How do you do a sequel to boring?

Rating: 5/10 (23 July 2005)

I went into this movie with several expectations. 1: a great plot line with some well drawn characters we could care about. 2: excellent action. Duh-- not one, not two, but four superheroes and one of the great comic villains, Doctor Doom? and 3: outstanding visual effects, on a par with Spiderman. Well heck. The characters were okay. I liked Jessica Alba's no nonsense approach to Sue Storm, although she was a bit wooden when needing to be passionate. Ioan Gruffudd was good as Reed Richards. He somehow looks the part. Michael Chiklis performs well and is enjoyable as the Thing. Who is this Chris Evans guy? He was the best thing in the movie. Funny, a great sense of timing, a great sense of expression. He made the most out of his part and you could tell he enjoyed it. However, all the action was in the trailer, and the best performances and lines were too. I could go on and on about the movie's lackluster plot. The need for the characters to acclimatize to new situations was brunted by The Thing's angst over his physical changes, and the changes in his life wrought by his trip into space, disappearing in the matter of a second when his friends needed him to help them fight a boring evil Doom. Did we ever see a vicious plan hatched by Doom to endanger the lives of everyone in the city, or on the planet, or did it just seem like he done before he started? Same thing with the movie. Seemed like it was finished before anything we really could sink our teeth into appeared.