The Fantastic Four movies. At least they didn't make a third.

A few weeks ago, I caught “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” on FX. For a Saturday night with nothing else on, it was entertaining. I thought, well, I guess I should see the first movie. Well, I did.

I’m not going to bother going into all the glorious back story, because the only reason you would have seen that movie is if you were slightly aware of who the Fantastic Four are. And quite honestly, the characters back story wasn’t much developed either. If you went into this movie not knowing any amount of Fantastic Four comic book history, you were left out in the cold the entire movie.

One reason the Chris Nolan’s Batman trilogy worked so amazingly well is that the Batman’s character, and Bruce Wayne’s character by default, were both developed so the average Joe could watch it and be entertained, not confused. Never rely on the audience to draw inferences to what happened in the past. Granted, it’s hard to do when you have to do that to four characters and five if you include Victor Von Doom. But even a little back story would have been helpful here. There’s obvious tension between Von Doom and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic). Of course Sue Storm, Johnny’s sister and The Invisible Woman is at the center of it, but there is also tension on the business level and it is never developed.

Another problem I had with the movie is that it “felt” like a comic book movie. There was loud rock music that just seemed out of place. If you saw Arnold’s “Last Action Hero,” that’s what it felt like. But “Last Action Hero” was supposed to feel like that. It was a campy action movie within a movie. Besides, “Last Action Hero” had one of the better rock soundtracks of the 90’s, rivaling the “Singles” soundtrack. The “Fantastic Four” were just launched into space as if it was just like going to work. We’re told that The Thing (Ben Grimm) and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm) worked at NASA together and Ben was Johnny’s commanding officer. Like I said though, that’s all we’re told. I felt like the writers tried too hard to incorporate too much action into the story for the sake of it being an action movie, and not enough drama.
That’s great if you just want to see special effects and such, but give me something tangible to connect with.

To say the least, I wasn’t impressed with either movie. The writing felt off kilter for the reasons stated above, and the acting was rocky. Jessica Alba was horribly miscast. She should really stick to romantic comedies. Or not act. That’s a good option, too. Loan Gruffudd’s Mr. Fantastic just didn’t work for me.

I give the movie a 2.5 out of 5.