Exactly what it pretends to be: pretty good popcorn entertainment.

Rating: 5/10 (21 July 2005)

Grade: C+
Fantastic Four is nothing more than it pretends to be: a big, loud, popcorn movie with cool special effects and an incredibly hot Jessica Alba showing off some cleavage. Just a note for my fellow males, you do get to see Ms. Alba in her undergarments, but only for a few seconds. The highest grade a movie with such low aspirations can possible achieve is a B. So, I found Fantastic Four to be entertaining, but not that entertaining. It could have, and should have, been better. It tries to follow the recent successful trend in exploring the origins of a superhero (or heroes in this case), but the problem is that is just keeps exploring for no apparent reason.
I've never been a fan of the Fantastic Four comic books because they were very light and fluffy. As far as the movie, it's not quite as lowly as Hulk (another comic book that I wasn't particularly fond of), but no where near the same league as the X-Men films either. The special effects are just okay. The Human Torch looks pretty good, but Mr. Fantastic looked very fake any time he stretched a limb. Visually the movie is very pedestrian. No cool camera angles, action sequences, or visual themes. The script is no work of art, but the poor direction brings the film down even further.
Like I said before, the biggest problem about FF is that it's not really about anything. There's no plot, nothing to keep looking forward to. The entire movie is about the four getting their powers and trying to get rid of them. That should have taken about half-an-hour tops before really diving into some kind of forward moving plot. Only one of the four, Johnny Storm a.k.a. The Human Torch, actually embraces their powers. If you had any of the four's powers, don't you think it would be fun to experiment a little instead of staying cooped up in an apartment all day? The casting was also questionable. Jessica Alba is hot, but I sure don't buy her as an uber-genius scientist. I did not buy her as a blond or a big sister either. She worked as The Invisible Woman, but her acting skills are definitely limited. I also was a little annoyed by Ioan Gruffudd (Reed Richards a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic) even when he was not supposed to be annoying. The other two of the four were casted well. Michael Chiklis was great as Ben Grimm a.k.a. The Thing. His character is the only one with a story worth exploring. He is also the only one we ever feel sorry for because his appearance has permanently changed into a man shaped rock. I think The Thing should have been a lot bigger and more intimidating, but that's something the director probably screwed up. Chris Evans, Johnny Storm, gave the movie some much needed comic relief. The way he took life so casually, trying to hook-up with every hot girl he saw, was a perfect counterbalance to the seriousness projected by all the scientists.
All in all I had fun watching the Fantastic Four. Would I watch it again? Probably not. It's very blah. But, its not so bad watching it once in an air conditioned theater for a couple of hours on a hot summer day.