Fantastic Four Only Marginally Fantastic

I love comic books. I have been collecting four color adventures for 30+ years and consider myself somewhat of a comic aficionado. I also love movies. So when you combine my two favorite hobbies, I'm inclined to get excited. The Twenty First Century is a good time to be a comic book fan. Besides the many wonderful comic books coming out on a monthly bases, there are a great many films coming out based on comic book properties. So many in fact, that the quality of these films tends to be extremely varied.

My litmus test for a good comic book film is very simple. How close did the film makers stick to the source material. When the film sticks to the spirit of the comic, even if minor things are tweaked, I am happy. The best example of a comic book film sticking to the source material is Sin City. Instead of writing a script, they used the dialog straight from Frank Miller's Graphic Novels. They used his art for the story boards. Because of this, Sin City kicked major ass. An example of a comic book movie that diverted from it's source material was Catwoman, and that was awful. They changed so much that I was surprised that they even called it Catwoman.

The Fantastic Four, as directed by Tim Story, is one of those comic book based films that falls somewhere between Sin City and Catwoman in terms of quality, although the things I liked about the movie (barely) outweigh the things I disliked. This is the story (for those of you who have never read the comic) of four friends who are caught in a cosmic ray storm and genetically mutated and how they decided to use their new powers to benefit humanity.

Here are the things that didn't work...

The casting choices were odd. Reed Richards AKA Mr. Fantastic should be a man in his mid to late 40s. The quintessential, pipe smoking, 1950s scientist archetype. As portrayed by Ioun Gruffudd, he just looks too damn young to be such a renowned scientific genus. In the comic books Sue Storm AKA the Invisible Woman is a maternal, pretty woman in her early to mid 30s. As played by Jessica Alba, she looks like a stunningly gorgeous super model. Now I must admit that the performances of Gruffudd and Alba eventually won me over, but I had to get past my own pre-conceived notions of what the characters should look like. I would have rather had the characters cast more to type and not had to work so hard in the theatre to get past the physical appearances.

Speaking of physical appearance, the casting of Chris Evans as Johnny Storm AKA the Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm AKA the Thing was much better in terms of age and type, but I wish that Johnny had been a blond like he is in the comic (the buzz cut looked stupid) and Ben had had hair (at least in his human form). Alright, now I know that I'm nit picking, but I'm a geek. That's what we do. I love the Fantastic Four comic, and I want it to match up to the image I have in my head.

I didn't like the films portrayal of Dr. Doom. In the comic books Victor Von Doom was a gypsy boy who, through cunning and genius, works his way to eventually being the absolute dictator of his own country. The Victor Von Doom in the film, as played by Julian McMahon, is a virtual clone of Norman Osborn from the Spider-Man films. A corporate CEO who falls victim to his own ego. In the comics Von Doom is trying to use a machine of his own creation to contact his mother in Hell, when an accident causes the machine to explode and scars his once handsome face. In the movie, Von Doom is on the same satellite as our four heroes when it is struck by a cosmic ray storm, altering his DNA and turning him into a metal coated electric generator. I don't know why film makers feel that they must intertwine the origins of the villains with that of the heroes, but it doesn't always work. Reed Richards and Victor Von Doom were acquaintances in college, that is the only connection they need. Also, the Dr. Doom costume just didn't work for me. His armor looked plastic. Dr. Doom should be a man to fear and awe, and I just didn't get that from McMahon's performance. He should possess an arrogance that is frightening in it's magnitude. Again, Julian McMahon just didn't deliver.

Speaking of costumes that didn't work, I just didn't like the Thing costume. While I appreciated that the mask allowed us to see enough of Michael Chiklis's face so that he could emote, I just couldn't get past the fact that it looked like it was made of rubber, not rock.

Also, the romance between Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters (as played by Kerry Washington) seemed rushed and unnecessary. In the comic it's a real interesting beauty and the beast type relationship, and if it was going to be included in the film, I wish that they would have given it more time.

Alright, now the things that did work...

The acting of the four leads is very good, and they all have a nice chemistry. At it's core, the Fantastic Four is about family, and the family dynamics were very well drawn out here. Reed is a space case, Sue's frustrated that Reed can't look up from his experiments long enough to notice her, Johnny is a hot shot to leaps before he thinks and Ben is a rough around the edges, salt of the earth, type guy who really gets screwed when he is genetically turned into a rock monster. Their interactions form the heart of the film and that is really enjoyable and well done. The Johnny/Ben relationship works especially well. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby would be proud.

The action scenes are well directed and exciting. When you give a damn about the characters (and I did in this movie) actions scenes just work so much better. Besides the costumes, most of the special effects were very good, especially Johnny's flame effect when he is the Human Torch. It was a trip seeing Ben and Doom beat the crap out of each other. Seeing Reed wrap his elastic body around Ben to halt his tantrum and seeing Johnny lead a heat seeking missile away from the teams head quarters (the Baxter Building). All of this stuff comes right out of the comics and is very fun. Also Jessica Alba is real easy on the eyes. Yeah, I know that I complained that she was too attractive to be playing Sue, but if that was the way they were going to cast, than I want to see some cheese cake and I was not disappointed. And considering the handicap of having to work in a stupid looking rubber costume, Michael Chiklis was very effective as the tortured Ben Grimm. There is some real pathos here. A credit to the man's acting skills.

Overall, I would say that this is a fun popcorn movie and not to be taken too seriously. If they can improve the Thing costume and make Doom more of a menace they might really have something fantastic for the sequel.

Decker Out...