FANTASTIC FOUR [2005] review

I really like and enjoy origin stories. Fellowship of the Ring, The Sorcerer’s Stone, was totally into them. Even the origin stories at the beginning of most hero and/or comic book movies, those are often some of my favorite scenes. FANTASTIC FOUR seemed like one long origin story, which was enough until about half-way through the movie, but by then I was ready for some action and display of their powers, but almost nothing came.

I thought the movie was well cast and that the actors had good chemistry together, especially Ben Grimm in any scene with any of the other FF. I first saw Chris Evans (Johnny Storm) in SUNSHINE, and preferred that performance to his FF one, but still, he had lots of charisma and added much needed energy to an often talky screenplay.

I wanted to see FF because I liked the trailer for the sequel about the Silver Surfer and thought I needed to see this one before I could go see Silver Surfer. Plus, mid-week is my time to watch non-elitist movies. FF was still passable, and had one truly great geek moment, which the trailer for the movie actually spoiled already. But still, seeing in context Johnny Storm flying for the first time and saying, “Flame on!” gave me chills. If the movie only had more moments like that, it could have been a great comic book movie.

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