Fantastic 4 Review (Spoilers- well, kinda)

PG-13 Ioan Gruffudd(Reed Richards), Jessica Alba(Sue Storm), Chris Evans(Johnny Storm), Michael Chiklis(Ben Grimm), Julian McMahon(Victor Von Doom)

Before I begin let me say that I am not looking at this movie as an attempt to copy the comic book perfectly, therefore I won't hold any of the discrepancies (and there are many) against it. I am sure you will read many a review of those who bash it on those merits alone. And maybe they should.

Alright, I'm not going to use any silly play on words like, The NOT so Fantastic Four, or this movie was anything but Fantastic. But, I would like to. If you need a little synopsis here goes...Four scientist go into space to conduct an experiment. While in space they are bombarded with "cosmic rays" giving each of them fantastic powers. (See pic to the left for example of each) After struggling with their transformation, they band together to fight the evil Dr. Doom, who also received special abilities during the space experiment.

The first twenty minutes of this movie were kind of dry for me. The director here had a difficult task of introducing us to several characters, and then have them discover their powers and learn to use them. Few movies have done this well with one or two characters, much less four. Unfortunately I don't think it was executed well here. Most "super hero movies" that have done well, in my humble opinion, have taken the time to introduce the characters to the audience well before they gain their powers. Thus, we already like them or at least feel for them before they become super.

Anyway, shortly after the four decide to become a team they meet up with Dr. Doom and defeat him, end of story. That's it, movies over. Doom, who we care the least about, takes the longest to develop his ability, and once he does, he attacks the Fantastic Four and is defeated. Climatic fight scene lasts about 5 minutes. I don't understand, this movie lasts an hour and a half. That's about twenty minutes of time that could have been used to develop the characters or, hey, what the heck, blow some stuff up. The conflict with Doom could have taken much longer. Or- we could have seen the Four battle other crimes, anything.

There are some positive notes. Chris Evans who plays the Human Torch(Johnny Storm), does a great job. He's funny, cocky, and adds flavor to an otherwise bland cast. Well, he and The Thing. Michael Chiklis(from The Shield on FX) does a pretty good job as well. His banter with Johnny Storm breaks up the monotony and stale dialogue coming from the other actors.

Even though I spent most of my time complaing about this one, I still give it a 3. It was fun, and funny and worth a rent at least.