"A few days in space, what could possibly go wrong?" (minor spoilers)

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2015)

Following a failed experiment in space, a group of astronauts gain super powers following exposure to radioactive energy. This exposure gives the astronauts different super powers and doctor Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) is attempting to find a way to reverse the effects of the radiation on his team. However, Doctor Von Doom (who has also been exposed to the radiation) has his own agenda and is intent on using his super powers to try to take down the Fantastic Four.
Given its rather modest 5.7 average user rating I wasn't expecting much here and was actually fearing the worst. However, whilst watching this film I was surprised by how enjoyable I actually found it. The story has quite a lot of depth to it and most of the focus is on how the team cope with the way that the radiation has caused life-changing alterations to their DNA. Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) relishes his new found gift and does everything he can to make sure he's in the limelight - this makes sense as he's painted as a rather arrogant individual right from the start. Evans puts in a good performance and despite the arrogance of his character he does still have some likability about him. On the other end of the spectrum, we've got Ben Grimm (Michael Chilkis) whose DNA has been permanently altered by the radiation due to the fact that he received the most exposure to it. There is a very tender scene with his character at the start of the film where he goes back to see his wife and she can't handle what has happened to him and basically has nothing further to do with him (it seems bizarre that she doesn't even ask what has happened to him and doesn't seem interested in standing by him or helping him out - what a b*tch). Chilkis is also excellent here and gives a nicely balance performance with a character that is ugly and gruff on the outside, but has a real heart of gold on the inside. Alba and Gruffudd make up the other two characters in The Fantastic Four (Sue Storm and Reed Richards respectively) and sadly their characters are not quite as interesting as Ben or Johnny and their performances for me weren't quite as strong. Despite this though, the film provides many funny moments (mostly between Ben and Johnny) and the wonderful camaderie and rather interesting story and exploration of their super powers made this a winner in my book.
The only weak link with this film lay with Von Doom (Julian McMahon) as the villain of the piece and his motivations; he seems to lose it and go berserk because he's jealous that something is going on between Sue and Reed. OK, that's fine, but why then decide to try and kill Ben and Johnny when his issue is with Richards and Storm. Despite a good turn from McMahon, I never really took to him as a villain as I felt that jealousy alone was a rather thin and flimsy reason to justify his barbaric behaviour.
Taking everything into account this is a good film. It's fun, there are some interesting characters here, the exploration of their super powers are interesting and of course the special effects are incredible. It's definitely worth a look.