The Fantastic Four was one of the less creditable Marvel Comics live-action adaptations, but it grossed over $300 million worldwide, and so a sequel was in order. For those who missed it, the Four are brainy/stretchy Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), cocky/flying Human Torch (Chris Evans), curmudgeonly/strong Thing (Michael Chiklis), and vapid/force-field-wielding Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), aka Sue Storm. Mr. Fantastic, the egghead, is about to marry Storm, the cheerleader, amid much media frenzy. But damned if the world doesn’t need saving first.
The FF movies are a little different than a lot of the darker superhero adaptations of recent years. The quartet have their problems, like Sue’s worries about raising a family while having to spring to the rescue every time some ultrapowerful alien threatens to destroy the planet. I think all of us can relate to that. They squabble too. But they’re not full of angst like Spider-Man, Superman, or, in his most recent incarnation, Batman. Unlike the vaguely similar X-Men, the public unabashedly loves them. Thus Fantastic Four and its sequel are more old-style adventures. The Incredibles provides one model for this approach that these films don’t live up to. The personalities are sort of one note. The dysfunctional-family motif is perfunctory. And, as with the previous installment, I sometimes felt that I was looking at special effects in search of a plot.
On the other hand, the borrowed-from-the-comic Silver Surfer character, the nominal villain, is better. Looking like the metal cyborg from Terminator 2, he turns out to be more complex than he seems, more complex, in fact, than the Four. In his plight there are hints of deeper moral themes than aren’t well developed. But perhaps that’s for a future installment.
reviewed 6/22/07
IMDB link
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