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Fantastic Four I feel lazy, so I'll go for the obvious. Fantastic Four is not so fantastic. It's not horrible either, so the fans can climb back in off the ledge. Ioan Gruffudd stars as Reed Richards - a highly talented, but bankrupt scientist leading an expedition to space, so he can study the effect of solar winds on human development and DNA. Joining him on the mission are his best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis); Reed's ex-girlfriend, Susan Storm (Jessica Alba); her brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans); and Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) - Reed's nemesis, the mission's financial backer, and the man who took Susan away from our hero. While the group thinks they have several hours in space to prepare for the experiment, they soon discover the calculations are wrong, and the space station is overtaken by rapidly accelerating solar winds. After the disaster, all five start to experience strange changes in their body composition. While Reed, Ben, Susan and Johnny start to use their new powers for good, Victor decides to use his to destroy Reed for ruining the Von Doom Company and taking away someone very special. Will Victor's evil plan work? Can all of them find a way to live with these new bodies and powers? Will the team be torn apart? Fantastic Four faces a huge obstacle, and doesn't overcome it well. Director Tim Story and writers Michael France and Mark Frost (based on the comic book by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) have to develop 4 heroes and 1 villain in less than 2 hours, while also providing an exciting story full of visual wonder. Sadly, they fall short. Story and company accomplish this task with Ben Grimm and Victor Von Doom, but Richard and the Storm siblings get the short shrift. We see the pain and heartbreak Grimm goes through as he loses everything he cherishes and turns into a hideous, destructive monster, The Thing, who scares everyone, even though he's a good guy underneath it all (tell me about it). More than the other members of the Fantastic Four, Grimm has become a freak who is most unlike all other humans on the planet. Meanwhile, Story and team also do a strong job establishing Von Doom's vanity and love of material goods, which makes his downfall obvious as he loses it all. Unfortunately, the other members of the Fantastic Four end up being the unimportant three. Story and team don't have time and don't give enough effort to establish the backgrounds of the other three. They allude to Richards and Storm's past relationship and the reasons why they broke up, but it's a subplot screaming out for some flashbacks, while lacking heart and romance. The audience doesn't get to learn how Richards lost it all, but still gets to keep his pricey lab in the middle of Manhattan. Worst of all, Johnny Storm is reduced to a caricature. Story gives us several tried, true and tired montages showing the audience how EXTREME Johnny lives his life. Our director makes sure we see Johnny snowboarding at the highest of altitudes, attempting the most wicked of bike stunts and chasing after the hottest nurse in hospital history (Maria "I gave up being a faux journalist to become a pin up because the money is better and the hours are shorter" Menounos), all set to hard rock music with twisting and turning camera angles, just in case we thought Story was attempting to be a bit subtle. Worst of all, Story takes too much time during the movie to get us to the main conflict, and hasn't established enough of the story to make us enthralled once stuff starts to happen. The audience needs to see more of Dr. Doom's evil plotting and planning. This kind of focus would have helped Story avoid letting the movie meander around, and build up the tension between all of the members and their new enemy. Finally, Fantastic Four often comes off as a retro campy superhero movie in a time in movie history when Batman Begins has amazed us with its dark, brooding tone and psychological study of a superhero and his villains. Sadly, Frost and France could never have known Batman Begins would take its approach and make a sometimes light-hearted movie like Fantastic Four seem silly and trite by comparison, but it happens. Some of the dialogue and one-liners between the Fantastic Four are funny and help entertain the audience, but it is not always welcome. The special effects are OK (Mr. Fantastic's elasticity is very cool to see on the big screen, The Thing looks good with a rubber suit instead of overblown CGI), and Fantastic Four has room to grow, but I'm not sure I want to see a sequel. 2 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2005 - WaffleMovies.com
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