Comic Book Fans...UNITE!!!

Rating: 7/10 (8 July 2005)

Marvel Comics have been shelling out the comic book based movies for a while now. Spiderman, The Hulk, The Punisher, all have been transformed from paper to film. Their latest selection is the Fantastic Four.
Director Tim Story (Taxi, Barber Shop) has taken on this project of making Marvel's classic comic book, Fantastic Four. The story starts with Prof. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) go to talk with Reed's old friend Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) about his Doom's helping Reed's project. His idea is to study the affects of cosmic radiation on DNA in space. Sue Storm and her brother Johnny (Jessica Alba and Chris Evans) are also on the mission into space.
Due to a freak occurrence, radiation mutates the five's DNA while in space. Each now possessing their own unique power. Reed can bend his body like rubber with little effort. He is Mr. Fantastic. Johnny's body temperature is incredibly high and he can create fire and even light himself on fire. Johnny also can fly. He is the Human Torch. His sister Sue can become invisible and also create force fields for keeping things in or out around her. Sue is the Inivisible Woman. Ben is now The Thing. He is totally covered in solid rock...inside and outside. He also has incredible strength. He cannot turn his power off like the others. Lastly, Doom, like Ben, is totally covered with an element. This time it is a super hard metal. He also can absorb and use electricity. Doom goes the way of the villain while the other four join forces to figure out what happened.
The movie is very much like a comic book. The dialogue between characters is written to sound like a comic book. Johnny, the hot headed character (literally), brings comedy with his quick witty remarks. Ben brings drama with his depression of losing his wife due to his mutation. The contrast between these two characters is fun to watch. Johnny is always trying to get under his skin. Even though he is solid rock, it's not hard to do. He has the hardest time adapting. With a relationship in the past for Reed and Sue, they have their own little story as well, just like a comic book. Doom, being the rich bad guy, wants nothing more than more power.
Although the script gets cheesy at times, it works. There isn't as much action as I had anticipated, but when there is, there is a lot of it. Great effects make Fantastic Four an enjoyable movie for fans of the comic book, children, and adults as well. Fantastic Four is a good movie for the genre. Ben says to Sue, "You have no idea what I'd give to be invisible...", but I'm sure that is not the case for the movie. I'm sure a lot of people will see this one.