Fantastic Four (2005)

Next to the massive popular The Avengers, The Fantastic Four has the most potential as a Marvel film adaptation. You have an interesting duo as lead characters that can bring so much depth in different ways. They are superheroes that don't hide their identify and live as normal beings. Let's not also forgot the Roger Corman produced a very low budget Fantastic Four film that never got a released in 1994. When first mainstream Fantastic Four was released in 2005 from director Tim Story, we were long overdue for it and when there were two excellent Spider-Man films from Sami Raimi before that, Fantastic Four was suppose to be really something. Well it works perfectly as a popcorn film but you really want something better as a superhero film when you consider that it is the Fantastic Four and the source material it comes from.

After an attack with radiation on a space mission, four astronauts and Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahorn) all get some type of superhero powers. The four astronauts who later together create a team later called Fantastic Four. The team who's villain later is Victor Von Doom himself and who wants revenge.  

Due to the plot, this is a film that has places a high value on casting as the team of characters that has to work together through most scenes. The very attractive Jessica Alba plays invisible woman Sue Storm; an actress who's acting has never been that sharp and this is really some questionable casting. Chris Evans plays Johnny Storm/Human Torch; a character who can create fire which kind of brings you back to the Stephen King adaption Firestarter and character that is so hard to like due to his hotshot attitude. Villain Victor Von Doom is only in character in the last act and actor Julian McMahorn makes the character very cheesy and not at all menacing. Besides the fact that he looks very cheap, the only superhero you can fully like is The Thing/Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) who you feel a lot of sympathy for due to having issues with his appearance and it is tough to watch his divorce with his wife Debbie (Lauire Holden). The divorce part of the plot could have been covered much more and it really is a question mark as to why it only had two scenes to it.

We can also say this film falls due to a bad script. The plot has no ideas in the middle and for people wanting action, well don't expect a lot of that. Even when you get action, it's lot of running around without any type direction, especially a particular bridge scene. The writing by Mark Frost and Michael France is either a lot of garbled talk that does makes for a confusing first act or that it is writing with a lot one-liners that takes a direction like it was made to be comedy. The special effects are rushed and are so very far off from what we see in superhero films of today. The Fantastic Four has some ideas no doubt but in the end it is a mess that get lost with many flaws.

The Fantastic Four is a very hard film to sit through. This movie is very different from the superhero films of today which makes it both odd and refreshing. A below average and very goofy affair.

2/5