Fantastic Four is One Quite Ordinary Action Flick

Rating: 3/10 (12 July 2005)

Although there are some rave reviews for this film. I would have given the film 2 ½ to 3 stars at most. In my view why the film was a disappointment is that first there was no real threatening nemesis Dr. Doom was a real wimp of a villain until the ending fight scene, and then it was over much too quickly. Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom's character borrowed a lot from the first Spiderman's villain Norman Osborne/Green Goblin. They both were scientists/entrepreneurs. Both had financial set backs, both sought violent revenge. Fan-4's only interesting characters were The Thing whom had a very strong resemblance to The Hulk, and Johnny Storm who was the latest flame to every hot chick he came in contact with. The biggest disappointment in the film was Jessica Alba's Susan Storm, her constant bickering and overbearing motherly attitude towards her brother was annoying. Reed Richards the so called brilliant scientist and her supposed lover from a far, as far as he could stretch his rubbery limbs was extremely boring. The Fan-4 characters spent more than half the film's time fighting and arguing amongst themselves, which was the film's big waste of time. The film's early bridge action rescue scene should have been what this film was all about the Fan-4 working together as a team, and using their special skills, not spending half the film trying to find a way to abort those skills.
Fantastic Four's scripter Michael France has written recent film hits "The Punisher" (great film) and The Hulk. No wonder The Thing was one of more interesting characters in Fan-4. While his older co-writer penned Twin Peaks, Hill St. Blues and one of the real oldie action TV shows circa 1973 The Six Million Dollar Man. With today's inflated film budgets they would have to re-title the film version The Sixty Million Dollar Man. I have no doubt a film version is in the works. I hope that when the sequel to Fan-4 is filmed, that the filmmakers have enough common sense to pit the Fan-4 heroes against strong opposing villains instead of each other.