Topic: The Fantastic 4: Not so fantastic flic

[wilsonboy]

Fantastic Four falls too far short of the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises to be called fantastic.
How about The OK Quartet?
Most "OK" movies have a devoted core audience and this one probably will generate one, too. An anonymous American fan who reads like a geek-boy has already posted a rave review on the Internet Movie Database.

RATING TOO STINGY?

So that fraternity of presumed comic book readers will no doubt find my rating too stingy and my reservations too stodgy.
Yet it is impossible for Fantastic Four, which opens today in Edmonton, to escape comparisons with better comic book movies. Both the X-Men and Spider-Man series, along with the new Batman Begins, boast superior casting, strong storylines and more spectacular special effects. That adds up to more bang for the buck.
In Fantastic Four, only two of the superheroes are just right. Chris Evans is a cowboy hoot as Johnny Storm, the hotdogging, wise-cracking youth who turns into the Human Torch.
Michael Chiklis is sympathetic as Ben Grimm, the tough-talking New Yorker who becomes the rock-hard the Thing. And that is no mean feat to pull off.
In contrast, Jessica Alba has the curves and sex appeal necessary for Sue Storm, but her acting is as stone-cold dead as Dr. Doom's heart.
She is also mistreated by the movie: Her "invisible" stripping scene on the bridge is stupid.
Worse still, Ioan Gruffudd is blandly boring as super-scientist Reed Richards.
We are supposed to believe that sensuous Sue loves this brainy buffoon.
But, in the movie, their chemistry is even more of a mystery than the composition of the cosmic radiation storm that mutates our four leads into people with "fantastic" superpowers.
Speaking of which, Richards can stretch his body to astonishing lengths; Sue Storm can make herself invisible and create defence shields around other people and places; Johnny Storm can light himself on fire and fly; and Grimm is engaging because he has super-strength and a big heart.
The plotline has a structural problem. We enter the movie with Sue engaged to the future villain, ruthless tycoon Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). He, too, will be mutated in the cosmic storm cloud. But that takes a long, long time.
By the time they all get into space and mutated and back on Earth and doing their fantastical tricks, we're getting restless. Not to mention fed up with mopey Richards refusing to make the moves on Storm girl. This sappy subplot, with its romantic cliches, bogs down the action.

CLUMSILY WRITTEN

You quickly realize that Tim Story's movie - clumsily written by Michael France and Mark Frost from characters created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee (who appears in his longest Marvel Comics cameo) - lacks energy and drive.
There are some fun moments, most generated by red-hot Johnny, and moving moments, all involving the Thing. But the overall effect is still far too juvenile to feel fantastic.

I haven't seen the movie but this is a very disappointing review. I was expecting it to be a great movie since all the hype that's been going around about it. Then again, there was a lot of hype around "Catwoman" before it opened. lol

[Tennis4you]

I remember when I was younger watching that cartoon on the TV.  I have no interest to see the movie now in the theatres.  If it was on TV I would watch it though.

[Anonymous]

this is a Poll. It should therefore be in the Polls forum.  

[Tennis4you]

Easy there DK, it is non-tennis, this is a good forum for it.  The Polls forum is "Tennis Polls".

[kishkash]

all these superhero movies from comic books suck.the only one which i really liked was spiderman

[Arcforce]

spiderman sucked ass.

[kittens25]

I hope to see the movie and have an opinion.   I really liked Spiderman though.

[wilsonboy]

I think that they should make a Justice league movie. I don't think that they could mess up all those heroes.

[kishkash]

spiderman sucked ass.

 

[Arcforce]

I saw FF4 last night...I'm with everyone else when I say "it was ok". It wasn't the stuff of greatness and the graphics consistently sucked (on Mr Fantastic & and a little on Human Torch) but they also did a good job with Doom & Sue Storm so it kinda balances out. The story wasnt spectactulr and the ending was predictable. I, personally, was hoping to see a hint of Franklin Richards at the end maybe alluding to his presence in the sequels but...no Franklin. Soo...wasn't bad and wasnt great either.

Good weekend movie tho.

[wilsonboy]

Okay, like Spiderman and X-men, Fantastic 4 was an okay movie. So I'm guessing that it is nearly impossible to justify a superhero movie in the right way. I think that it might have a lot to do with the casting. X-men was probably the best out of all three I just mentioned in terms of star power; plus I've been a X-men fan all my life. And Spiderman follows with Tobey and Kirsten. Batman-- I haven't heard any bad reviews so far, so I guess that it captured that Superhero figure pretty well.