A "Fantastic" Disappointment

Rating: 4/10 (30 June 2007)

Fantastic Four is a big disappointment. It had the possibility to create a fantastic movie series and it did not do it. The film has poor acting, directing, and the story is not very good! Overall, a poor film that should have been done better!
The acting is poor in this film. Jessica Alba is no Susan Storm and she does a bad job portraying her. The film probably just wanted somebody of physical attractiveness in this film. Same with Ioan Gruffud. At times he does well, playing an intelligent and determined Reed Richards (ecspecially in the beginning), but he does only mediocre at best. A disappointment for him because I was expecting better. Chris Evans is good as a cocky and arrogant Johnny Storm but he does nothing special. Michael Chiklis is the bright point as the Thing/Ben Grimm. He does a good job of portraying the anger, dismalness, and suffering of the Thing. Julian McMahon as Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom! I will be flat out honest, he has ruined this character. McMahon has no where the intensity to portray this character. After watching him on screen, I think he may not even want to be there playing the character because he acts so sub-par. He lacks the anger, determination, and evil genius of the Doctor Doom character. He does a very bad job! One of the most disappointing interpretations of a character ever.
The story in this film is pretty bad. Mark Frost does little to nothing in creating a good or interesting story for that matter. I could never get into the film. One bright point of this film is the portrayal of the Thing. Chiklis and the story do a good job of showing the pain and suffering of the Thing in his character. Also note-worthy is the Johnny Storm character. He is arrogant and cocky which is a surprisingly good portrayal of the character. I hate the Dr. Doom character. McMahon can't be fully to blame but the writers can as well for creating this character. He has his greediness but he seems as if he is lacking in determination and evil capabilities. And it seems as if the writers try to make up for that in the movie by giving him some sort of unlimited/cosmic/god-like powers which only make the character worst. What makes Doom dangerous is his character, not his powers.
Special effects are pretty bad! I mean, I imagine it must be hard to create a Thing costume but this one is just so fake. And some of the special effects seem way overdone including the final showdown between the 4 and Doom.
Overall, a big disappointment. The Fantastic Four is an excellent comic book group and they deserved better than this. Mostly bad acting and bad character portrayal is what ruin this movie. If you are a Fantastic Four fan, you might want to avoid it so you don't lose respect for your characters. I would give this film an upper level rating of 4 stars, but none the less it is still 4 stars.