Fantastic Four: The Movie

I know the Fantastic Four movie wasn’t all that popular with comic fans, but I liked it. It was exactly what I expected, an enjoyable summer action movie with comic book characters. Some random thoughts:

Reed Richards really was portrayed as the “world’s dumbest smart guy”, as Doom said. He didn’t seem to do much of anything in this film; everything was someone else’s invention or choice or accident. He was pretty to look at, but that got boring quickly. KC described it as “they found a block of wood to play the plastic guy.”

He wasn’t the only one, though; Jessica Alba spent most of the film looking peeved. Her hair and makeup were poorly done (it looked like her skin tone changed throughout the film), and the wardrobe was too young for the character at times. She had an unfortunate, story-damaging lack of chemistry with everyone except occasionally her brother (ewww).

He was fabulous, though! Chris Evans did a terrific job capturing the devil-may-care character, and cute, too. The flame effects were really good and playful, and his daredevil pilot was a great character (even if I could have done without the X Games plugs.)

Michael Chiklis also was very good, making me forget I was watching a rubber suit. KC says he needed eyebrows, though, that familiar beetle brow. They did a good job making him seem really chunky and heavy whenever he moved.

I was put off a little by the level of violence for what’s really a kids’ movie (mostly the guy with the hole), but hey, I didn’t take a child. I also couldn’t stop thinking about the idea that Julian McMahon should have played Namor instead of Doom.

I had fun, and I’m ready for the sequel!