Fantastic Four

http://www.fantasticfourmovie.com/flash_index.html

Rating: **

Director: Tim Story
Cast: Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Julian McMahon, Ioan
Gruffudd
Screenplay: Michael France, Mark Frost

It's clobberin' time.

I have been on vacation for the last two weeks and so have fallen far behind in my movie watching. In fact, I have only just now seen the latest Comic book film, Fantastic Four. And I can tell you right now that a lot of people are not going to be overly thrilled with this movie.

It won’t be dark enough, it won’t be “Spider-Man” or “Spider-Man 2”, there won’t be enough explosions, not enough action, the script is too juvenile, any number of things will be wrong with it to some people.

The problem is, those will mostly be people who don’t remember what the FF was like when they first started. There is a good chance they never read the original work from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and never saw the pathos as well as the humor that was buried in the story.

The FF was, if not the first at least one of the first, in the Family Hero type of story in Comics. There had been the Shazam family as well as the Superman family, with his cousin, the pets and all the various and sundry Kryptonians who would show up at different times. But the Fantastic Four were a family, in almost every sense of the word.

Sue and Reed were dating (today they would be simply called ‘lovers’) her brother Johnny and the best friend Ben Grimm. These three men and women dared to risk their own lives in an untested rocket ship accidentally exposing them to solar radiation creating in them the first family of Super Heroes, the Fantastic Four.

In this version, Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist but a lousy businessman. He is in debt up to his eyes but he has this theory about solar radiation and how it could have been the essential ingredient for human life on Earth. To test and prove his theory, he goes to his old school rival, Victor Von Doom. Doom is now one of the world’s richest men and even owns his own space station.

So our intrepid foursome (along with Doom) head off to space where they are of course bombarded by the cosmic rays and it isn’t long before they all begin to display the effects of the rays on them.

Most of the film is set to show how the Storms, Richards and Grimm learn to use and deal with their new abilities. There are moments of humor mixed with scenes of pain and suffering. Most of the suffering and pain comes from Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm, the monstrous “Thing”. Ben Grimm is the one who has been through the most striking change. Turned into a rock like creature, he no longer looks human but still has the heart and soul of a man. And when his girl friend runs from him in fear, and later when she removes the engagement ring we see his emotional pain and his hurt.

But even more then that, watching him trying to pick up the ring and being unable to do so is one of the toughest scenes in the film.  But, enough maudlin comments; lets get to the heart of the matter.

As I understand it, the film more or less follows the Ultimate Fantastic Four storyline more then the normal, more historic Marvel origin. All well and good, and it did explain the differences in the origin of Dr. Doom.

Frankly, I sort of like him as a Lex Luthor character but I thought he was hamming it up a bit here and there. Which is probably what he was supposed to do.

It is really hard to –not- like this movie. It is fun, silly where it is supposed to be and exciting during the fights and action sequences. No, it is not as dark as Daredevil or as contrived as Hulk and it is better then some standard action flicks I have seen over the years.

The special effects were excellent, with the work on the Human Torch some of the best stuff I have seen in a long time. It goes far to remove the memory of the Roger Corman film from the 1990’s. Thank you Jesus. 

The entire film manages to step around most of the inherent problems in a movie like this and delivers a solid punch of entertainment. It keeps its audience in the goofy, Comic book attitude that is needed in a story like this and it does it without talking down to the viewer.

Yes, there were a couple of problems. Most of these were editing and pacing troubles. Tim Story dedicates so much time to development of the characters that he leaves out the audience factor. It did get boring at times, but the chance to see Jessica Alba in her underwear kept me interested.

But hang on cowpokes; while it might take a little while for the real action to start once it does watch out. It is simply amazing, and staying as true to the Comic as possible, the main punch out uses all the various powers of the FF, from Sue’s force field to Reeds brain.

The CGI is quite good in my opinion. Most of the time, I could tell where the Green Screen was, but it was usually with a bit of work on my part. And while the dialogue was at times somewhat juvenile, it also fit the characters and the story. This is not a movie for Adults (read in that word, T&A, cleavage shots, short skirt and panty less showgirls, or guys with socks stuffed in the front of their pants, people getting arms and heads ripped off, guts flying across the room etc) but it is a movie for adults. Read in that word, for people who like a little fun in their movies. People who look for more then explosions and boobs in a film. Who are not impressed with massive shots of dead bodies or naked women.

If you find yourself in the second category, take a shot on The Fantastic Four. I think you will have fun, and isn’t that what the movies are about?

Also, it is the first time Stan Lee has had a speaking role in one of these films and the director tossed a number of homage shots to Lee and Jack Kirby throughout the film.