Fantastic Four

In recent years, there have been good superhero movies and bad superhero movies. This one does not fall into either category, and there's the disappointment. For what the Fantastic Four represents to the history of comics as well as the success of Marvel Comics, I was disappointed that this wasn't a better movie.

Casting of the Foursome was good, but I didn't like the choice for Victor Von Doom. When I used to read the comics, I always imagined Von Doom to have a regal, commanding tone of voice. While the movie's Von Doom sounded menacing enough, his voice just didn't sound like it could capture the attention of a roomful of people instantly.

The supporting cast was fine (loved Stan Lee as Willie Lumpkin), except for Alicia Masters. C'mon, could the script writers have made her more of a slut? Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating the scene, but it was jarring to see Alicia Masters being written that way.

The special effects varied greatly. In several spots, they were terrific. In other spots, they looked like a poorly done video game. Overall, they reminded of the SFX in Spiderman 2. I guess I'm getting spoiled by the glitzy level of SFX these days.

I was rather surprised that the overall story was pretty much based on the Stan Lee scripting style from back in the day. Unfortunately, that day was in the Sixties (almost four decades ago). Still, I thought that the script writers did a very good job of translating the base personalities and situations into a modern setting.

But I've got one big bone to pick. If Sue Storm uses her force fields to bend the light around her (and can use them to bend the light around others, something Reed points out but she never does it this movie), then why can't she just bend the light around her clothing as well?

All things considered, this was neither a good nor a bad movie. Personally, I feel that the Fantastic Four deserved a better treatment than this, but I recognize that movies from the major studios aren't made to be good but to make money. Can't really recommend this unless you are a diehard Silver Age comics fan, and even then you should be very liberal with your suspension of disbelief.