Solid fun but falls a bit short.

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2005)

I'm in my mid-fifties and a huge fan of comic book movies. I love it when Hollywood brings my favorite comic book heroes to life on the big screen using state of the art technology to convince me of their reality.
F4 succeeds in the CGI and effects department. I was somewhat concerned when I learned that "The Thing" would be done with a prosthetic suit instead of CGI, but I think it was pulled off nicely due, in no small part, to Michael Chiklis' characterization.
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richarsds was visually acceptable, but was a bit of a milquetoast compared to the character in the comic book.
Jessica Alba as Sue Storm I found to be more than acceptable. Perhaps a bit too buff compared to the comic's character, I nonetheless found Alba's interpretation of Sue Storm to be exotic and endearing. If a franchise develops, I hope Alba returns as The Invisible Girl.
Chris Evans may have been born to play Johnny Storm. He was perfect as the 'cocky young guy' and brings to mind Chris O'Donnell's performance as "Robin" in the Batman franchise. Evans obviously had a lot of fun playing the character and should definitely be tapped to return if a franchise develops.
Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom was respectable, and I would not balk should he return in the role. However...
Where this film fell short for me was the story itself. The first part of the film did well in presenting the basic facts of how the Fantastic Four gained their abilities. And I even understand that for a 'first of the franchise' type of film that certain elements of each of the characters had to be presented in a way that remained true to the comic. Still, though, when the film reached it's grand finale battle with Dr. Doom, I found myself thinking "Is that it?" And it was...the end of the film, and I felt let down.
While I felt that all of the basics of the story had been presented and the SFX were on mark, the story fell short of creating a truly ominous villain in the character of Dr. Doom. This was not the actor's fault. The blame is squarely on the director and screenwriter. Dr. Doom was far too easy to thwart! Whenever Victor Von Doom was on the screen there was no sense of foreboding and evil. In the comics I remember Dr. Doom as a nearly omnipotent force of evil. In this film Dr. Doom is just a man with a few quirks. And he was far, far, far too easy to thwart! Without a truly ominous and evil Dr. Doom the characters of the Fantastic Four had no credible foil to play against, and thus their characterizations were diminished.
Still, though certainly not a high-water mark in the genre, Fantastic Four is solid entertainment and a lot of fun. But, should the franchise continue, I think the director would be wise to first become a TRUE fan of the original comic, second watch and study every film by Sam Peckinpah, Steven Spielberg and John Frankenheimer, and third forget about ratings, the 'kiddies' and family fare, but instead make a film that tells a knuckle-whitening story as do the comics.
There have been many films where it is easy to say that the SFX did not serve the story. In this film the story did not serve the SFX.
5 stars out of 10 for SFX, and Jessica Alba. Add two stars for Michael Chiklis as "The Thing". Verdict: 7 out of 10 stars.