Fantastic Four

[Mr March]

It's been quite sometime since I've done a review and posted it on MacrossWorld. In the early days, many years ago, I used to write these quite often. Not sure why I stopped, but it's far past time to get back into it. I hope you all enjoy.

Fantastic Four (2005)

Genre: Live Action Film – Super Hero Adventure

Films about super heroes have become almost a mainstay of the summer box office, like action flicks and romantic comedies. While many a fan – including myself – is excited about finally seeing our favorite books on screen, the result thus far have been mixed. While X-Men, Spider-Man, and Batman were good films within their own limits, Daredevil, Electra, Punisher, and Hulk all failed to meet expectations. So it is regrettable that I place the Fantastic Four in the latter group rather than the former.

This tale of super heroes finds scientist Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and comrade Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) promoting a manned mission to an orbiting space station to study a once in a millennia cosmic event. Unfortunately, Reed’s finances are lacking, so he turns to old college friend Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) for financing, only to find his past love interest Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) on Doom’s payroll. Doom agrees to the mission with tough conditions and also insists Storm’s brother Johnny (Chirs Evans) pilot the space craft. The mission goes awry, bathing the characters in a heretofore unknown type of radiation. Upon the return to Earth, each character slowly discovers new abilities; abilities which some embrace and others shun.

Fantastic Four is a film with very little depth and typically, most audiences have low expectations for the dramatic in super hero fare. Unfortunately, Four manages to sink below those rather low expectations, reducing the entire cast to mere caricatures of better writing. There are some genuine attempts at real emotion, but they are buried beneath a script that has to go somewhere but never does. The viewer isn’t taken anywhere special, as we find our heroes bickering (Reed and Susan), showboating (Johnny), or wallowing (Ben) until the inevitable conflict with a newly created super villain (Doom). We all know what to expect from these characters at the beginning, so none of their reactions are the least surprising. What we get is a fairly generic origin story for a super powered team in the rough who obviously must work together as a team in the end to face a great evil.

While many would argue that the Fantastic Four have never been Marvel’s strongest title, the characters and villains have more to offer than what director Tim Story has given us. This is a film that’s riding the wave of past super hero movie successes and it shows. Fantastic Four is aided by some fine casting (with the exception of Alba) and the special effects do offer some great new eye candy. While none of the acting is anything special, most of the cast competently portray each role enough to get the audience through the slows scenes and into the action. The dialogue can go either way, depending upon your penchant for cheese and obvious humor.

Rating: 5 out of 10. A film that could have been fantastic is rather bland, with a story, characters, and dialogue all done much better in other films of the genre.

[mikeszekely]

I mostly agree. I mean, the movie was more about them turning into the Fantastic Four than actually being super heroes and battle Dr. Doom.

That kid that played the Human Torch really captured the character, though. And Jessica Alba is hot. I'll probably see Into the Blue for that reason alone.

[Gabe Q]

That was a great review. Please keep them coming.

So the verdict is: meh, so so. I guess I'll wait for DVD.

[Max Jenius]

You can't make the Fantastic Four cool. Ever.

[Guest Bromgrev]

I wish Hollywood would stop feeling the need to do origin stories. Superhero origins are always the charcaters' most feeble storylines, especially as most of them date back to the 1950's.

The difference is that every other Fantastic Four storyline has always sucked, too.

[Ladic]

better than I thought, not good, but not completely terrible, they could of hired a much better director, but the casting was good. It's an ok, popcorn film.

6.5/10

[Gaijin]

I'm prob going to see it tonight. I like Chiklis. I like Alba.

[Dobber]

You can't make the Fantastic Four cool. Ever.

310585[/snapback]

!!!!!

Chris

[armentage]

I give it a 4/10.

Complete crap as far as a Hero movie goes. Go watch Incredibles again for a better use of your time.

They put together a somewhat decent cast of reality-TV stars, and then trapped them all in Reed's lab for 60% of the movie. Everyone laughed when Johnny Storm told a joke, but the rest of the movie was Jennifer Alba pulling the same get-naked trick over and over, and Dr Doom doing senseless, stupid, and not very diabolical things.

BTW - it was VERY skimpy on the effects. Mr Fantastic in particular was done REALLY badly. Elastigirl would own his ass for breakfast. Hell, the best part of the movie was the Thing's costume. The rest of the powers & fx were a joke. There was nothing more than you saw in the trailers (about 5 minutes of FX for the whole 2hr movie)

[mikeszekely]

I wish Hollywood would stop feeling the need to do origin stories. Superhero origins are always the charcaters' most feeble storylines, especially as most of them date back to the 1950's.

The difference is that every other Fantastic Four storyline has always sucked, too. 

310586[/snapback]

I think that's part of the problem. I think Marvel won't rest until every one of their franchises has made it to the big screen, no matter how few people actually care for that particular franchise.

[Guest Bromgrev]

We need to see Dazzler on the big screen! With Jessica Alba in the lead!

[Less than Super Ostrich]

As much as I can say about this is... it didn't suck as much as Elektra

[Mr March]

Thanks for the comments everyone. I'm going to post more reviews, so keep an eye out.

I too am very concerned about the saturation of the super hero genre on the big screen. It's almost getting to the point where even if the films are good, we've just been hit with so many super hero origin stories that we really don't care anymore. The next batch of films in this vein will have to offer something more to remain competitive and interesting.

[armentage]

Thanks for the comments everyone.  I'm going to post more reviews, so keep an eye out.

I too am very concerned about the saturation of the super hero genre on the big screen.  It's almost getting to the point where even if the films are good, we've just been hit with so many super hero origin stories that we really don't care anymore.  The next batch of films in this vein will have to offer something more to remain competitive and interesting.

310730[/snapback]

I just think back to the original Superman movie, or even Batman Begins. In both of these very well-made movies, we get the origin AND a very engaging episode of the hero fighting a villian, because these movies jump through time. Spiderman does a little of this too (A year or so passes between Parker becoming Spiderman and his rivalry with the Goblin really starting up).

Fantastic Four took place over a span of 2 weeks? Maybe 3? How much change can a character's life experience if you're only talking such a short part of it?

I think the good flicks will always do the right things, and the bad ones will continue to suck. That's just how it is. I don't think fans like us will ever feel saturated, because the good-ness of a story always shines through, where-as special effects get old fast.

I'm sure FF would have been an AMAZING movie if it came out 20 years ago (due to its special effects) but by today's standards...

[Hoptimus]

As much as I can say about this is... it didn't suck as much as Elektra

310684[/snapback]

Nothing can suck as bad as Elecktra for me. I cant believe how bad that turned out.

F4 wasnt too bad. Overall a 7/10 for me. The comedy kept me going. I think Thing and Torch turned out great but Reeds and Sue need a major screen boost to get them up to speed for a sequel. Doom if he comes back for the second one also needs to be handled better. The costume was good but the charicter seemed out of place. Not nearly evil enough and not quite manical enough either.

[NERV]

Here's an idea, they've got the series smallville going (i dont personally watch it) but that show has basicly got the oigin of superman out of the way, and arent they planning on a followup show, "metropolis"? either way they could just make a superman movie based on the current smallville timeline. however i think the best possible superman they could put on the big screen would be the death of superman, that was an intense saga

[cwmodels]

When I worked at Marvel Comics, we had a music band that played at company parties named "The Fantastic Four and MORE". The group was formed outta Marvel employees and was called that because it consisted of MORE than 4 members. Kinda dumb...

And that was my impression about the Fantastic Four movie before I saw it this weekend. To my SURPRISE, it was no where near as bad as I had expected. A pretty watchable movie and a lot of fun too. I really thought it was going to be a complete turd and almost didn't go, but I went with my roommates and we had a blast. We were laughing the entire time.

I'll admit the plot was pretty dumb, Doctor Doom was awful, and it was overall cheesy. But at least the 4 main characters were handled well and LIKABLE. Because of that, I was able to forgive A LOT. The movie never hit a high note but it never hit a complete low either. It stayed on course and was at least a fairly even film. There was also a good amount of funny moments that really got the audiences rolling in the theater. Kids who saw the movie will probably want to buy Fantastic Four toys. And I always like it when a Superhero movie is able to make kids fall in love with the characters.

The Fantastic Four movie is no where near as good as Spider-man 2, or Batman Begins, or X-Men 2, but it is far better than Hulk and Punisher. Don't expect the best Superhero movie when you go see it, just expect to have a stupid fun time and you'll probably enjoy yourself.

I know I certainly did!

[armentage]

Doom ... . costume was good but the charicter seemed out of place. Not nearly evil enough and not quite manical enough either.

Not nearly mechanical enough!

[Blaine23]

You can't make the Fantastic Four cool. Ever.

310585[/snapback]

You can if you change a few things and call it The Incredibles.

[kanedaestes]

Well I feel that the movie was okay, I especially liked the thing and human torch, but all in all, i felt that it was a spring board for a far better more superior sequel with the right director attached. Nothing against Tim Story, but he wasnt nowhere near qualified enough for this film, (although I do thank hollywood for letting a black director try and take on a huge project like this, we are coming up and soon their will be more of us like me ) but maybe next time it will be a lot better like X2 was to Xmen

[Mr March]

I just think back to the original Superman movie, or even Batman Begins.  In both of these very well-made movies, we get the origin AND a very engaging episode of the hero fighting a villian, because these movies jump through time.  Spiderman does a little of this too (A year or so passes between Parker becoming Spiderman and his rivalry with the Goblin really starting up).

Fantastic Four took place over a span of 2 weeks?  Maybe 3?  How much change can a character's life experience if you're only talking such a short part of it?

I think the good flicks will always do the right things, and the bad ones will continue to suck.  That's just how it is.  I don't think fans like us will ever feel saturated, because the good-ness of a story always shines through, where-as special effects get old fast.

I'm sure FF would have been an AMAZING movie if it came out 20 years ago (due to its special effects) but by today's standards...

I agree, The major point of the film should not just be to sell the origin tale, but to also tell another story in which the characters do something. Naturally, this may give the storyteller rather limited resources from which to work. However, the first film is always just an opening, one which the audience expects will lead to more interesting adventures. But if the first film just doesn't grab you, you're unlikely to watch a second. Spiderman, X-Men, Batman Begins, and Superman are all films that achieved a good origin and adventure story.

[Major Johnathan]

I can wait for the DVD. Fantastic 4 never really struck me as 'cool', it's just an old sentimental favorite to Stan Lee I think.

I'm just very happy with how good the Spiderman movies have been,imo. And the X-Men haven't been too bad either. I hope the Wolverine movie, if they're making it, kicks butt.

And I have to admit, the Hulk was better than I expected...

[Gaijin]

Just got back from seeing it...I give it a "not bad". Fun for what it is...

[Noriko Takaya]

Throw in Galactus hooking up his planet killing equipment so he can eat the Earth's energy, along with the Silver Surfer hitting on Ben Grimm's woman Alicia, add a couple of Skrull and make the Mole Man the comic relief and we might have a good movie. I did not care for this movie at all, and I loved the comics when I was a kid.

[gerwalk25]

FF was okay. It was better than Daredevil and Elektra but not as good as Spiderman. I'd like to see a review of the Roger Corman FF from 1994.

[Smiley424]

coincidentally, a friend of mine bought a bootleg of Fantastic Four, but when he got it home a popped it into the DVD player, it turned out to be a bootleg of the Roger Corman film which just recently got officially released in DVD. I have never seen the Roger Corman FF4 movie, but I'm told it's 90 minutes of your life you'll never get back.