Prepare for the fantastic.Or not.
Today I am reviewing director Tim Story's (
Taxi-2004) adaptation of Marvel comics
Fantastic Four. After a radiation storm strikes the Von Doom satellite, strange things start happening to the unlucky inhabitants. Reed Richards (
Ioan Gruffudd-King Arthur) finds himself able to stretch his body, while his friend, Ben Grimm (
Michael Chiklis-The Shield) awakens to find his entire body has turned to stone. Sue Storm (
Jessica Alba-Sin City) can become invisible, and her brother Johnny (
Chris Evans-Cellular) can burst into flame. While they search for a cure, the fifth member of the mission, Victor Von Doom (
Julian McMahon-Nip/Tuck) has other plans.
Fantastic Four had a lot to live up to, with fans looking at the success of the previous Marvel films, especially "Spiderman". Coming out on the heels of the fabulous "Batman Begins", this film had to be spectacular. It starts out strong, establishing the characters quickly and efficiently, while throwing in all those relevant plot points. Then comes the radiation storm and here is where the whole thing falls apart. It's been argued that writers were trying to establish that the characters are "real" and that they don't have secret identities to help them cope. That's all well and good, but do they have to take so long to do it? For the greater part of the film,
nothing happens. There's a whole lot of whining, a whole lot of thinking, and not enough action, dialogue, or hell, even a point. The film manages to get pulled back together for a moderately interesting finale, but it was too little, too late. By the time the 'good stuff' rolled around, I just wanted to leave.
Technically, the film does have some good stuff. The radiation storm is a little-okay, a lot lame, but other than that, it does have some good special effects. Johnny Storm's, aka: the Human Torch, had some of the most interesting effects, being all flamey and 'flying'.
In terms of performances, well, while I enjoyed the look of those cast, I found myself not caring about the characters. Perhaps it was all the whining, but I just wanted it all to end. However, there was a stand out performance from Chiklis, who really stole the show for me, both as Ben and as The Thing.
I would say that this film is a rental, unless you don't mind paying for half a movie.
Rating: 2.5 (out of 5)
Labels: Action, Adventure
posted by Lisa
at 11:48 a.m. |