Surprisingly entertaining.

Rating: 5/10 (10 July 2005)

"Fantastic Four" (2005) Dir. Tim Story Going into "Fantastic Four", I had absolutely no expectations, no good ones at least. I thought the trailers made the film look like a cheesy and dreadful mess and I was certain I would completely loathe this movie and it would turn out to be one of the year's worst films.
As can be expected, this movie is not perfect, due to the main problem in blockbusters these days - the script. While there are some witty lines, some great comedic humour and a simple yet effective overall storyline, "Four" suffers from some truly awful one-liners. Lines that particularly stuck out in my head after viewing were "no, LETS!" from Jessica Alba's Invisible Woman and "the day...of the FANTASTIC FOUR!" from Chris Evans' Human Torch. These one-liners will no doubt have the majority of viewers cringing in their seats, instead of on their feet cheering - which was probably the director's intent.
"Four" also has some strange pacing. Though the movie remains entertaining through it's entirety, I couldn't help but feel that Victor Von Doom (played by "Nip/Tuck"'s Julian McMahon) came into play too late into the film. He made for a nasty and cool villain, and should've been used more effectively. His sequence where he intends to destroy the Fantastic Four group at the end of the movie is one of the movie's highlights as Von Doom really gets into the meat of the story and McMahon goes all-out, and he plays his part with glee and seems to be having a lot of fun. Since his material is some of the movie's strongest, he could've perhaps been incorporated more into the film's mid-section, though this is a flaw that didn't bother me nearly that much because it was simply just great to see McMahon, one of my favourite TV actors, on the big screen.
As for the rest of the cast, Ioan Gruffudd has never been much of an actor (he was very mediocre in "102 Dalmatians" and last year's disaster "King Arthur") and he doesn't do much to further his reputation in "Four". He seems to flounder under the pressure of his first lead male role, and just doesn't convince as the big-man leader of this group at all. His awkward American accent also gets irritating after mere minutes.
It is thankful that the rest of the cast give much better performances than Gruffudd, McMahon already mentioned as a fantastically evil Von Doom, Alba strutting her stuff looking damn fine and in an enjoyable role as The Invisible Girl. Evans makes an impression with enthusiasm and charisma, and I liked that his younger character saw the upside of these powers rather than showing them as a burden ALA almost everyone else in the film, but it is a shame that time is wasted on his character doing silly extreme sports. They just feel like a way to try and get the attention of teenagers and even though I've never read the comic book in my life, I severely doubt that Human Torch had anything to do with extreme sports in them which was quite annoying.
Michael Chiklis absolutely steals the show and gives a sympathetic performance as The Thing. It is a credit to Chiklis' performance that underneath all the (amazing!) make-up, Chiklis still makes this "monster" a very humane and likable character, whom we can sympathise with throughout the film. I've never seen Chiklis on "The Shield" before but I wouldn't mind seeing him in some more feature films as he impressed me a lot with his role in "Four".
I loved the media-coverage side of the movie, which expanded on similar themes in "Spider-Man" ("Four" is quite similar to "Spider-Man" - Von Doom is a better Green Goblin), it was a nice original touch in a not-all-that-original-really movie. With Evans' Johnny Storm truly loving the media and lapping up all the attention he can get, while his sister (Alba) truly can't stand and the group overall feels the need to stay locked up away from public, it seems to mirror different sorts of celebrities, which was clever and entertaining to watch.
The action sequences in this movie are not quite phenomenal, and there may not be as many as you think. They're not BAD action sequences but "Four" also has a lot of comedic material and even (shock-horror!) some character development so the big action sequences come at the end of the film. This is a pretty spectacular final battle against McMahon, with each of the Four getting to use their stunning powers against him. The ideas of the superpowers are utilised to their full potential in both the action sequences and in some humorous scenes (Gruffudd's power in particular - watching him wrap himself around Chiklis and Evans reaction to him reaching under a door and undoing the lock are both very funny). The special effects are realistic while also maintaining a cool comic-book edge throughout the movie.
Coming out, I was extremely surprised, in fact overwhelmed, at how much I had enjoyed "Four". I'm still sort of shocked I actually liked it as much as I did seeing as I thought I was absolutely sure to hate it. "Four" was more than twice as good as I had expected, making it one of the year's biggest surprises.
8/10