Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Viewed - 19 June 2007  Cinema

Well I missed out on the first Fantastic Four film, mainly because of the critical panning it got on release. Now that’s not to say I didn’t think it looked good – and I used to enjoy the cartoon and the comics as a kid. Yet still to this day have not got around to seeing it, even on DVD. Yet now having seen the sequel, I am eager to give it a proper going over (expect a review in the coming weeks).

The host of comic-book adaptations over the last few years has obviously heralded some fantastic franchises (no pun intended), most notably Spiderman. Of course the concept of a team of super heroes is nothing new to the silver screen, as X-Men got there first – but that was more on a grander scale to this somewhat intimate band of freaks. We have The Human Torch (as expected a joy to behold, special effects-wise), Invisible Girl (nothing too exciting, er she can generate force fields – woo hoo! At least she’s in the form of the lovely Jessica Alba though), Mr Fantastic who can stretch his limbs to impossible proportions (a great gimmick, but the special effect often looks corny), and The Thing (or rock-man as I used to call him!), who might as well be The Incredible Hulk, except he’s not got a bad temper.

On paper these characters are perfect comic-book fodder, but do seem a little silly in reality…but what I liked is that these guys obviously know it, and it makes for some great laughs. The story involving a strange silver surf dude from outer space, is fine and brings on the usual end of the world bullshit we often get in this kind of thing, but what I didn’t get was why bring back Dr Doom? He serves absolutely no purpose in this film apart from echoing what occurred in the first one. But never the less, this cracks along at a good pace, is as mentioned funny, the team have a great relationship and likeable personality – Jessica Alba is hotter than even The Human Torch…and it’s not too long. Job done…bring on FF-3!!

Verdict: 3 /5