Not as bad as some would have you believe

Rating: 7/10 (23 June 2007)

I was actually rather surprised how much they did keep to the original idea. Sure, Victor wasn't in the ship with them in the original, and yes, it didn't take place on a space-station, but the original was written before space stations, and, well...they did have to have a villain right from the beginning, so why not Victor? It's like the Burton Batman starting out with Joker. It makes sense.
Johnny was actually very true to the character I recall from the books, and while the actor who played him is only like a month younger than Jessica Alba, it worked, because she was so straight-laced, and he was such an immature show-off. Ben was exceedingly well-played by Michael Chiklis, who managed to hit just about every note of sympathy we needed to have for him.
And I was quite pleasantly surprised by Kerry Washington, who played Alicia, and picked up the pieces of Ben's broken heart after his wife couldn't handle his new form and left him. It didn't bug me at all that she was black, even as a token character, because I know how important her character truly is, and if they do make a sequel, she'll almost definitely be in it (can we say Ben-Alicia-Johnny triangle? :D And, no for those of you who don't know, I'm not making that up in my head. It really happened in the comics.) Interactions: Victor was perfectly heavy-handed, both in his business dealings, and with Susan. The rivalry between him and Reed was well-done, both hating when the other gets the better of him, but Reed coming out on top because he always tries to do what's "for the best" rather than for himself. The Susan-Johnny relationship really shows itself for what it is after the change, with her constantly berating him for being so impetuous all the time. Ben and Reed's friendship is wonderful, particularly Ben's constant attempts to get Reed and Susan back together. But the real delight is the Ben-Johnny arguments. They hate each other from the beginning, with a bit of a backstory that I don't recall from the original, and therefore probably wasn't there, that Ben had been his commander at NASA before Johnny had been tossed out on his ear. After the change, their animosity grows, and every shot they're in together when there's no action going on is great fun to watch.
Stan Lee's cameo in this is impossible to miss, unless you actually leave the theatre the entire time he's on the screen. He has a little conversation with Reed in the elevator lobby of the Baxter Building, and they went so far as to give him an actual name.
Other bits: the evolution of the costumes was nice. The evolution of Johnny's power was better. The skiing sequence is not to be missed. Victor's downfall is swift, and his reaction, which gets darker with each blow, is utterly perfect. Oh, and the entrance to Reed's "office" in the Baxter Building just made me grin.
The sequences during the storm imbuing them with their powers was a bit much for me. I could have done with seeing the cloud surround the station and left it at that. What did annoy me was Reed's insistence on "curing" them all. Reed is painted as an uber-geek from the get-go. And if it's about science, he's all over it. Which to me says that he'd want to figure out what had happened to them first, not how to "cure" them. The only thing that keeps that from totally destroying the movie for me is the fact that he does promise Ben he will cure him, which makes sense to me, as far as things went. But the continued need to "cure" just seemed a bit much.