Fourplay

Yep, despite my saying that I wasn’t going to watch The Fantastic Four, I found myself getting a ticket and heading into the theater. Perhaps it was just that I had some time and I was in Gateway Mall, which is a pretty neat place to watch movies. So, instead of watching War of the Worlds again, I instead chose to watch the latest Marvel Comics movie.

And guess what? I actually had fun.

Surprisingly better than I thought and easy to get into, the FF movie generally follows the same route as the original, with quite a few liberties. Anyway, the performances were okay. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffud) was kinda sorta ‘just there’, though the character gets cooler and better towards the end of the movie. Jessica Alba gives in a decent performance, and is hot as always (which never hurts), and while she seems to young to play the wife of Reed Richards, she is younger and single in this outing. Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm AKA The Human Torch is pretty much spot on, as is Michael Chiklis’ The Thing.

Julian McMahon’s Doom is suave and cold, starting off as seemingly good but revealing evil underneath- kinda like his own Cole Turner from Charmed. Yeah, turning him into a corporate mogul who turns into a cross between Colossus and Electro is pretty iffy, as are the circumstances around his rise to power (why the ‘Norman Osborn’ template again?). But he’s a pretty good villain and if they make a sequel, I hope he comes back as Doom with all the Latverian trimmings (and he will, judging from the ending).

The CG and effects are pretty cool, and better than in the trailers. Most of the action is in the latter half and end of the movie, but thankfully the pace is quick for the most part. All in all, this wasn’t a painful watch at all- in fact, I enjoyed it and even had a chuckle or two, thanks in most part to a very receptive audience which was laughing at all the slapstick antics of a clumsy Thing and a prank-happy Torch.

How good is Fantastic Four? Surprisingly, I rate it just as good as the debut X-men and Spiderman films. Better than X-men United, but not as good as Spiderman 2. FAR better than Hulk, Daredevil, Elektra and The Punisher. Sadly, Elastigirl is cooler and slicker than Reed Richards though.

All in all, surprisingly good and not a waste of time to see in a good theater. Grab three friends and watch it in theaters now for some good-natured, easy-to-watch superhero fun.