Actually not bad!

Rating: 8/10 (9 July 2005)

I'm a pretty battle hardened movie goer, especially when it comes to Sci-fi, and this movie really isn't as bad as the reviews would lead you to believe. One review said it was 'Catwoman bad'; I read that a few days ago reading and I got worried! Well much to my surprise, it was actually a pretty decent comic book movie. It wasn't Spidey 2 or X2 quality, but it was certainly not Catwoman bad or Daredevil bad or even Hulk bad. Here's what I liked: The Thing - Mike Chiklis really brought this character to life. From the moment he became 'Thing', and you heard his voice, he owned the role. Almost like Hugh did with Wolverine. Human Torch - this kid was pretty funny and provided much of the comic relief. The actor actually had good timing and deadpan. His taunting relationship with 'Thing' was just like the comics, they're always fighting. Doom - he was pretty cool too, a little to cliché, but OK, I'll roll with it. They got his look dead-on though. Straight out the comic book. Here's what as OK: Invisible Girl - yeah, she's hot. but unfortunately she wasn't as convincing as Thing and Torch. Some of her dialogue was really bad. But she's real cute. The Special effects - not bad but not amazing either. You could tell that there were budget constraints that limited some of the effects. The story - pretty true to the comic but unfortunately it had some ridiculous scenarios to bring it down. What I didn't like: Mr. Fantastic - I thought he was miscast and not very convincing. A pretty mediocre genius if you ask me, and really unconfident. Jeff Goldbloom may have been a better choice for this role. Overall a really decent comic movie!