A modern fairy-tale.

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2005)

This may contain spoilers, read at your own risk! The people today don't want a light-hearted storyline where everyone comes out alive and a winner, they don't want to see the proverbial "Black Knight" thwarted by a bunch of do-gooders with noble intent and good hearts. Well, too bad. Bugger them because that's exactly what I want to see! I feel that this movie was misunderstood by the majority simply because it was based upon the Golden Era of comics and one has to be a real comics aficionado. These tales one remembers from days when comics were but pittance in cost and when Ben Grimm could wear a tri-corner hat and pass himself off convincingly in the middle-ages by ordering milk in a dirty glass. It's not supposed to be gritty.
It's supposed to be fun.
I feel that sentence deserved a pargraph all of its own because fun is ten parts self-discovery and very little else. When people are having fun they're basically growing as individuals and discovering the World around them and that's what this is a tale of. It's a bunch of people (admittedly with super-powers) finding their place in the World. It's a more candy-coated World than most that could accept them but again, that's why it's so fairy-tale. They're just out there and most of the time, they're having a blast and when they're not doing that, they're trying to overcome adversity - together.
And when they win, well who cares what they surpassed? What the hell? It was an adventure! That's why I like this movie. There're a lot of special effects, there isn't too much action (which I'm glad about) but that's counterbalanced with the characters really being themselves and building on what they are. The story had to be changed to be believable for the silver screen as they couldn't exactly fit the rich background of the deliciously evil Dr. Victor von Doom within the confines thereof. Aside from that however, everything else seems to have fallen into place. Johnny is quite satisfyingly cocky and unlike the not-so-daring X-Men movies where Wolverine barely gets off a "bub" and the Spider-Man movies where even my next-door neighbour could outwit the poor misanthropic, poorly realized duplicate ... the Fantastic Four are what they are.
Susan is quite vulnerable and this leads her to social insecurity and co-dependency that she's displayed frequently in the comics. Ben Grimm feels uncomfortable with what he is but there's always a guiding light and thankfully, he isn't quite as emo as the later comics depicted him to be. In fact I'd say his emotional responses are dead on. Stretch is portrayed wonderfully, I'd say the actor is a bit young but he did a damned good job in showing the dedication of Mr. Fantastic, how he's always level headed and logical and they've even managed to work in the usual lines. Ben get's a satisfying "It's clobberin' time!", accompanied by Doom flying across the space of a penthouse room and the film ends with Johnny's "Flame on!".
In other words, it's not afraid to be like the Golden Era and I respect that. A lot of people won't understand that but I can see that someone in the production cycle was a fan of the early era of Fantastic Four comics. Those who just don't get it probably never will, either that or they might just pick up a stack of Golden Era comics somewhere (or on the internet) and then ... then they just might get it.
It's a modern fairytale. A lot of people don't like fairy tales. Heck, even you, dear reader, might not. Frankly, I don't care. I do and I had a blast! What a great film.