REVIEW: The Fantastic Four

I saw this movie for free. Otherwise I would not have seen it at all. I got a free ticket in the DVD for "Man on Fire" of all things. I'm a moderate comic fan at best. I know a lot more about DC comic's peeps than Marvel. So my knowledge of F4 is limited to the old cartoon series from way back in the day. So I can't really give much of a review from that perspective. What I can do is say that from a film point of view I was kinda torn with this movie. I'll start with the writing...

Michael France's script is great in that it invests time in the characters and the discovery of their powers and what they mean good and bad. What's kind of grey is the plot. There is none. This is a 2 hour character study with a threadbare plot driven climax as an after thought. At least that what's it felt like. The F4 is a disfunctional family of sorts that after an incredibly bad special effects mishap in outer space come back to earth with Super Duper powers. And for some reason they all have different kinds of powers. Then after about 2 hours of figuring out these powers, the bad decides to blow some shit up with a rocket launcher and they spring into action.

Now the direction from Tim Story is melba toast. He is Ok with dialog, but when it comes to action sequences, he needs to go back to school. The action scenes are flat and static. And I think he is what dragged this movie down the most. His style is just plain pedestrian and is fine in another movie but here you need someone with flair, say a James Cameron or Sam Raimi. You have to make the unbelievable believable as possible, and he didn't pull that off here. But enough of that. I also put blame on the studio for trying to insert all these pop culture references everywhere. Ads, Ads, and more product placement that you can shake a stick it. I know it pays for the movie, but use a tad more subtly. At least the Coke neon sign and Coke truck from Superman II didn't show up. ( I used Coke twice. Check please!)

The casting is so-so. Dr. Doom, I don't think so. And speaking of Doom, the mask sucked. Just because it looks cool in the comic means it looks like a Halloween mask on screen people. Mr. Shield himself as Ben The Thing was perfect. HE really captured him the best you can. The suit was iffy, but the performance carried it for me. Ms. Alba, who is at the moment the hottest thing on the planet is OK as Sue Storm. I'm not convinced she is a good actress yet. Then Johnny Storm is actually really good as the cocky punk Human Torch. Although the X-games scenes with him are annoying and a desperate attempt to sell more extreme sports merchandise, I enjoyed his performance. But the worst is saved for Mr. Fantastic. I don't know who this actor is, and I'm sure he is good, but not as Mr. Fantastic. Again he simply looked like Mr. Fantastic and added nothing new to him for the big screen. In my opinion they should have gotten a "name" and tried to reinvent this character a little bit. He's the leader of the 4 and really leaves you with no hint of leadership ability.

Well I have gone on too long on this one. All in all if you are bored and want to go see a superhero movie, check your expectations at the door and you might get a few jolts here and there. If you want to see a real Superhero movie go see Batman Begins, then rent the original Superman and X-Men 2.