Tepid Actioner

Rating: 5/10 (7 December 2005)

This could have been a lot better, but it isn't butt ugly. I think that one aspect of the film that was overdone was the CGI, and suspect that the filmmakers subordinated the writing to the visuals.
The story we know from the comics: people are in space and get hit by a storm of radiation. This affects them, and they become imbued with superpowers. Some of the film was them just getting used to their new powers. (Johnny storm hangs their titles on them in the film. In the comic books, each chose his or her own name.) The closest thing to an ordinary story is Ben Grimm's coping with his metamorphosis. And it was the most poignant part of the film.
Victor von Doom, in the film, was also caught in the storm. He got "scarred," but the scar really was the manifestation of something more sinister: his own metamorphosis. As he learns of his powers, he decides to remove the competition, and develops a plot to take care of the Four, one by one.
Major spoiler: Reed Richards was trying to construct a chamber where he could recreate the "cosmic storm." However, in the film it had previously been established that the radiation in question was "unknown," and the time before the storm was so short that there was no time to record all its characteristics, so how could Richards duplicate it in the chamber? The part about The Thing's "cure" and what he did about it was reminiscent of Superman's "de-supering" in Superman II, and how he got his powers back.
The film was more show than substance, but it is watchable.