Decent Comic Book of a Movie

Rating: 7/10 (6 July 2005)

I had the fortune of attending an advance screening of F4 and left the theater with a smile. Like many comic book movies it suffers from the pacing problem inherent in telling an origin story AND an adventure story. The origin story will be well-known (and therefore painfully dull) to a portion of the audience {even with the changes they made for the movie} but necessary for that part of the audience that is unfamiliar with the material.
This movie is one of the best adaptations of a comic book to movie. The actors are perfectly cast, for the most part. Michael Chiklis and Chris Evans were particularly great in their roles as The Thing and the Human Torch. Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffud and Julian McMahon made less of an impression as there roles were not as 'flashy' as the others. {SPOILERs follow} Which leads to the main problem of the film: Dr. Doom is almost a non-entity. In most of the scenes he appears in it is not clear as to what drives him other than that he is supposed to be the villain. The implication is that he is angry at Reed Richards for damaging his business and stealing Sue but you never understand why this would drive him to murder and destruction. I guess you are supposed to think that "he is the villain" and is supposed to go to these extremes. Was he crazy/evil to begin with? Did the accident affect his mind? Compare and contrast with the villains in the Spider-Man and X-Men movies. Or Batman Begins. {This is also undermined by the weakness of the love triangle subplot.}
But, by the time he finally goes into full villain mode, the movie is almost over. Then it ends. Just when it got really interesting and revved up to full speed. {SPOILERS end} It is still a joy for any fans of the comic to see it on the big screen. Non-fans may not have as good a time. Its a comic book movie, people! If you go into it with the same expectations you would a comic (not graphic novel!)you will definitely enjoy yourself. It certainly takes a different path than Batman Begins in following comic book conventions and adapting them to film rather than using film conventions to tell a comic book story, if you can grasp the difference.