Movie Review: Fantastic Four

One would wonder why this movie received poor reviews. As a comic book movie fan, I love watching my favorite comic book characters transforming from the comic book version to the cartoon show and into the big screen, and this one has been one of the few shows I watched during morning tv cartoon line up when I was a kid.

Its not really that the movie sucked; for me, it didn't. Its just not as spectacular as what I'd expect it to be, with the likes of Spiderman, X-Men and Batman hitting the box office, big. But poor, no. Even at this very moment, still couldn't understand why reviewers thought it was a failure (sure... maybe at some points it was a bit cheesy.. but THAT didn't last for very long) Here's the lowdown on the latest comic book adaptation to hit the big screens:

Ioan Gruffudd stars as Mr. Fantastic, accompanied by Jessica Alba (from the TV series Dark Angel) as Invisible Woman, Chris Evans as the Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as The Thing.

Movie starts off Reed Richards (aka soon to be Mr Fantastic) , together with friend and partner Ben Grimm, submitting a proposal to Victor Van Doom for financial backing on a planned study of anomaly cloud storms found in space and its effect of human DNA genetic evolution. Victor presses to attend this study, bringing along his science lead (and also Reed's ex girlfriend) Sue Storm, and the employed pilot and younger brother to Sue, Johnny Storm. Everything goes horribly wrong during the trip, exposing all 4 scientists directly to the cloud storm, and thus turning our scientists into a messed up cream of corn soup team. On the other hand, Von Doom seems to have no problems since he was not directly exposed to the clouds, having been sheltered deep within the space station, when the cloud anomaly struck. Until he starts feeling a bit weird himself at the latter part of the movie... uh-oh.

They made a great pick by casting Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom. The man possibly reeks of self-arrogance and evil with those penetrating eyes and slightly sneering and upturned lips. He did play a good role in Charmed as Cole Turner, who began in the series as a high level demon, although it felt rather weird since I found myself seeing him as Cole Turner right at the beginning of the movie. But his character progressed well enough while the movie went on, so its somewhat believable to see him as Victor Von Doom, the impressively rich and shrewd businessman. Not as good as Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, but still worthy of a bit of appraisal. (You should be Liam Neeson as Batman Begin's archenemy... its a flop. I cant imagine him in any costume-fantasy related role except for Star War's Quigon Jin)

Ioan Gruffud was a bit of surprise. First off, the name was not familiar, so I looked him up at imdb, and to my surprise, he played the role of Lancelot in Jerry Bruckheimer's recent 2004 version of King Arthur. And a sneaky looking Lancelot at that. Shaving off the goatee did transform his persona and made him look like a good guy :) He actually managed to pull off as the leader for the Fantastic Four, although I would've appreciated a bit more command and decisiveness come into the character. He's supposed to be a brilliant, emotionally inept scientist, but right after he was coined the leader for the "Fantastic Four", I was expecting a bit more from him.

I'm sorry to say Jessica Alba didnt fit into the role of Sue Storm... sure, she's pretty, and sure, she has a nice body, but, she looks like a neophyte actress after seeing her in this movie. Trying too much to look sexy and smart.. but falling short.

Chris Evans played a decent role (sorry, he just so looks like he was typecasted ... no not typecasted as a human torch :P ) as Torch.. fast, feisty, do now and think later type of guy. But Michael Chiklis did a pretty good job portraying an anguished The Thing right after the freak accident. Although it seemed like stayed pretty much at the background compared to Gruffudd, Alba, McMahon and Evans, his character plays a central role to the movie's storyline... and pretty much believable.. until events start transpiring like fireworks.

Fine, I have to admit, the movie was sprinkled with cheesiness all over, staring with the silly (but still a bit charming) exchange between Johhny and the nurse right after the accident:

[puts a thermometer on Johnny's mouth]
Nurse: Oh.. You're hot!
Johnny: Why thank you, so are you!
Nurse: No I mean, you feel a little feverish.
Johnny: Look, I've never felt better in my life
[close up to thermometer rising to 170 degress fahrenheit]

To one of the cheesiest lines that made me close my eyes and cringe :

Reed [to Ben, seeing that he's "rock" all over]: I swear to you, I will do everything in my power, until there is not a breath left in me! You're going to be Ben again!

Oh, but there are some finer moments (albeit not great) to offset these.. not spectacular, but ok enough to warrant a popcorn movie passing grade. I think they showed a good fight with Dr. Doom. Not as spectacular as Ock Doc, but good enough as an adaptation from the comic to the tv series to the movie. The only quirk that I have was that in the end, becoming a super hero was just a matter of turning on and off a chamber that recreates the same space cloud storm they were exposed to earlier. That one was a poorly made story line that didn't really explain much and didn't really make any sense. One would wonder if the moviemakers believe that their audience could hold their suspension of reality THAT far.

A bit incredulous, but still funny, a tad heart warming, cheesy in some parts, but not as bad as what they reviewed it as. Maybe they just had high hopes and expectations for the film. But I didn't. Maybe that's why it was more or less, ok...