Fantastic Four

[Tom]

Cant find a thread for this film so i thought id make one, anyone seen it?

Here's my review from my blog; www.misplacedchildhood.blogspot.com

Film Review: Fantastic Four
So a few weeks ago I trekked down to Meadowhall to watch the eagerly anticipated Fantastic Four, admittedly I wasn’t too bothered about watching it myself but I thought id give it a crack anyway! (Note to self - stop using Meadowhall cinema, there still ISNT any leg room, and it will never, ever change)

Fantastic Four is directed by the relatively unknown Tim Story and stars such as Ioan Gruffudd and Jessica Alba in a great cast with numerous good actors. The movie is based on the very popular Marvel comic of the same name. Four astronaut’s go to space to try and understand a strange phenomenon in outer space, they are accompanied by the egotistical Victor Von Doom who is funding the project. After a series of events the five are exposed to cosmic radiation, and it’s only when they get home that they realise they appear to have been blessed with special powers. However, Victor sees his powers can inflict all kinds of destruction across the world; can the newly entitled Fantastic Four help?

The film's main character is Reed (Mr. Fantastic) played by Ioan Gruffudd, god he's come along way from his Hornblower days. Reed has had a crush on Sue (Jessica Alba) for years and they used to date, indeed the two main leads are well acted by Alba and Gruffudd and the chemistry between the two works seamlessly. Johnny (The human torch) is played by Chris Evans in his first major film, Evans plays the 'joker' part well but some of the jokes are a little stretched out at points. Julian McMahon of Nip/Tuck fame plays the evil Victor Von Doom, McMahon is wonderfully evil and is sure to appear again in the almost inevitable sequel, he’ll scare the kids and is a good enough actor for the adults to believe the performance too. Finally, Ben (The Thing) is played the wonderful Michael Chiklis, in ‘The Shield’ Chiklis plays the corrupt cop brilliantly and its unfortunate that in his first big Hollywood role he isn’t given a more serious or nasty role, despite this he is still relatively excellent in the part.

The overall CGI in Fantastic Four is extremely good, and the effects of each ‘superpower’ have been designed to really fit into the original comic style, indeed fans of the original are likely to enjoy the whole show of Fantastic Four, it sticks rigidly to the plot and overall jokey manner of the comic and never takes itself too seriously. The plot itself is about as original as a remake of Commando would be, and yes at points you do find yourself easily predicting the next twist. Despite this the story isn’t too bad and at least it doesn’t spoil the film.

Actually, Fantasitc Four's best card is its comedy, at times the film goes into usual superhero dribble that’s been done a thousand times, but every so often it manages to come out with a decent joke or an interesting line that just sets it apart from the rest, I did like this movie quite a bit actually, it grew on me as the character development at last started to show streaks of originality towards the end.

However, as much as I thought this movie was decent and a good laugh, it simply cannot be called a good movie; it is far too derivative in its concept and style and I’m not a fan of the superhero genre in any way whatsoever. Also, it doesn’t help its credibility that I’ve recently heard the actors have already signed up for another 2 films, however true that is we shall have to wait and see. Fantastic Four is a decent laugh to watch with some mates but as a stand-alone film it wont win an Oscar's, nor will it stay in your mind for very long either.

3/5 - wonderfully average

TROD.

 

[Callum]

http://soccergaming.tv/showthread.php?t=124682&highlight=fantastic

 

[Sir Calumn]

Haha, nevermind, I'll leave this one open and close the other, unless Tom would prefer me to merge them together.

 

[Hakeem]

yeah, better close that one cause it got way too offtopic

my review btw

The biggest and most famous Marvel superheroes have finally gotten to the big screen. Fantastic Four has had a very troubled time, from preproduction problems, to weird casting (Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans? Who are they?) and then when the script came out and then the first teasers and everybody was hating everything they were seeing and reading.
Well, the movie is out now and I'm happy to announce that it's not bad at all, it's kind of really good actually, and I'm really excited about a sequel.

Despite being little known, I loved the casting of Chris Evans, who was previously seen only in Not Another Teen Movie (and then Cellular but that was after he was cast). Chris makes the perfect Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch, capturing the playfulness of the character with his powers and his winning attitude. I also love how he loves the public and be seen.
And this is a big difference between the Fantastic Four and most (if not all other) superheroes, they don't hide their identities, everybody knows who they are and where to find them, and Johnny loves to be on the spotlight.

Then we have Ben Grimm aka The Thing, played by Michael Chiklis from the TV series The Shield. Another great casting here, as Chiklis plays the sad Thing who can't get the love he wants because of his appearance. Ben was engaged, and so when he becomes The Thing her fiancee leaves him in the (pretty much) only really lame couple of scenes of the movie, as his bride to be first gets scared and disgusted by him, and then she appears out of nowhere to throw the engagement ring to the floor in front of him and hundreds of people right after he saved the day early in the movie. Really disastrous moments there featuring Laurie Holden as Ben's girl.
Then he receives the affection of the blind Alicia Masters, played by Kerry Washington, who is a black girl unlike the white Alicia from the comics and the animated series. Apparently (just like making the Kingpin black in DareDevil), the producers probably thought they had to get someone black in their movies so people wouldn't realize how racist creator Stan Lee is.
People are divided about The Thing and how he was made with Chiklis in a suit instead of CGI like The Hulk, and I'm glad he was done this way. It looks very real, and there's no problem of big special effects or anything like that. Plus you can really tell that is Chiklis in there and it makes The Thing more human. Great work by whoever stood up for costume and make up and decided to not use CGI on him.

Ioan Gruffudd is Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, the big brain of the family. He can't stop thinking about creating stuff and discovering new things, reason why he's had trouble with the ladies before. If he'd only put more attention on them than in his inventions. I knew Gruffudd from the Horatio Hornblower TV series and from last year's King Arthur (where his Lancelot was one of the very few things I liked about that movie) but he was not in my radar for any movie. And I had always pictured George Clooney as the man with elastic powers so it was a disappointment for me when he was not cast (though it was a possibility at first). Still, Gruffudd delivered, and even though he doesn't have a big screen presence yet, he did get what Richards is all about and the little comedic bits when he totally forgets about Sue because of some scientific discovery are great.
If there's a weak point in the special effects then it's all here. Richards' elasticity is not used a lot, and while at times it works when they use camera angles and stuff like that, the times they use CGI you can really tell. And it looks very fake.

The four is complete with Jessica Alba who plays Sue Storm aka The Invisible Girl. If there's one weak casting is here. I'm sorry but like I've said before I fail to see how great Alba is. I mean, I know she's hot, and she's also funny and very likeable but I found myself liking her as the actress Jessica Alba when she's herself in series like Entourage or when she goes to Leno or Conan. I love her there, but on the big screen I'm not convinced she's that great. Her Sue Storm is played ok, but Alba is way too young to play her, and so I didn't buy her. And again, why cast a girl with Latin roots instead of an American white woman like the Sue from the comics? I mean, I know Alba has a huge following but someone a little bit more experienced looking at least would have been better I think.

And finally the villain, Victor Von Doom played by Julian McMahon also from a TV series, in his case Nip/Tuck where he also plays a doctor (a plastic surgeon though).
McMahon is very good here though his character, while being the bad guy he's supposed to be, it's all for the wrong reasons. Doom's hate towards Reed Richards comes from who has more knowledge. It's about him hating Richards because Richards is smarter, not because of Sue Storm. Here Sue and Reed used to date, but then their relationship ended (I guess Sue ended it) because Reed was more into science than into her. Now Sue works for Victor, who thinks she's into him, but in fact she's still in love with Reed. And this is what causes the whole big fight instead of the doctor's competition for scientific discovery.

Still, I forgive the story not being a hundred percent true to the comics, because everything else is really good. And there's also the future of the franchise.
I compare this Fantastic Four movie to the first Xmen movie, when they introduced everybody, but the big plot of the movie was not really important. Yes, Magneto wanted to destroy the leaders of the world but it wasn't managed in a big way, and those leaders barely knew they were in danger because it all happened between the mutants. The second movie added and added mutants, but it also put the world in real danger and the people of the world were even hurt. It's the same here, and that's why I'm awaiting the second Fantastic Four (which has already been announced). I think it will be great, specially if they keep the cast and bring in the Silver Surfer (who Chris Evans would be perfect to play if he wasn't playing Johnny already) and Galactus. Oh yes, I really can't believe director Tim Story made a good movie. I'm really surprised with him, good for him.

 

[Hakeem]

just finished reading your review Tom. glad you liked it.

and its funny the difference on how we see the actors here or there in the UK.
Ioan Gruffudd is nobody here and Chris Evans was the star of Not Another Teen Movie which didnt get much press but he was also in Cellular last year with Kim Basinger and he was the star in that one too. but I think you guys never got that one cause it didnt make any money here.

 

[Sir Calumn]

Cellular came out here and did very well I think, got a cracking review from The Sunday Times (they had it in their must see list for weeks) and good reviews elsewhere. I've never heard of Chris Evans though, when I first heard the name I thought it was the spotty ginger kind.

 

[Tom]

no it did, i just didnt really like Celular and therefore didnt count that

also Hakeem i did KIND OF like it, but not too much.

I think the main difference between our reviews is that you like superhero movies and i tend not to, what do you think?

TROD.

 

[Cgmvp]

I think that ff4 was ok film, i saw as more of an comedy it was a funny film, visually the film was great the human torch look good.

 

[Hakeem]

I think the main difference between our reviews is that you like superhero movies and i tend not to, what do you think?

that is true. I love comics and movies. and even if they're making a movie of a comic book I dont know, I always like to do some research about it before going to see the movie.

 

[kickin_kyle]

i really didnt like this movie, it was just to lame. the only thing that kept my friends and I in the theatre was the possibility of Jessica Alba taking off her clothes. Spiderman has set the bar really high for comic book movies.

 

[gagiz]

Ugh!These stupid comic book movies are ridiculous!Spiderman was ok cuz it was gr8!But now this!Daredevil,Catwomen,F4,The Punisher.Whats next, the green lantern? The final fight scene in the movie was so short!!!!Although the human torch effect was cool but thats about it!

 

[cashless]

Yeah, having Jessica Alba playing an invisible woman is just a waste of special effects ..

 

[10Ruud]

The final4 video game kicks ass!

 

[nird]

haven't seen it, nor will I. the only superhero that's worth watching is Superman