Fantastic or...

Rating: 6/10 (18 July 2005)

I think there are basically two kinds of comic book movies. I love comic book movies, which actually have meaning. Daredevil, Spider-man 1 & 2 & Batman Begins are {meaningful}, intelligent pictures, which are self-sufficient even apart from their comic book origins. They are actually a kind of comic book based movies, that I like. Yet, we have another type of comic book movies: more cartooned, more "comic" to say so: Hellboy, Sin City, Punisher... Fantastic Four definitely belongs to the second group of films, yet I liked it way better than the three above-mentioned movies in this {cartooned} group. The acting in Fantastic Four is great. Especially Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans & Julian McMahon are doing an awesome job. Unfortunately the characters are too undeveloped to make the best out of their talent. The visuals are great, but we do have major problems with the direction of Tim Story, as well as with the story itself. While during the first half of the movie I was sitting & thinking like "Wow! I'm sure gonna buy this movie", in the second half I was like "Hmm... Not a bad movie to see one time" The film seems too rushed, characters are not well written & some supposed plot twists are rather questionable & primitive at best. Unbelievably, but the involvement of Chris Columbus in the project is felt throughout the movie. The production seems childish at times, though the humor is very good. Did I enjoy the movie? Kinda yes. Eye-catching visuals, funny jokes & charismatic actors work well. Will I put Fantastic Four on the shelf together with my licensed copies of Daredevil, Spider-man, Spider-man 2 &, soon, Batman Begins? Definitely NOT!