Fantastic Fun

Rating: 7/10 (29 July 2006)

'Fantastic Four', I believe, is the most underrated of all the superhero movies, by far. People compared it to Spider-Man too much, probably because it was the first Marvel movie to come out since Spider-Man 2, and they missed the point of FF. 'Four', directed well by Tim Story, is not supposed to be as dramatic and intense as SP2, but rather just a fun, catchy, and addictive movie, which it is.
The story is like this: 4 scientists, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), her brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), are launched up to the new space station to record the affects of a cosmo storm with the man who is funding the expedition, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). Instead of recording the affects, the storm gives them the effects first had. The five of them receive astonishing powers and abilities, and in Grimm's case, it's not pretty. Soon, Von Doom disappears into seclusion, but the other four soon become known to the media as The Fantastic Four! The special effects are top notch, especially all the scenes with Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch. There are a ton of computer shots in the film, but you won't be able to tell with most of them, because the rendering and editing is very good. It's a decent story, but I wish there had been more crime fighting then there was. Tim Story does do a nice job of showing how the newfound mutations affect each of the character's lives, including Von Doom. The writing is decent, but once again, I wish there was more crime fighting. The direction is great, as I've said before. The acting is what you'd expect from a movie like this, not good, but not bad. The best portrayals are from Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans, as they capture the aura of their characters very well. The worst is Von Doom, who is nowhere near as cool as he is in the comics. McMahon is the right guy for the role, he just needs to read up on the character and give him more anger. Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba play their roles reasonably well, but you don't get the feeling from Gruffudd that Reed is the leader of the group, because as Mr. Fantastic, he is. All in all, I enjoy FF whenever I watch it. There is no language at all, and there's a lot of funny lines and cool scenes that kids will enjoy. FF is good for kids ages 11 and up. Not as good as Spider-Man, but better than Hulk and Daredevil.
8/10 --spy