Fantastic Four

If you have not yet seen the film, there may be some spoilers in here for you! :O Hide your vision if not!

The Fantastic Four was not a film that I myself would have volunteered to see at the cinema. It’s the sort of comic film that could never really seem to be doable.

But apparently they completed a film, and it is comic based.. and seeing as I’m a fan of The Thing I sorta had to go see it.

Directed by some guy called Tim Story- of whom I’ve never heard of- Starring Ioan Gruffudd (Reed), Jessica Alba (Susan), Chris Evans (Johnny), Michael Chiklis (Ben) and Julian McMahon. (Victor)

The film begins by following the comics rather closely, showing the Fan 4’s lives and the event that changes them all. While they are off discovering what they have become Victor Von Doom (McMahon) plots to get Reed Richards (Gruffudd) back for ruining his life. The good guys win, Von Doom is shipped back to his country (Latveria) Only for him to be still alive.. like we didn’t see that coming :P

It seemed like an MTV kids action movie than anything else. With loud obnoxious music, snowboarding and motocross its probably a great film for the youths of today. Unfortunately I am not so interested in all of that. Though Fortunately for me Michael Chiklis did a great job with The Thing, and seeing as he’s my favourite of the four, I couldn’t really care about the others :P.

But I should probably comment on them :/ What can I say… Chris Evans was suited for his role, he seemed to act pretty much like Johnny –a spoilt brat, as well as the spats between Ben and Johnny which were more than frequent in the comics.
As for Ioan Gruffudd I do not think he was right for the part, and the same goes for Jessica Alba. They both felt way out…
The same goes for Julian McMahon, Dr Doom was a poor example of one of coolest villains created in the Marvel Universe. They butchered him, he had his moments, but most of the time he seemed like your usual clichéd bad guy.

But Michael Chiklis is by far different to all those present. His performance as The Thing was excellent. Reminiscent of comics, he played his character perfectly and convincingly as the ever loving blue eyed thing. But as I said, he was the only real good part of the film.

Onto the screenplay MARK FROST?! What? For those you of you that don’t know who he is.. he wrote Twin Peaks with David Lynch. Along with Michael France they both wrote the screenplay of what could be expected of such a film, not what I would expect of Mark Frost though.

I don’t really have much to say about the film. It was better than I thought it would be… hell, it could have been miles worse, thank god they kept The Thing of real materials, rather than a CG monstrosity. So what was good about it?
Well as I keep saying, The Thing was the best part of the film (he’s one of my favourite comic superheroes) I liked how they kept to the comics and everything.

As for bad points- I could say the acting from the other cast members were not excellent. The CGI for Reed was not the best, it had one shinning moment, then looked kinda crappy the rest of the time. But then it was needed, else Mr Fantastic would be unable to stretch..

Overall it was a film you’d perhaps go see to be entertained, not particularly life changing, or profoundly deep, its just some harmless fun-filled entertainment. A family movie, with a great performance by Michael Chiklis, other than himself, an all round ok, but nothing special cast.

Cptalbertwesker Rating - 5/10
Was actually better than I expected, pretty close to the comics. Merits half marks.