of it. I mean, "The Incredibles" was a better Fantastic Four movie than this ever was! And we're not discussing visual effects or castingO.k., we could discuss casting, Michael Chilkis notwithstanding, but the point is that a great opportunity was lost in this film to channel some of the greatest comic stories ever told. At certain point I even considered the possibility of a FF movie to be a period movie, set in the 60's that as a matter of fact were the years when the comics were the hot new trend, or so was I told, but then again I recently stumbled with the work of such great contemporary authors as Brian Michael Bendis, Warren Ellis and Mark Millar on the current comics and I saw how you can successfully update an old and established concept for the 21st century. Once you read their work you will clearly understand my frustration with this film. Is it bad? No it's not. Is it Fantastic? Far from it.