Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

It seems that Marvel truly has hit its stride as far as making comics-based movies. Whereas there may be severe disasters like “Daredevil” or “Hulk” or “Ghost Rider”, the successes that were the “Spider-Man” and “X-Men” trilogies prove that when Marvel does comics right, they do it very well. Which leads us to “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”. I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed after the first “Fantastic Four” movie. Perhaps I was expecting too much, or perhaps I just expected Dr. Doom to be more of a bad ass. Still, that movie was underwhelming.

I was thus pretty surprised to learn that a sequel was being made. Happily, director Tim story and his writers used one of the most popular storylines in comics: the arrival of the Silver Surfer and Galactus. In the 1960s, this story arc marked a milestone in comics as never before had heroes dealt with a character who could easily be an analogue for god. Because that is essentially what Galactus was: an all-powerful being who is far beyond our understanding and who, on a whim, could wipe out all existence on the planet. The Surfer was a mere harbinger of doom, someone who prepared the way before the big, bad Galactus made his entrance. Which brings us to the movie in question.

There is no denying that I had low expectations for this film, particularly after the first one. I agree that all four heroes were cast pretty well (even though Jessica Alba isn’t blue-eyed or blonde, the producers just needed a hot girl who could reel in the male crowd). Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Alba), The Thing (Michael Chiklis), and Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) all returned as the Fantastic Four, more comfortable in their roles as New York’s heroes. So comfortable in fact that Reed and Sue finally decide to get married.

This being a big-budget action film, of course things don’t go as planned. When a silver alien starts popping up in the atmosphere causing all kinds of ecological damage, the FF are brought in to intercept and stop him. Things get more dicey when the team’s old enemy, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) resurfaces, showing no ill effects from his last defeat at their hands. Will Doom help the Fantastic Four stop the Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne)? Why is the “Sentinel of the Spaceways” here in the first place? Will Reed and Sue ever get married?

I actually liked this film better than I did the first FF movie. I’ll admit that seeing the Surfer went a long ways into my enjoyment of it, but it also helped that the actors now seemed so much more relaxed in their roles. In the first, Evans was the guy who everyone clearly saw was into his character. Here, Gruffudd, Chiklis, Alba, and even McMahon have settled in. Doom was actually malevolent this time around, not just some freak in a big green hood. The pace was faster, the action louder, and the cheesy dialogue was kept to a bare minimum.

Effects-wise, I’m more than content with the way Doug Jones was motion captured for the Surfer, as well as the scenes between the Surfer and any or all of the Four. SPOILER ALERT: The one drawback in my view was the fact that Galactus was merely shown in shadow and silhouette, never in his full purple and blue glory. Then again, it might be difficult to show Galactus in a live action environment without eliciting laughter from the audience.

This isn’t the best of the superhero movie genre, but it is also clearly far from being the worst. I would even go to say that it is above average and was pretty good. For a film that clocks in at a little over an hour and a half, the action and story were packed tight enough that I can’t really remember any big lulls to draw my attention away from the screen. Now that the Fantastic Four have proven to be box office gold twice over, I’m waiting to see what Marvel and the crew they’ve assembled will do for an encore.