Adequate Fan Film

Rating: 6/10 (6 December 2007)

I loved the Fantastic Four Comic Book as a kid, but I never felt that their origin story really measured up to many of Marvel's Silver Age origins. So, I was a little surprised when I started seeing trailers for this film and it became apparent that the Fantastic Four would follow the origin-story formula for the franchise's first film. I was also a little concerned, and approached the film with low expectations. The film exceeded my expectations, but just barely. It was entertaining, though surprisingly violent considering that the original comic upon which it was based was more in the line of traditional pre-teen/teen oriented fiction than, for example, the X-Men.
Four astronauts working with a somewhat shady ex-colleague in a private experimental venture are exposed to a radioactive cosmic storm which causes each of them to have different mutagenic reactions. Reed Richards become capable of morphing himself into virtually any shape and seemingly indestructible. Ben Grimm becomes rock-hard and incredibly strong. Johnny Blaze develops the ability to control flame and fly, and Susan Storm becomes telekinetic, and can rearrange air molecules to become invisible and to project a shield around herself and others. The storm also has an effect on Susan Storm's boss and boyfriend - the shady ex-colleague - affecting both his business credibility and his body, but to discuss this further would involve a spoiler.
The film depicts the origin and personalities of the Fantastic Four in a manner which is fairly consistent with the Marvel Comic. I was particularly pleased with the casting and writing for Ben Grimm, who is, in my opinion, the most sympathetic of the group. The second half of the film shows them discovering what they can do with their new powers and sets up the emotional turmoil which will characterize the relationships between the four and their adversaries throughout many of their adventures - doing a particularly nice job of depicting Ben's feelings of loss and his reasons for them. The directing is fine, and the special effects are about as good as they could be (though they literally stretch believability quite often).
The talented Mark Frost headed the writing team, which helps to explain why the dialog, pace and plotting were consistently above WGA's usual performance.
All considered, the film does a reasonably good job within the limitations of the original material, which are several. Part of the problem with this material is that it fails to develop a main plot - in the form of a major adversarial relationship - until about 3/4ths of the way through the film. And that main plot is, therefore, subordinated to origin stories and characterization. How the franchise does will, therefore, largely depend on how effectively it uses the characterization in the first film to devise stronger plot devices in the succeeding films.
I have greater trepidations about the second film - mainly because it involves one of Marvel's greatest story lines, and I have not, therefore, rushed to see the Silver Surfer. With the origin story out of the way and the characters built, and great material to work with, the second film ought to be an improvement.