Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Giaxia treated me to the FF movie over the weekend. I really liked it. Way, way better than the first one.
First off, it was more like the FF than the first movie, where they changed the origin around (the crew being on a satellite and not a rocket, Doom getting powers the same way the FF did, Doom being a CEO rather than a monarch, Reed being a loser, Johnny being an asshole, etc., etc.).
The dynamics between the main characters rang true to the comic. I liked how all the actors seemed to be more comfortable with the roles this time. I liked how the Ben Grimm character seemed more at ease with being the Thing; no more "This Man, This Monster" angst this time around. Even Reed's hairpiece was better this time.
I thought the Surfer would be cheesy, but he was badass. The sequence where they finally intro the character was sweet as hell. When Johnny flamed on to give chase to the Surfer, that was one of the best superhero movie moments ever (Confession: The Human Torch was always one of my all-time favorite characters growing up!). And we now know that Johnny can fly from NYC to Washington DC at high-speed without resting.
They actually improved the Surfer from the comics if you can believe that. They have him doing stuff with his board he never did in the actual books. It's a shame that Surfer creator Jack Kirby didn't live to see one of his greatest characters brought to life on the big screen (he died in '94).
They resurrected Doom in this movie and I bought how he came back. I even liked Julian McMahon this time. The rest of the flick basically takes the plot from the comics where he schemes to steal the Surfer's board and siphon off his cosmic powers.
We even get a glimpse of Galactus.
Superhero movie endings are a big sticking point with me. There's a certain note you have to hit with them. FF pulls it off. "Superman Returns," in comparison, didn't.
Won't get into the rest of the flick, you'll have to see for yourself. As superhero flicks go, the story here was way tighter than "Spidey 3," and a great improvement over the first FF movie.
Though I was annoyed by Jessica Alba's blue contacts.
Post a Comment