"Lightening" Things Up...Literally

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2005)

Okay, okay, enough already with the bellyaching about how this movie isn't falling in line with the "established model" these days. Yes, BATMAN BEGINS is the best case of having a Phoenix rising from the ashes, after the debacle that was BATMAN AND ROBIN. But between this and the last X-MEN, (not to mention SPIDERMAN 2,) there's just been a bit too much "extra angst, please, hold the comedy." With all this brooding darkness clouding up the story lines, it was about high time for a little levity, and besides, FANTASTIC FOUR was the least dreary of the superhero properties Marvel launched to start with.
There are pacing problems, but I believe it has more to do with the attention span of the demographic the producers were aiming for--that infamous "13-to-17" year old enclave of teeners and tweeners. You know...screw the story and character development crap; let's start "blowin' stuff up REEEEEL GOOOOOD!" Well, sorry, kiddies, but every superhero saga must have a backstory that has to be set up, and fortunately 'F4' takes just enough time to do so before the CGI kicks in.
With that said, on to the performances. As nice as it would've been to have stars that were just a little more memorable in the lead roles, (apparently George Clooney was busy and Anna Paquin was already snatched up for X-MEN 3), Ioan Gruffud and Jessica Alba do serviceable jobs as Reed Richards and Sue Storm. And of course, in Jessica's case, as the old saying goes, nobody in the audience who is male will be looking at her "acting skills." (Which is funny, since Sue spends a good part of the movie invisible.)
Nope, when it comes to personality,the two actors kicking it into overdrive would be Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, aka "The Human Torch" and THE SHIELD's figurehead Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/"THE THING." These guys know they're in a comic book superhero movie, and that their characters need to be larger than life, and therefore pull out all the stops with pretty admirable results.
Chiklis provides the pathos as the big granite guy with the broken marshmallow heart, while Evans heats up his A&F looks and smartass charm to about the same temperature as his character's buff bod when he "flames on." Not to mention it will give the female section of the gallery something to squeal over, (and yes, a few males as well!)
If there is a weak link at all in the casting, it would unfortunately be the villain, Victor Von Doom, as portrayed by NIP/TUCK's handsome medical lothario Julian McMahon.
Pre-transformation, he doesn't seem to be playing his character so much as he is riffing on the good/bad doc from his series. Which is okay, since the personalities that comprise the two roles are not that different. But once the mask goes on, you need a villain to be equally as charismatic as the heroes, if not more so, and all he managed to do was help me realize where the inspiration came from for Peter Wyngarde's Klytus make-up, in the FLASH GORDON remake from the Eighties. (Now for a mess of a movie, THERE was a baddie with a dash of panache!)
Well, at least Mark Frost and Michael France's screenplay manages not to take TOO many liberties with the original story, and director Tim Story keeps things brisk, if he doesn't manage to best or even equal the likes of predecessors like Christopher Nolan, Sam Raimi or Bryan Singer.
It's a fast-moving, fitfully funny and frenetic summer trifle, fueled with the usual popcorn paradigm in mind. As long as you go in expecting little more than an evening's worth of pleasant entertainment, you'll be fine. For brooding heroes bogged down with enough psychological baggage to give Freud the vapors, have another go at BATMAN BEGINS.