Fun movie; about what you would expect

Rating: 7/10 (20 December 2005)

The plot: Five people are in a space station and they get hit by some sort of solar storm, which gives them super powers. Four of them become the Fantastic 4, and they do some super hero type stuff while dealing with their anxieties over their drastically changed lives. The fifth becomes the bad guy, and (surprise!) there's a big battle at the end.
The good: Jessica Alba. Holy Mary mother of God, that woman is gorgeous. What a body, what a face, what an outfit! Good acting as well. Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm is also great, that guy could stand in a corner and chew gum and his screen presence would still steal the show. Chris Evans as Johnny Storm is rather entertaining, he takes great pleasure in picking on Chicklis' character, which got a genuine chuckle out of me on more than one occasion. Overall this movie was surprisingly funny. It certainly made me snicker many more times than most of the pathetic comedies Hollywood is putting out these days.
Special effects were great overall, the only really obvious CGI scene being where Reed Richards character (the rubber man) gets heated up and begins stretching out of control, falling through a window; it looked really fake. Everything else was quite acceptable. The climatic battle was even impressive.
The bad: Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards. He's easy to miss as he's completely overshadowed by anything or anyone appearing on screen at the same time as him. His character doesn't even reach the level of one-dimensionality. An obvious stinker in the middle of his three entertaining co-stars. Julian McMahon as the bad guy, Victor Von Doom, is nearly as banal. I had a hard time telling the two of them apart. But at least McMahon is evil, which in and of itself gives him some personality. Oddly, in the "behind the scenes" feature on the DVD, the actor has much more personality in real life than he does as his comic book super villain character.
I also give the movie a point deduction for the obnoxious "hip" music that keeps blaring through the soundtrack. I know it's made for young "hip" kids, but really...no need to annoy the crap out of the rest of us. Oh well, at least it wasn't rap.
Overall, nothing great, just about what you'd expect but for the surprisingly funny jokes and of course, the amazingly beautiful Jessica Alba. I liked it. You could do far, far worse with these super hero movies.