FANTASTIC 4

"Our DNA has been changed"

Reed Richards

While studying cosmic phenomena on Victor Von Doom's (McMahon) space station, scientist Reed Richards' (Gruffudd) miscalculation leads to Sue Storm (Alba), her brother Johnny Storm (Evans) and Reed's best friend Ben Grimm (Chiklis) been exposed to a cosmic rays. When they return to Earth, the four start to exhibit strange new abilities. Reed can now stretch his body, Sue can become invisible, Johnny can control fire and Ben transforms into a super strong creature made of rock. As the press and public become aware of their new powers after they work together to save people involved in an accident, they become known as 'The Fantastic Four'.

One of biggest comic book series hits the silver screen but can 'Fantastic Four' be as good as 'Spider-Man', 'Batman Begins' or the 'X-Men' movies?

Since 'Blade' made comic book movies viable again after they were virtually killed off by the old 'Batman' franchise, the genre has been getting better and better. Now we have respected big name directors and stars getting involved with these adaptations to produce not only great comic book movies but films that redefine how big budget commercial blockbusters should be made. Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' movies, Christopher Nolan's 'Batman Begins' and Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' movies are exceptional pieces of entertainment that embrace the stories and most importantly the characters, to take you into the comic book universe. It is a shame that 'Fantastic Four' forgets about all this.

For a series that lives on larger than life characters to be so devoid of any kind of development is almost criminal. The script by Michael France and Mark Frost lacks action and totally misses the mark were the five major characters are concerned. Mr Fantastic/Reed Richards, played by Ioan Gruffudd is a dull science geek with absolutely no charisma or leadership qualities. Sue Storm/Invisible Woman, played by the beautiful Jessica Alba, does nothing but look pretty and whinge all the time. Victor Von Doom/Dr. Doom, played by 'Nip/Tuck' actor Julian McMahon, is nothing like his comic book counterpart and shows no real motivation why he would turn so evil. The only two main characters that come off well are Ben Grimm/The Thing, played by 'The Shield' star Michael Chiklis and Johnny Storm/The Human Torch, played by Chris Evans. They both bring something more to the production, with Ben Grimm struggling with his new appearance and Johnny Storm the only one thinking that his new powers are cool. These two are not enough to save the movie however.

The major falling down point is the story. With only three action main action sequences in the entire film, you'd be mistaken in thinking that the rest was given over to character and story development. Instead we have the Fantastic whingers, with the exception of Johnny Storm, moaning constantly about having these new abilities and trying to find a way of getting rid of them. With no scientific explanation of how Reed Richard who go about this or where he got the money to fund his research, we are lead to believe that he can recreate the accident in the lab. It is points like this and the exceptionally bad dialogue that make the movie such a chore to watch, even for fans of the comic and the cartoon series.

Comic book fans expect more from these adaptations and this movie is a return to the bad old days. The choice of Tim Story as director, the man who gave us 'Barbershop' and the awful 'Taxi' remake is probably the worst decision producer Avi Arad and Marvel Comics have made, as it is pretty obvious that he can't handle a film of this magnitude. When you throw in some dodgy visual effects that make the movie look cheap and the fact that the film was made for a younger audience and not the fans, 'Fantastic Four' is a decidingly average take on what could have been a fantastic movie.

Spider-Man

X-Men

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2005