Bad Direction, Good Casting, OK Special Effects - Overall Decent

Rating: 8/10 (14 July 2005)

I watched Fantastic Four last Friday (release day) and it basically made my evening. Entertaining flow, good casting, random wisecracks and no down-times made the movie well watchable.
Bad direction, made up by decent acting and casting. Jessica Alba was adorable, and the lesser known trio Ioan Gruffudd (Welsh actor, last seen in King Arthur as Lancelot), Chris Evans (20-something kid from Cellular and Not Another Teen Movie), Michael Chiklis (the bald, overlooked actor who rose to recognition in the FX cop drama The Shield) all did a good job, so did the villain Julian McMahon (the Aussie who starred in TV shows such as Nip/Tuck and Charmed). Julian will not make a good James Bond, though. He shows more dark side than calm.
It was a good idea to keep the "Thing" character unchanged once he gets that form. If they showed him growing from human to thing and vice versa whenever he desired, it would confuse a comic reader and movie-goer with HULK - which would not make it a very good comparison for most.
The special effects were alright, nothing compared to Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2. The story was way too far-fetched for even a superhero movie. The first 10-15 minutes which involves the trip to outer space was dumb.
Other than that, I would recommend the movie, with low expectations.