Not fantastic, but a pretty good movie nonetheless.

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2005)

This movie was rather good and it was a bit light and not as serious as say "Batman Begins". Hey these are the Fantastic Four though and not the Dark Knight, their name suggests they are going to be a bit less serious. Could have been more action, but it had its comic moments that made up for the lack of action. All the Fantastic Four actors were great so now it is time for my number one major gripe of the film. Doctor Doom was portrayed completely wrong, I did not let it ruin the film for me, but I really did not think the actor was right and I also don't think it would have been all that hard to get his origin correct. He never had any powers in the comic book, he was simply a brilliant scientist and dabbler in magic who blamed Reed for an accident that left him permanently scarred. He created a powerful armor to combat the Fantastic Four and is one of the best Marvel villains there is even fighting the likes of Spider-man. Here he also comes into contact with the cosmic rays and the armor he built in the comic just starts to form on him. They make mention of his homeland, but I am not sure if he is the leader. To tell ya the truth I feel Arnold Schwarzenegger would have been the perfect Doom, but then I am not a movie maker so what do I know. Other than that for the most part I liked the movie. People have been complaining about the effects, but I thought they were pretty good, not top notch, but then this movie was not given an unlimited budget. Probably had something to do with the fact the Hulk underachieved, I doubt they were going to give this movie over a 150 million budget when the slightly more known Hulk didn't pull in all that much. Five or six years ago though, had this movie come out the effects would have been considered top notch, just not by todays standards. The Thing was great, it did look like rock, and all the others had their powers working good too. The fight with Doom could have been a bit longer, but this is an origin tale so they have to establish characters first. So in the end do not expect to be blown out of the water, but do expect a more basic summer popcorn flick.