Not so fantastic

Rating: 3/10 (17 July 2005)

If you go to 1 movie this summer, don't let it be this one.
When I went to see the Fantastic Four with a few friends of mine and I did not expect too much from it to begin with. The trailer wasn't promising much and the overload of marketing was making my spider senses tingle that there was something wrong with this movie.
The first thing that I noticed was that the story is fast-paced, but in it's fast pace it just skips certain sub-plots that are started at the beginning. Furthermore, if you have seen any of the other superhero movies that have come out in the past years, you might as well skip this one, because it is nothing more than a summary of all clichés that you might expect from a superhero movie. It fails to surprise at any point. There is no sense of story or goal for our 'heroes' throughout the film witch leaves the only thing that is slightly entertaining (the relationship between 'the human torch' and 'the thing') to be the only story worth following.
The scenario seems to be nothing more than an excuse for the stunt scenes that 'Johnny Storm' (Chris Evans) gets to preform. And if the effects or stunts were good or worthwhile this wouldn't be so bad. But the effects are a real stinker. Mr Fantastic is not made of rubber but on screen he is clearly made of pixels. The other effects seem dated and not exiting at all.
Even worse than that, the acting is substandard: none of the actors seem to take their part seriously and I can hardly blame them with the story being as unbelievable and shaky as it is. The original material is partly to blame for this, but those 'other' superhero movies (Xmen 1 and 2) have proved that it is possible to make an unbelievable, slightly ridiculous story into one that is not only entertaining but also has some depth.
And that is what I missed most in this movie. Any characters with real depth and believability.
Miss this stinker of a movie and save your money for some the other excellent comic book adaptations that have come out this summer; Batman begins, Sin city, etc.