They pull it off...this time...

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2005)

I know that this review will likely infuriate many Fantastic Four fans but I don't mean to insult or offend it's just my opinion which is how this works. Fantastic Four are not your typical super heroes. They are more kid oriented and their powers are almost cartoony so taking them live action would be much more of a challenge than something like Batman, Spiderman, or even Superman. Enter the newest film by director Tim Story. He goes for more of a balanced mix between campy, dark humor, and real live action trying to humanize the heroes as best he can.
Fantastic Four is about former Nasa scientist Reed Richards and his best friend pilot Ben Grimm. Richard's has gone bankrupt and needs funding for his next project. In order to do that he turns to a former adversary, Victor Von Doom. He pitches him the idea of studying DNA in space in order to get a better understanding of it. Doom agrees if only to get 75% of the all the profits. Planning the trip into space is the lovely, and former girlfriend of Richards, Sue Storm. The two clash from the moment they meet again. Sue insists that her womanizing, off the handle brother Johnny Storm pilot the ship with Ben sitting co-pilot, an idea Ben is not crazy about. The five of them head into space and they must set up their equipment before getting hit by a cosmic storm which they will be protected from inside the ship. The storm is estimated to be nine hours away but suddenly as Ben goes outside the ship to set up equipment they discover the storm has shifted and is not minutes away. The team rush to get Ben back in the ship but it's too late and Ben takes a direct hit from the Cosmic storm and the rest of them, including Victor are exposed as well. When they return to Earth they seem fine but gradually slowly discover that they're DNA has been fundamentally altered giving each of them extraordinary powers. Ben Grimm goes through a horrible metamorphosis and is turned into an enormous solid rock creature and loses all human features. Devastated he escapes the compound to go home to his wife and when his wife turns her back on him he goes away to think. Unfortunately his appearance and strength causes some commotion on a bridge and accidents ensue. The team use their newly found powers to work and save people and they go from nobodies to celebrities overnight. Johnny Storm loves it, he embraces it, but the rest of the team only want to hide away and find a cure to their powers. The media name them The Fantastic Four and Johnny gives them all their super hero names. Unfortunately Victor Von Doom has cracked under the pressure of the newly found powers and the failure of his company and has become Dr. Doom. Doom wishes to destroy Reed and his team leaving him the only one who will be Fantastic.
As with most original Superhero films this covers the basics, where they came from and their beginnings. It's fun to watch the team fight amongst each other until they get a handle on their powers. There is a slightly different tone to this film because basically the only evil being fought is the man who wants to destroy them. It's more about self defense than it is about defending the world. For an action film it lacked as many action scenes as I would thought but nonetheless is quite captivating and has a great story. Parts are very campy but they fit well and I think Story meant it to be that way. The cast...Ioan Gruffudd, as Reed Richards. He does a decent job and he has a very leadership quality to him although his character wasn't as depthy as it could have been. There was a passiveness to him that slowly broke out with his powers but they never really covered it. The biggest name of the film really, Jessica Alba also did the best job. As Sue Storm she was outspoken, and intelligent and did one of the better acting jobs. I think a role like this could really give her the breakout she needs. Chris Evans was almost overused. His obnoxiousness poured through and despite some funny one-liners he needs to be toned down for the future. As an actor he's okay but needs to find his niche. Michael Chiklis did an incredible job as both Ben Grimm and The Thing. The story didn't go much into his true emotional state and how he felt about losing everything but when they did touch on it, he did decent. Julian McMahon as the evil Dr. Doom did an incredible job. He was viciously evil and they gave him the space and events to be a little more than PG which was nice for such an evil character. Frankly I think any future installments to the Fantastic Four will be a downward spiral. As much as I would love to see Doom come back and do some more world domination evil, it would be tough to carry on the story in a watchable manner. I think in fact Tim Story was lucky enough to pull this one off which is quite watchable and amusing. If you love the Marvel comic books or even just Superhero films it's worth seeing, maybe they'll leave it with this one (cough yeah right cough cough) 7.5/10