Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Theatrical Review: Fantastic Four
Wendy's Review
I have never read any of the Fantastic Four comics, and now having seen Fantastic Four, I have absolutely no interest in ever reading any of the comics. This movie was one of the most boring movies that I have ever seen. Having said that, let me go into my gripes about the film.
With such recent wonderful comic books movies as Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2, and Hulk, this movie just doesn’t even compare. In all three of those films, I really cared about the characters. They really seemed to be people I could relate to. However, the main characters in Fantastic Four were some of the most boring people I’ve ever seen in a film, let alone a comic book film.
In all of the recent origin stories of comic based characters made into film, learning about how they got their powers, and how they learned to use them was a lot of fun. In Fantastic Four it is just kind of dull. They get hit by a cosmic storm in outer space, and this forever changes the properties of their DNA. So then they change. Reed Richards now can stretch his body, and he is now Mr. Fantastic. Sue Storm can now become invisible and put up force fields, and she now is known as The Invisible Girl. Johnny Storm can turn into fire, and he is now known as The Human Torch. Ben Grimm gets hit worst of all, and his body is now completely made of stone. He can’t turn his powers on and off like the others. He gets the name The Thing.
So here they are with these new powers or sorts, and what do they do to try them out? Well Johnny Storm enters a motocross competition and goes snowboarding. Sue Storm takes her clothes off in public a lot. Reed Richards can now reach the toilet paper from the closet while sitting on the toilet. And Ben Grimm… well now he takes a nap on the couch. And the funny thing about that is that he can’t ride the elevator because he weighs too much, he can’t sit on wooden stools at the bar, but a normal couch can gold him while he naps. Do we really need to see The Thing napping? C’mon he should be really cool, but he naps. And then there is Dr. Doom. From what I have heard, he is an awesome comic villain, but this movie does nothing to show that.
Then there is the special effects. With the current state of special effects, these should have been better. They are almost like those in Spider-Man; okay but not very good. This whole movie feels rushed, along with the special effects. And with this film being almost two hours long, there just wasn’t enough action. Just a bunch of bickering.
Fantastic Four also fails in the acting department too. With the exception of Michael Chiklis (whom I love) as Ben Grimm, and maybe Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, the rest of the cast is very lackluster. Jessica Alba as Sue Storm is awful. She just isn’t a very good actress. She is eye candy, and that is about all. The eye candy thing worked in Sin City, but it doesn’t work here. She never conveyed to me that she was smart enough to be Sue Storm. I don’t buy for a minute that her character went to MIT. This was such bad casting.
Fantastic Four comes across as a goofy kids movie. I would say it is great for young kids, and preteens, but the language and sexual innuendo is not right for them. I think the studio didn’t really know who the target audience was really. There are goofy, dumb jokes that kids and preteens love (I know my kids laughed a number of times), and then there is mild action and cleavage that teens enjoy. Our kids enjoyed the film, but I found myself struggling to stay awake. I enjoyed Daredevil more than this, and I never thought that I would say that.
Darrell's Review
Fantastic Four seems to be a movie struggling with it's own identity. As far as comic book movies go, I'm struggling with what to say about it. It’s certainly not comparable to Batman Begins, an outstanding movie that presented it’s comic book hero with a straight face. (Roger Ebert implied that Fantastic Four shouldn’t even be shown in the same theaters that showed Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2. That’s harsh, but I see where he’s coming from.) Fantastic Four isn’t an "adults only" action flick like Blade or The Punisher, either. In general, I suppose it would be appropriate for the 8 to 14 year old set; since it mostly seems to be this year’s version of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. However, there’s a bit too much foul language and too many sexual jokes for that age level, too.
All in all, I’m not sure that there really is an appropriate target audience for Fantastic Four. There are a few redeeming qualities in the film, but not many. Michael Chiklis is pretty good as The Thing, and the special effects are decent, for the most part. However, my complaints with the film far outnumber my commendations.
Rather than really write an in depth review, simply because I just don’t have that much to say about the film, I’ll just list my complaints. There are SPOILERS IN THE LIST OF COMPLAINTS BELOW, so don’t read them if you don’t want parts of the movie spoiled for you:
01) I know that in the world of comic books, plausibility takes on a different meaning.... but a comic book movie should at least play by it’s own rules. Once a circumstance is established in the film, the story should stick to it. Reed Richards establishes early in the film that in order to further his research, he needs to travel into space and experience a cosmic storm... but after experiencing that storm in space, he makes a machine that creates an identical cosmic storm in his lab. Huh? If he could build a machine that creates the same storm so easily, why did he need to go to space to begin with?
02) The movie asks intriguing questions that it never even tries to answer. Why are The Thing’s super powers relative to a permanent change in his physiology but the rest of the F4 can turn their powers on and off? The movie asked that question and I looked forward to seeing how the story would answer it, but it never did.
03) This is an origins story, and those stories are often plodding for the first hour or so. That’s a given, and I’m fine with that... but once the heroes get their powers, it’s time to show them off. So what to the F4 do after they get their powers? They spend the majority of the rest of the movie arguing with each other in the lab. All they do is bicker and complain and gripe instead of going out and being super heroes. For the most part, this is the story of four super heroes picked to live in a lab and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start being fantastic. Yaaaaawn.
04) Dr. Doom is one of the most complex, interesting villains in all of Marvel comics. However, in this film, he’s reduced to the typical action movie bad guy.... big ego, big grudge, big attitude. What a waste. He was the least compelling villain in any Marvel comics based movie I’ve seen yet.
05) Aren’t there usually a few action scenes in comic book movies? Did anyone mention that idea to the producers of Fantastic Four? I remember one quick and fairly simple action scene on the Brooklyn Bridge and one final action scene that was over before I realized it had began. Instead of action scenes, for the most part, the movie gives us a lame love story and a scientific premise that the film itself doesn’t seem to understand, much less explain to the audience.
06) Jessica Alba can’t act. She looks great, I admit... but she can’t act. If you were to push her off a cliff, I doubt she could act like she was falling. Scarlett Johansson would have been my pick for a young Sue Richards... but, then again, Johansson seems to prefer to do movies that have actual scripts.
Our kids enjoyed the movie, and thankfully the couple of crude sex jokes seemed to go in one ear and out the other. If it hadn’t been for the kids, I’d have suggested to Wendy that we walk out with half an hour to go. Still, because Chiklis was pretty good and because the Human Torch special effects looked pretty cool, I’ll begrudgingly give the movie a little more than a zero rating.
And, hey... if nothing else, I can mend my relationship with all the Star Wars fans I know. As of now, Episode III is no longer the worst movie I've seen this year.
¶ 1:48 PM 
Wendy's Review
I have never read any of the Fantastic Four comics, and now having seen Fantastic Four, I have absolutely no interest in ever reading any of the comics. This movie was one of the most boring movies that I have ever seen. Having said that, let me go into my gripes about the film.
With such recent wonderful comic books movies as Batman Begins, Spider-Man 2, and Hulk, this movie just doesn’t even compare. In all three of those films, I really cared about the characters. They really seemed to be people I could relate to. However, the main characters in Fantastic Four were some of the most boring people I’ve ever seen in a film, let alone a comic book film.
In all of the recent origin stories of comic based characters made into film, learning about how they got their powers, and how they learned to use them was a lot of fun. In Fantastic Four it is just kind of dull. They get hit by a cosmic storm in outer space, and this forever changes the properties of their DNA. So then they change. Reed Richards now can stretch his body, and he is now Mr. Fantastic. Sue Storm can now become invisible and put up force fields, and she now is known as The Invisible Girl. Johnny Storm can turn into fire, and he is now known as The Human Torch. Ben Grimm gets hit worst of all, and his body is now completely made of stone. He can’t turn his powers on and off like the others. He gets the name The Thing.
So here they are with these new powers or sorts, and what do they do to try them out? Well Johnny Storm enters a motocross competition and goes snowboarding. Sue Storm takes her clothes off in public a lot. Reed Richards can now reach the toilet paper from the closet while sitting on the toilet. And Ben Grimm… well now he takes a nap on the couch. And the funny thing about that is that he can’t ride the elevator because he weighs too much, he can’t sit on wooden stools at the bar, but a normal couch can gold him while he naps. Do we really need to see The Thing napping? C’mon he should be really cool, but he naps. And then there is Dr. Doom. From what I have heard, he is an awesome comic villain, but this movie does nothing to show that.
Then there is the special effects. With the current state of special effects, these should have been better. They are almost like those in Spider-Man; okay but not very good. This whole movie feels rushed, along with the special effects. And with this film being almost two hours long, there just wasn’t enough action. Just a bunch of bickering.
Fantastic Four also fails in the acting department too. With the exception of Michael Chiklis (whom I love) as Ben Grimm, and maybe Chris Evans as Johnny Storm, the rest of the cast is very lackluster. Jessica Alba as Sue Storm is awful. She just isn’t a very good actress. She is eye candy, and that is about all. The eye candy thing worked in Sin City, but it doesn’t work here. She never conveyed to me that she was smart enough to be Sue Storm. I don’t buy for a minute that her character went to MIT. This was such bad casting.
Fantastic Four comes across as a goofy kids movie. I would say it is great for young kids, and preteens, but the language and sexual innuendo is not right for them. I think the studio didn’t really know who the target audience was really. There are goofy, dumb jokes that kids and preteens love (I know my kids laughed a number of times), and then there is mild action and cleavage that teens enjoy. Our kids enjoyed the film, but I found myself struggling to stay awake. I enjoyed Daredevil more than this, and I never thought that I would say that.
Darrell's Review
Fantastic Four seems to be a movie struggling with it's own identity. As far as comic book movies go, I'm struggling with what to say about it. It’s certainly not comparable to Batman Begins, an outstanding movie that presented it’s comic book hero with a straight face. (Roger Ebert implied that Fantastic Four shouldn’t even be shown in the same theaters that showed Batman Begins and Spider-Man 2. That’s harsh, but I see where he’s coming from.) Fantastic Four isn’t an "adults only" action flick like Blade or The Punisher, either. In general, I suppose it would be appropriate for the 8 to 14 year old set; since it mostly seems to be this year’s version of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. However, there’s a bit too much foul language and too many sexual jokes for that age level, too.
All in all, I’m not sure that there really is an appropriate target audience for Fantastic Four. There are a few redeeming qualities in the film, but not many. Michael Chiklis is pretty good as The Thing, and the special effects are decent, for the most part. However, my complaints with the film far outnumber my commendations.
Rather than really write an in depth review, simply because I just don’t have that much to say about the film, I’ll just list my complaints. There are SPOILERS IN THE LIST OF COMPLAINTS BELOW, so don’t read them if you don’t want parts of the movie spoiled for you:
01) I know that in the world of comic books, plausibility takes on a different meaning.... but a comic book movie should at least play by it’s own rules. Once a circumstance is established in the film, the story should stick to it. Reed Richards establishes early in the film that in order to further his research, he needs to travel into space and experience a cosmic storm... but after experiencing that storm in space, he makes a machine that creates an identical cosmic storm in his lab. Huh? If he could build a machine that creates the same storm so easily, why did he need to go to space to begin with?
02) The movie asks intriguing questions that it never even tries to answer. Why are The Thing’s super powers relative to a permanent change in his physiology but the rest of the F4 can turn their powers on and off? The movie asked that question and I looked forward to seeing how the story would answer it, but it never did.
03) This is an origins story, and those stories are often plodding for the first hour or so. That’s a given, and I’m fine with that... but once the heroes get their powers, it’s time to show them off. So what to the F4 do after they get their powers? They spend the majority of the rest of the movie arguing with each other in the lab. All they do is bicker and complain and gripe instead of going out and being super heroes. For the most part, this is the story of four super heroes picked to live in a lab and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start being fantastic. Yaaaaawn.
04) Dr. Doom is one of the most complex, interesting villains in all of Marvel comics. However, in this film, he’s reduced to the typical action movie bad guy.... big ego, big grudge, big attitude. What a waste. He was the least compelling villain in any Marvel comics based movie I’ve seen yet.
05) Aren’t there usually a few action scenes in comic book movies? Did anyone mention that idea to the producers of Fantastic Four? I remember one quick and fairly simple action scene on the Brooklyn Bridge and one final action scene that was over before I realized it had began. Instead of action scenes, for the most part, the movie gives us a lame love story and a scientific premise that the film itself doesn’t seem to understand, much less explain to the audience.
06) Jessica Alba can’t act. She looks great, I admit... but she can’t act. If you were to push her off a cliff, I doubt she could act like she was falling. Scarlett Johansson would have been my pick for a young Sue Richards... but, then again, Johansson seems to prefer to do movies that have actual scripts.
Our kids enjoyed the movie, and thankfully the couple of crude sex jokes seemed to go in one ear and out the other. If it hadn’t been for the kids, I’d have suggested to Wendy that we walk out with half an hour to go. Still, because Chiklis was pretty good and because the Human Torch special effects looked pretty cool, I’ll begrudgingly give the movie a little more than a zero rating.
And, hey... if nothing else, I can mend my relationship with all the Star Wars fans I know. As of now, Episode III is no longer the worst movie I've seen this year.
¶ 1:48 PM
Comments:
"... find out what happens when people stop being polite and start being fantastic." LOL! That was great.
To each their own. I thought the movie was enjoyable, certainly it can't hold a candle to Batman Begins, but not much can.
I think it did a good job of establishing the team dynamic, something that hasn't been needed in any of the other superhero movies, as they've all been about one person. Dr. Doom could still become a strong villian in any sequels (although I'm sure you both shudder at the thought of a sequel). I didn't buy Alba in her role either, but I thought everyone else was quite good. Especially the guy who played Richards. I think his superpower is the stupidest one ever put in a popular comic book. Yet he still made me care about the character.
**Spoilers ahead**
There were continiuity problems, no doubt. The not explaining why Thing couldn't turn his powers off was a big one. But did you notice on the bridge, when Sue, Johnny, and Reed want to get past the police officers to where Thing is? They suggest Sue turn invisible and shed her clothes. She does this, sneaks past the officers, then, BAM, all 3 of them are past the police with Thing. What?!? How on earth did the other 2 sneak past?
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your reviews. I think the big movies are winding down now, until fall. Any big ones coming up that you're already planning to see?
To each their own. I thought the movie was enjoyable, certainly it can't hold a candle to Batman Begins, but not much can.
I think it did a good job of establishing the team dynamic, something that hasn't been needed in any of the other superhero movies, as they've all been about one person. Dr. Doom could still become a strong villian in any sequels (although I'm sure you both shudder at the thought of a sequel). I didn't buy Alba in her role either, but I thought everyone else was quite good. Especially the guy who played Richards. I think his superpower is the stupidest one ever put in a popular comic book. Yet he still made me care about the character.
**Spoilers ahead**
There were continiuity problems, no doubt. The not explaining why Thing couldn't turn his powers off was a big one. But did you notice on the bridge, when Sue, Johnny, and Reed want to get past the police officers to where Thing is? They suggest Sue turn invisible and shed her clothes. She does this, sneaks past the officers, then, BAM, all 3 of them are past the police with Thing. What?!? How on earth did the other 2 sneak past?
Anyway, I enjoyed reading your reviews. I think the big movies are winding down now, until fall. Any big ones coming up that you're already planning to see?
Yeah, that bit with Sue turning invisible and Reed and Johnny just walking around and bringing her her clothes was laughable. It was such an odd cut, that I'm wondering(hoping) if there's a deleted scene on the DVD bridging that. The ensuing scene was so awesome I soon forgot about it. It established the second most important theme of the FF: celebrity. They've never had secret identities like the other Marvel heroes. The most important theme though is family, as Elijah Wood mused about the comic in The Ice Storm. The Incredibles, a clear FF homage, actually did a better job of it.
My biggest complaint is that the battle with Doom was wrapped up so quickly. It was great to see the team come together and save each other, see them work together with their powers, but it happened so fast I was wanting more. I would like to see a sequel now that the characters are all established. This was mostly origin and character development, but since the characters were so true(especially Ben), I didn't mind all that much. I cheered when Ben said his battlecry, even though I saw it in the trailer. In context it was very cool.
As for Ben's permanent condition, in the comics Reed once theorized that it was psychological. Back in the 80s after the Secret Wars crossover in which a bunch of heroes are transported to a new world to fight villains by a being known as the Beyonder, Ben found he could will himself to change on that world and stayed behind. On Earth, She-Hulk took his place on the team and Johnny married Ben's gf Alicia(later revealed to be a shapeshifting alien Skrull in a a retcon). When Ben eventually returned, he was angry to learn Reed's theory, that he didn't have to stay on that alien world, that there he was free of being stuck as the Thing. At some point he was hit with more cosmic rays and mutated further for a while. Over the years he's changed back and forth, and I'm not sure what his current status is; I haven't read the book in years.
Now, all of that is well and good and satisfactory for the hardcore Marvel geek, but it's also why I'd cautiously recommend this picture. It's definitely not for everybody. A film should stand on its own. Non-comic people can watch a Spider-man movie and still appreciate it. Within the FF movie, the only explanation I can offer is that Ben was outside when the storm hit, and he got hit with a bigger dose of unshielded cosmic rays than everyone else. He got the worst of it. The film does fall short in that regard. The only hint that it may be permanent due to psychological reasons, like maybe he's hiding and putting up walls around himself comes when he tells Susie he wished he could be invisible. While the line can be taken as Ben saying how he got the worst deal out of the storm, it also alludes to his psychology. This is a LOT of inference on my part though, and influenced by the comics I've read filling in blanks.
I personally had a good time, but it's definitely not for everyone, as Kelly said.
My biggest complaint is that the battle with Doom was wrapped up so quickly. It was great to see the team come together and save each other, see them work together with their powers, but it happened so fast I was wanting more. I would like to see a sequel now that the characters are all established. This was mostly origin and character development, but since the characters were so true(especially Ben), I didn't mind all that much. I cheered when Ben said his battlecry, even though I saw it in the trailer. In context it was very cool.
As for Ben's permanent condition, in the comics Reed once theorized that it was psychological. Back in the 80s after the Secret Wars crossover in which a bunch of heroes are transported to a new world to fight villains by a being known as the Beyonder, Ben found he could will himself to change on that world and stayed behind. On Earth, She-Hulk took his place on the team and Johnny married Ben's gf Alicia(later revealed to be a shapeshifting alien Skrull in a a retcon). When Ben eventually returned, he was angry to learn Reed's theory, that he didn't have to stay on that alien world, that there he was free of being stuck as the Thing. At some point he was hit with more cosmic rays and mutated further for a while. Over the years he's changed back and forth, and I'm not sure what his current status is; I haven't read the book in years.
Now, all of that is well and good and satisfactory for the hardcore Marvel geek, but it's also why I'd cautiously recommend this picture. It's definitely not for everybody. A film should stand on its own. Non-comic people can watch a Spider-man movie and still appreciate it. Within the FF movie, the only explanation I can offer is that Ben was outside when the storm hit, and he got hit with a bigger dose of unshielded cosmic rays than everyone else. He got the worst of it. The film does fall short in that regard. The only hint that it may be permanent due to psychological reasons, like maybe he's hiding and putting up walls around himself comes when he tells Susie he wished he could be invisible. While the line can be taken as Ben saying how he got the worst deal out of the storm, it also alludes to his psychology. This is a LOT of inference on my part though, and influenced by the comics I've read filling in blanks.
I personally had a good time, but it's definitely not for everyone, as Kelly said.
MCF, your comments here amount to a better review than either mine or Wendy's, I think... just a few remarks:
The most important theme though is family, as Elijah Wood mused about the comic in The Ice Storm.
I absolutely love The Ice Storm. It's my favorite Ang Lee movie. I also loved Hulk, and I realize I am in a minority, there. Anyway, I get the feeling that the movie makers were too self-conscious to take the characters seriously. That's a shame. The best comic book movies (Batman Begins, Blade, The Crow, Spider-man 2) are the ones that take the heroes seriously. Had F4 taken the characters seriously, I'm sure it would have been a better film. I went into the theater wanting to love Ben and Reed.... the movie just never gave me a reason to. It came closer with Grimm, but for the most part, this movie just played it as a goof.
Re: your info about Secret Wars, I'm glad to get that background information. Like most Spidey geeks, when you say Secret Wars, only two words come to my mind: Black Suit! I vaguely remember the bit about Ben in the Secret Wars, you have me wanting to go back and re-read. If only I still had those titles. Doh!
I remembered that She-Hulk had stepped in and filled Ben's void in the F4 for a while, but I couldn't remember why.
maybe he's hiding and putting up walls around himself comes when he tells Susie he wished he could be invisible.
That kind of thing, that missed potential, is the biggest disappointment in the film. So many directions were unexplored. Why did each of them get those specific powers? I wanted the movie to have it's own answers for that, and I've have accepted answers that deviated from the comics, just like I accepted Pete being able to generate his own web in the Spider-Man movies. I was ready to accept whatever answers the movie gave me... but it didn't give me anything.
For me, though, the biggest disappointment was Doom. He's such a great villain and they turned him into such a clichéd idiot. I can't forgive that. Doom deserved better. In fact, I think Doom deserves his own stand-alone movie.
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The most important theme though is family, as Elijah Wood mused about the comic in The Ice Storm.
I absolutely love The Ice Storm. It's my favorite Ang Lee movie. I also loved Hulk, and I realize I am in a minority, there. Anyway, I get the feeling that the movie makers were too self-conscious to take the characters seriously. That's a shame. The best comic book movies (Batman Begins, Blade, The Crow, Spider-man 2) are the ones that take the heroes seriously. Had F4 taken the characters seriously, I'm sure it would have been a better film. I went into the theater wanting to love Ben and Reed.... the movie just never gave me a reason to. It came closer with Grimm, but for the most part, this movie just played it as a goof.
Re: your info about Secret Wars, I'm glad to get that background information. Like most Spidey geeks, when you say Secret Wars, only two words come to my mind: Black Suit! I vaguely remember the bit about Ben in the Secret Wars, you have me wanting to go back and re-read. If only I still had those titles. Doh!
I remembered that She-Hulk had stepped in and filled Ben's void in the F4 for a while, but I couldn't remember why.
maybe he's hiding and putting up walls around himself comes when he tells Susie he wished he could be invisible.
That kind of thing, that missed potential, is the biggest disappointment in the film. So many directions were unexplored. Why did each of them get those specific powers? I wanted the movie to have it's own answers for that, and I've have accepted answers that deviated from the comics, just like I accepted Pete being able to generate his own web in the Spider-Man movies. I was ready to accept whatever answers the movie gave me... but it didn't give me anything.
For me, though, the biggest disappointment was Doom. He's such a great villain and they turned him into such a clichéd idiot. I can't forgive that. Doom deserved better. In fact, I think Doom deserves his own stand-alone movie.
