It may not be fully fantastic, but it deserves more than four stars out of 10.

Rating: 7/10 (30 July 2005)

Let's get this out of the way - "Fantastic Four" is not as good as the best superhero movie of the past few years. But then again, not even the "Spider-Man" movies are as good as "The Incredibles," so that was only to be expected.
I think the reason a number of people were predicting/hoping this would be the disaster of the summer (a mantle that at the time of writing seems to be assumed by "The Island" instead, which serves Michael Bay right for producing "The Amityville Horror") is that the movie was deliberately setting out to be not as Important as other Marvel/DC comic book movies of late - less brooding, more lightweight and enjoyable. That, and the strange casting in front of and behind the camera (Hornblower as Mr. Fantastic? Chris "Not that one" Evans as the Human Torch? The bloke from "Nip/Tuck" who used to go out with Dannii Minogue as Dr. Doom - though he's never referred to as such in the movie? And the multiracial and sexy-beyond-belief Jessica Alba as the very WASPy Sue? Even Alba fans objected to casting the latter as someone who is, after all, regularly invisible). And the fact that Simon Kinberg (who already has two strikes with "xXx2" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" - I don't care if that was a hit, I didn't like it) gave an ultimately uncredited hand to the script.
And while it's true that the special effects sometimes aren't of "The Lord of the Rings" quality (the scene where the immodestly dubbed Mr. Fantastic falls down a building is distressingly cartoonish), that the movie isn't as effective with the love story between Reed, Susan and Victor Von Doom as with the Thing and the Human Torch, and that there aren't as many all-out action scenes as you could wish for - the battles don't come along until well into the movie - it does work when you take it on its own terms instead of expecting a dark, gritty origins movie. (Though let's face it, who expects doom and gloom from a movie executive produced by Chris Columbus?) Unlike "Elektra," it's not ashamed to please its audience and has a healthy sense of humour about itself - so healthy that it almost becomes a bit camp, but only almost.
With three appealing turns from our title quartet (only Ioan Gruffudd lets the side down as Reed Richards, not quite living up to his name of Mr. Fantastic; Michael Chiklis and especially Chris Evans have the most colourful roles and really bolster the movie when they're on, and though Jessica Alba has less scope in her role as the Invisible Woman she's nowhere near as lost as, say, Katie Holmes in "Batman Begins"), attempts to infuse emotion into the story that keep your attention until the fights start, and a villain in Julian McMahon's Victor who at least has more going for him than the ones in - yes, again - "Batman Begins," it's nothing more than a good, unambitious movie. The movie could have done without the songs over the credits though (John Ottman's score isn't Elfman or Williams, but at least he has a good old-fashioned heroic fanfare here), but that's hardly a major criticism. And be honest; would you rather have something that shoots relatively low and hits the target, or something that overreaches and dies?
Then again, this is a movie that has Jessica Alba in Spandex. And materialising in her underwear. And saying things like "It's been a good two years, Victor" and "We can only stay for one drink because I have to go and meet Victor." Did you really think I was going to hate it? Did you really?