I got around to watching Fantastic Four over the past few days. I had actually picked up their soundtrack when it came out and it left a bad taste in my mouth and then I heard it was a so-so movie so I stayed away.
However, I have this renewed interest in seeing the Marvel films (need to see Ghost Rider next) so I decided to give this a try.
The only thing I know about Fantastic Four is whatever I read about them in Marc’s Fantastic Four issues back in Kap. It was nice to have a friend who was getting into comic books at the same time as me and had some different tastes so we could swap and see what else was happening out in the world of wonder.
So Fantastic Four deal with Reed Richards (scientist extraordinaire), Sue Storm (ex-girlfriend to Reed), Johnny Storm (Sue’s brother) and Ben Grimm (Reed’s friend) who go into space for the sake of science but get hit with some cosmic radiation and develop superhuman powers (ability to fly and be on fire, elasticity, turn invisible). There is also Victor Von Doom who is up there with them but he’s the enemy in the big film and he gets super powers also and becomes (wait for it…) Doctor Doom!
This film pretty well is the classic origin story where they set the characters up, they get the powers and they deal with them. I enjoyed how they took their time with the development of their newfound powers (how did Spider-Man REALLY know how to spin webs any time after the first few times? Come on.) and their newfound fame in the city for being superheroes. There really wasn’t that much time left in the end of the film for the big showdown with Doctor Doom.
Not being a big fan of Fantastic Four, I can say that the movie kept my interest as it brought out some human aspects of gaining super powers (how would you actually turn yourself invisible? “Invisibility On!”) but it was definitely lacking on some high paced moments. It was very drawn out and low energy for the most part.
Saying that though, I had never read the first issues of Fantastic Four so I don’t know if it’s a faithful reproduction of their origin but I would bet that the second film is a little better as they don’t have to deal with the origin so much.
Oh yeah, and having Jessica Alba in your film isn’t a bad thing. Meow.