The difference between movies and comic books

Rating: 5/10 (11 July 2005)

When I left the theater after seeing Fantastic Four, I was a little disappointed. Needless to say, I wasn't expecting a bulletproof story line and flawless acting, but F4 left me wanting more.
After considering it for a while, I realized F4 is truly a comic book movie. If I were reading this movie off the pages of a Marvel comic book I probably would've been a lot more satisfied. The convenient turns of events and hokey one-liners would've been a lot more acceptable. The mediocre acting wouldn't even have been an issue.
One thing I liked about F4 is how it explained the origin of the group when an accident in space involving a wave of radiation gave them their super powers. It also explained the origin of the group's arch nemesis, Dr. Doom. Also, the movie featured some really cool special effects.
I have a number of small gripes with the movie however. First, I was annoyed by Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards. He just seemed too wussy. Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm were cast perfectly though. Jessica Alba is a little too "teen movie hottie" to play Sue Storm in my opinion. The one-liners in this movie were just plain cheesy. One-liners are either great or horrible. Cool or hokey. In this case, hokey. Furthermore, when Ben Grimm freaks out for the whole movie about being the Thing and finally gets to be himself again, he changes himself back at the end. It had to happen, but in this case it was just irritating.
Finally, my last complaint is the anticlimactic final battle between the four and Dr. Doom. It only lasts a couple minutes, and Dr. Doom goes down in a blaze of....water? Its a clever defeat, but much too boring for a movie that was already lacking.
Concluding, I gave this movie a 6 because, well, super hero movies are cool and the Fantastic Four rule. I just think they might have been a little hasty releasing this one. In a sub-genre of the movie industry where Spider Man 2 and Batman Begins reign supreme, Fantastic Four will inevitably be remembered as filler.