Lighthearted and human just like the Spiderman movies

Rating: 7/10 (17 July 2005)

The trick to making a successful comic book movie, or any sci-fi/fantasy movie, is to bring out the human characteristics of the main characters in the limited time available. The books, of course, have a definite advantage in this area, since they are not backed by money-hungry producers who want to see nothing but action and marketable T-shirt quotes. Movies with one hero (Spiderman, Batman Begins) are able to play out the characterization at length without slowing down the movie. In Fantastic Four, there were actually five characters that viewers needed to get the "feel" of before the action started.
I have to say that Tim Story pulled this off very well. I actually felt for Reed Richards in his naive but well-intentioned pursuit of scientific discovery for the good of mankind, as well as his not-so-well hidden regret about breaking up with Sue Storm. Ben Grimm, played by The Shield's Michael Chiklis, was fascinating as the loyal and tough friend of Reed's who deals with the majority of the angst that is involved in becoming a superhero. His depiction of The Thing, which is a lot more than just his voice, is superb.
In my view, the only weak link in this chain, seems to be the villain, Dr. Doom. It wasn't that I was displeased with Julian McMahon's performance, I just think the Victor Von Doom, along with the villain that he became, deserved a little more explanation. In the F4 stories that I remember, Victor was much more multi-faceted than the greedy and excessively rude movie version. Perhaps if the movie had been longer, there would have been time to flesh out this character a bit more.
Overall, this movie is fast and fun. It's safe for kids and entertaining for adults. The perfect summer movie.