Review: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

You know, back when Spider-Man had just been released in theaters and people had comic book movie fever, the three properties that I said I couldn't wait to be made were The Incredible Hulk, The Punisher and The Fantastic Four. With all three now having had their time on the big screen, the word disappointment hardly begins to describe the feeling I have about what transpired with those film projects.

Hulk was a mess of a film and best left off the resumes of everyone involved and forgotten about completely. Punisher was a movie that completely exaggerated Castle's origin story to an unrealistic level and seemed to play out as, well, I'm still not sure how to explain the plot to this movie three years since it was released. Then there was the Fantastic Four, where the TV spots and trailers showed a nice mix if intriguing cinematography and the wit and charm that many people associated with the four main characters. I had hope that for once I wouldn't be let down, I had hope that for once I'd get the same level of excitement after leaving Spider-Man on opening night. And then the reviews started pouring in, each more bitter and cynical than the last.

I had never caught the original Fantastic Four movie until DVD, hoping that maybe if I held off the inevitable in terms of how the film would play out would wash away with time so I could see it without any preconceived notions. And for the first half, I was willing to go along for the ride and was mildly entertained, certainly more so than many reviews made the movie out to be. Then it started getting a bit rocky, and eventually wound up being a moderate let down. Maybe it was because my hopes were so low, or because I bought in to the "doesn't take itself serious at all" universe that Story had created for the movie.

Then I started to see the promotional material for Rise of the Silver Surfer. Could it be? Was this the darker, more mature film I was looking forward to the first time? No. If anything this sequel only adds more of the unfunny humor that only children under the age of twelve would find funny. The same campy dialogue spews from the mouths of the actors who are either written to sound like a couple teenagers or people with severe mental issues, they were afterall exposed to radiation, maybe it's brain cancer that makes them all so incredibly stupid.

The movie has Reed and Sue about to get married but their wedding has already been called off several times due to the whole "world needs saving" business. When unexplainable anomalies start to happen across the country(snow in Egypt, water becoming solid but not frozen), Reed is asked to help uncover what is causing these strange occurrences to happen. It's then when we meet the Silver Surfer, the messenger to the almighty Galactus, who eight days after he visits a planet, it's left destroyed depleted of all energy. Now the team needs to work together and stop him from calling his master and save the world. But when the US government doesn't trust Reed and his team, they have Victor Von Doom offer a helping hand (Oh, right, I forgot to mention that he's back. Don't worry, the movie does a poor job of explaining how or why also). Which doesn't bode well for the group of heroes who not so long ago stopped him from destroying the city.

If there is one shining moment in the film, it's the Silver Surfer (no pun intended). Of all the things they could have screwed up in this film, and subsequently did, Surfer stands out as one of the films few highlights. Norin Rad has always been an interesting and tragic character in the Marvel universe, and seeing what they have done here with the character and the potential to be found with his future spin-off film makes me hope that some good will come of this terribly campy franchise.

In the pantheon of horrible superhero films that have ever been released, there isn't a single one of them that can hold a candle to Tim Story's Fantastic Four films. That includes such cinematic masterpieces like Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Batman & Robin, Catwoman, Elektra and the more recent Ghost Rider.

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