Fantastic Decision

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2009)

Like most super hero movies that are peeled from the pages of comic books, enjoying a movie of this genre totally depends on what your expectations are regarding them. Are you the die hard comic book fan, or the passive movie goer that enjoys action/adventure films? Did you bring the kids because you heard that it's safe for your 8 year old, and now viewing it as a family film? I read the comics as a kid. Though Fantastic Four was on the lower end of my reading schedule, there's little doubt that a legion of fans existed, and exist, that have been waiting for the full, theatrical release of them. Super heroes are a hot topic, and CG has finally caught up enough so it doesn't look like the previous release, or shall I say, non-release of the 1994 Fantastic Four that was never intended to be released to theaters. Gosh that was a bad movie.
But this movie... I came with the kids, I had lower expectations & wound up being entertained. I liked Ben, Mr Fantastic, Johnny was a blast and the Invisible girl was way different the the comic, but still very sexy. But I can understand why the fans didn't enjoy it much. It lacked the impact of the comic, & it did indeed feel like it was made for the kiddys in mind. A few bits of cliché and hammy dialog didn't really make me enjoy it less, because, well, most comic book stories have them.
FF felt like it was a set up for the sequel, getting character origins out of the way. And yes, it is a rated PG-13 family oriented action adventure, but barely so. It could have made a fine PG rated movie. Looking over the comments, I noticed that the fans, comic book lovers were expecting a lot more, and sometimes, that's not fair. Regular non-comic readers seemed to like it more, so I guess I was right. There's no way that a comic book with decades of stories can compact the same feeling in a movie. Just don't pull up your expectations too high, and enjoy.