Insert "quality-joke"-Four comment here (Fantastic Four (Special Edition, 2 DVDs))

Member Name: Wolfzilla

Product:	Fantastic Four (Special Edition, 2 DVDs)
Date:	12/01/09 (89 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Chiklis, Evans, Alba is gorgeous, never boring

Disadvantages: What the hell did they do to Doom? rather disappointing

I have to admit that I didn't go into Fantastic Four with very high expectations. Out of it's 5 main stars, I could only really consider myself to be a fan, in some light, of at best 2 of them, I had never been all that avid a fan of the comics, and the fact that the iconic villain Dr. Doom was having his origin screwed around with really wasn't sitting well in my head, but the promise of Jessica Alba in a skintight outfit on a boring day inspired me to venture into the cinema, praying that it would at least be better than Daredevil.

For those who are unaware of the origins of Marvel Comics longest running superhero team, they were a 4 man group of astronauts lead by Scientist Reed Richards, his girlfriend Sue Storm, her younger brother Johnny and pilot Ben Grimm. They group was exposed to some form of mysterious cosmic energy that caused mutations in their genetic structure, granting them super-powers, which they vow to use to fight for justice. Reed's body is transformed into a rubber-like substance that allows him to stretch all parts of his body to great lengths, Sue can turn invisible, as well as being able to generate mysterious force-fields, Johnny can turn his body into flame and fly and Ben has his skin turned into unbreakable orange stone. Dubbed 'the fantastic four', the group's main adversary is Dr.Victor Von Doom, a man of royal blood from an Easter European country who has to wear armour to conceal his disfigured visage, as well as granting him powers such as the ability to shoot energy blasts.

To be honest, that was really about as much as I knew about the characters going into the movie. Sure I had watched the lame animated series, and know all about Galactus and the Skrulls, but I was really only familiar with Doom the the 4 in the way of cameo appearances in comics I did read.

As I say, the cast didn't exactly inspire me much either. Reed was to be played by the chap from the TV series Hornblower, which I never watched, but it sounded like playground slang for a homosexual, Doom by somebody from Nip/Tuck, another TV series, this one I purposefully avoided and Johnny by some guy I had never heard of. This meant my entire faith in the movie had to be placed in the sultry looks of Alba, as well as the fact the actor playing Ben was a likeable actor and a respectable choice for the role, not to mention a campaigner to actually play the character, and not have him rendered in CGI ala Ang Lee's Hulk.

In the movie, we meet struggling Scientist Reed Richards(Ioan Gruffud - King Arthur) and his astronaut buddy Ben Grimm(Michael Chiklis - Soldier), who are going around trying to get Reed a means of getting into Space to study a bizarre cosmic phenomenon approaching the Earth. As a last resort, he has to turn to his old college acquaintance and egotist Victor Von Doom(Julian McMahon - Meet Market). Von Doom agrees to the project, providing that he gets 75% of all profits made from the project, which Reed believes may be able to lead to cures for disease, and along with Von Doom's assistant, and Reed's college Sweetheart Susan Storm(Jessica Alba - Sin City), and her astronaut kid brother Johnny(Chris Evans - Not Another Teen Movie), the group sets off into space.

When there, a fault occurs when the phenomena inexplicabley speeds up and douses the group all in a bizarre cosmic radiation. Upon returning to Earth, the 4 all develop their 'symptoms' in different ways relative to their comic counterparts. However, while it takes more time, Victor also begins to undergo changes, his skin transforming into a unique metal substance and the development of an ability to control electricity. Driven mad by the fact that the incident in space cost his company millions of dollars, and that Sue has fallen for Reed again, Doom goes mad and begins a campaign of attack against the group, named by Johnny as Mr.Fantastic(Reed), The Invisible Girl(Sue) The Thing(Ben) and himself taking the title of the Human Torch.

That's basically the plot of the movie right there, the group's origin and Doom going a bit mental and trying to kill them. That's really it's first major fault in that it spends so much time establishing the heroes and their origins and personalities that it doesn't leave much space for super-villainy and a great scrap at the end, so Dr.Doom, one of the most iconic and loved/hated of all Marvel villains is relegated to far too sparse a part, and is defeated without much effort from the 4 heroes, and he never really does much threatening. His transformation for monarchic madman to preppy-jerk never really does the character justic either. While I have to admit I did enjoy the fact the F4's characters were fairly well developed, well, The Thing and the Torch anyway, but wasting a classic villain like Doom in this manner is pretty unforgivable. Christ, couldn't they have put in the Mole Man or someone disposable like that?

If there is one thing that the movie does get kudos for, it's for feeling like a comic book. As I say, I've never really read the comic book itself, but from what I've gauged from their guest appearances, the movie captures the feel of the Fantastic Four well, and it can never be accused of being boring. While it's action sequences are rather uninspiring compared to some of the stuff in movies like Spider-Man and it's sequel, they are entertaining enough to have me say that I enjoyed the picture on their strength.

The acting is another double-edged sword. While I wouldn't say Gruffod does at all bad in his role...he really doesn't strike me as Reed Richards. Granted he does seem to try his hardest, not completely unsuccesfully, to bring the character to life, both he and Alba seem too young to be portraying the characters they are. I thought Johnny was a good few years younger than Sue, but here the pair seem almost the same age. McMahon's clearly over-hammed Doom can at times be amusing, but once again he is far too short on years to be playing the evil Dr.Doom. I recall before the movie went into production a lot of people felt George Clooney would have been a good Mr.Fantastic, but he is also the sort of older yet still powerful type I would have wanted for Doom.
To be honest, I find Jessica Alba that attractive that she could kick me in the balls and get away with it, so my views on her acting is tinted, but apart from the age thing, she does well enough not to annoy me.
The two saving graces acting wise come in the form of the performances from Chiklis and Evans. Chiklis basically is the Thing, he portrays the character's nature perfectly, from "It's Clobberin Time" catchphrase before thumping Doom accross a room to his depression at what he has become. Chiklis is the star here, no denying it. With that said, Evans, whom I had never even heard of, really does a good job as the cocky yet likeable Johnny Storm. Johnny is arrogant, self centred and, to begin with anyway, in it simply for the kicks, but Evans succeeds where many actors would fail by never allowing the character to become detestable.

Special effects come in for a lot of stick in the movie, but personally I felt they were pretty good. While I suppose it won't sell as many toys as a CGI version, I'm incredibly glad they caved in to Chiklis wishes and gave him a big horrible suit to play the Thing in. Sure he may not sweat or move as fluidly as the Hulk, but the suit is good, looks suitably solid, and the fact that not only is he actually there, making for better reactions from his co-stars, but it also allows Chiklis to put more into his performance. While he looked passable, I have to say I was underwhelmed by the Human Torch, who we never really get to see standing still, so he never has to be represented by anything other than Evans or a movie streak of flame. While this is less special effects and more character redesign, the Dr. Doom that ends the movie is like a lame Terminator wannabe, not the armoured up, almost demonic knight like figure we know from the comics.

The film's soundtrack I suppose earns some credit for not being bad, but the fact is that it is also very unspectacular and easily forgettable once the movie is over, and you can't help but feel that not very much work went into it. No heroic theme tunes or anything here...hell the music may be stock stuff, it's that generic.

All in all, Fantastic Four is really a pretty middle of the road movie. I mean, it never bored me, and I didn't find it anywhere near as bad in any aspect as a lot of people make it out to be(people can be quite selective in their criticisms, the Lord of the Rings movies had some of the most horrendous acting ever, Fantastic Four, even at it's worst, never comes close to matching the absolute gash that is Elijah Wood or Orlando Bloom pretending to act), and it's a hell of a lot better than some of Marvel's recent debacles (Daredevil,The Punisher), and had it come during the mid 1990s, before Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi gave the superhero movie the credibility it now has, I'm sure we would be applauding the movie, but in this time when superhero movies can be as good as those two directors, you can't help but feel that Fantastic Four is a fairly unoriginal and un-ambitious movie. Granted it still manages to entertain, hence it's recommended rating, and boasts enough quality to ensure it was never going to fall below 3-Stars, but if you were a fan of the comic, I could understand if you felt disappointed with the movie. Spider-Man raised the bar for Superhero movies, and while comic heroes like the Fantastic Four may not have the same fan base as Spidey, that doesn't give film-makers the right to try and do any less to attempt to do justice to the comics.

Summary: Not the worst Comic-Movie adaptation, but leagues away from the best.