Yuku free message boards

Remove this ad

Okay; Im here to do my review of Fantastic Four 2.

I went into this film with a sort of half-empty, half-full expectations. I wasnt expecting anything as grandiose or philosophical as Batman Begins, for example, or anything as majestic as Superman Returns. However, I was expecting something more than the snore-fest that was the old Phantom movie, and something more than the poorly acted and poorly constructed Ghost Rider (major blech!!).

And I got my wish. In the areas that this film did let me down, it was in the areas I expected going in, but in all other aspects, it was enthralling. It didnt engage me as cerebrally as, say, Batman Begins, but it did capture and maintain not only my interest, but my excitement as well.

I think one of the aspects I enjoyed most about FF2 was the juggling act our quartet struggle with in normalcy versus celebrity. These characters, despite their fantastic abilities, are ones that I as a viewer (and a fan) can engage with and empathise with. Although I did find it highly offensive that at the gatecrashed wedding we see poor Sue sitting alone crying (with all the guests simply walking/running away - what is that? Insensitive jerks, much? ), these characters are at the end of the day, human.

FF2 also continues the trend that it seems all superhero films of the 21st Century touch on in at least some way: the idea of family. The latest Superman film does something to the character that no one has before: they make him a father. Spiderman ends the third film by having him engaged to marry Mary-Jane Watson. And here we have Richards and Sue discuss - on more than one occasion - having children. And there is a definite implication that Ben/Thing and Alicia are on their way to starting their own family (if indeed they can). On that note, Im with Johnny - exactly HOW do Ben and Alicia have sex? I have no doubt that they do, but the sheer mechanics (especially considering Bens composition ) of it are rather confusing But anyway, theres talk of children, theres marriage, theres healthy long-term relationships and theres sibling bonding. It is all rather normal on the face of it, if you take away their powers.

The celebrity angle here was also played up to marvellous effect. Youve got multiple specials on E! regarding the marriage of the century which I am sure is a shout-out to TomKat. And the whole product/company endorsement issue was hilarious. I am sure everyone got a laugh when Johnny comes out in that jacket with like, a dozen logos of various famous international companies.

I also enjoyed the blending of the normalcy and celebrity as well. These people are, well, fantastic, but it was at the point where the public have embraced them wholeheartedly. The Thing is happy to take happy snaps with kids (more importantly, the kids parents are okay with having a man-boulder interact with their kids ) and when Sue/Johnnys power-swapping occurs hardly anyone bats an eyelid, despite the fact that its happening in a random busy New York street. So I enjoyed that aspect (or rather, the two aspects) immensely.

I think what sells these people to me as both superheroes and as human people is the actors. I would imagine it would be quite hard at the best of times to act like one would imagine a superhero to be, especially with all their otherworldly powers and whatnot. Obviously, Jessica Alba is hot. Yet the lady can act. Ioan Gruffuld needs not prove his acting skills to anyone, and Chris Evans is always a hoot. I havent seen any of Michael Chiklis other roles, but he also seems to be an engaging everyman.

Ive read a lot of reviews where people say things along the lines of Jessica Alba is wooden in this film and if I could count the times someone references her ultra-blue contacts and/or blonde wig being distracting, Id have made a small fortune. I fully expected both of these things to distract me, and for the first couple of scenes they did. But by the time she broke up Richards bucks night, I didnt notice this at all. I didnt really think she was wooden either; if anything, I thought she did extremely well. I mean think about it. How realistic do people expect actors to be in films such as these. I will admit, I was all, Pan the camera DOWN in her naked scene, but apart from that I wasnt really ever thinking Jessica Alba. It was always, Susan Storm. I dont know how the comics portray this part of the storyline, but I found it expected that the Surfer would get in touch with his humanity through Sue. One of my few gripes with the film was that this aspect be expanded on more. It all seemed rather quick and easy, Oh you remind me of my girlfriend on my own homeworld, so Ill help you and turn against Galactus who I have been serving for an extraordinarily long time. It just seemed rather blas and fast for such a crucial crux point of the film.

Moving on to Ioan Gruffuld, I actually found his fake grey sideburns more distracting than anything Alba was forced to wear. I dont know why, but those things just peeved me right off. I found that Gruffuld found the right line between being slightly egotistical - I am SO smart - and being a genuine person. Ioan Gruffuld, like Jessica Alba, is awesome, so lets just leave it at that. I did find it more than a little unbelievable that even a Poindexter of his magnitude would keep letting his scientific apparatus interrupt his wedding ceremony, so I do feel that that too strained my suspense of disbelief a little too far. I would have liked to see a little more interaction between him and the other male members of the FF, but you cant have everything in two hours (or just under). I also expected Richards to at some point have fisticuffs with Von Doom, but again, you cant have everything.

I honestly cant determine who is supposed to be more identifiable to the audience: The Thing or the Human Torch. Both are just as equally up for the role, and both are deeply empathetic characters. Obviously, you feel more sorry for the Thing, because of his physical appearance/alteration and the fact that he simply cant do a truckload of things we would all take for granted. When in human form, Ben/Michael Chiklis just looks so everyman that you really feel for the guy. His relationship with Alicia is so endearing and I love the duality that they both play up her blindness at the same time that it is a non-issue. For what is essentially a comic book character, your heart really does go out to the guy, and I hope that film 3 delves into him as a character more.

Johnny is just awesome. Hes the stereotypical guy that magnetises all the chicks to him because he is that darn hot, but beneath all his narcissism, he really is a complex character. I really enjoyed how the film brought that out. Just the hurt on his face every time Richards or Sue were like, Dont come near me, or Back off or youll hurt someone. Hes also a very magnetic character because, as I said before, hes very identifiable to the audience.

As to Von Doom, I really dont understand his purpose in this film, other than to get his return out of the way so they dont have to set that up in the next film. I honestly dont recall what happened to him at the end of the first film except I thought he was killed off. I DO think the name Von Doom is so cheesy that Id like some biscuits with it, but that is hardly the fault of this film. I expected much more of this character in this film (especially since he is played by Aussie Julian McMahon ), but he just basically showed up, MWHAHAed at the heroes, hoodwinked the military (which didnt seem all that hard ) and then buggered off. I also struggle to remember what happened to his character at the end of THIS film even though at the time of writing this I only walked out of the cinema less than three hours ago. Its like all my attention was diverted at the FF and the Surfer (awesomeness) and Galactus (I drool at the sheer intensity of his cameos even if he was a big-ass cloud, he was a spiffy one!! ), that I didnt have time for Victor, and neither did the film. Poor MacMahon was relegated to spouting Clichd Supervillain Quotes. His only redeeming moment was when he first returned to New York, met up with the FF and was I hate you bitches, except without the bitches and then he looks directly at Sue and says, ALL of you. I hope that in film 3 there is some sort of decent interaction between him and Sue, and him and Reed and then all three of them. I dont know if the comics actually had it so he was crushing on Sue, but I feel that this adds more dimensions and complexity to the relationships and films. I guess my main reaction to Von Doom in this film was, For film 3, remember to be an effective villain. I just saw little point to him here and was indifferent about that whole portion of the storyline.

Continuing my disappointments was the portrayal of the US military. Im not a US citizen, so I dont know how this generally goes down there, but these guys in the this film seemed waaaaay to dumb-assey. Apart from the Stereotypical Gruff Film Army General, they all seemed far too silly to ever be admitted into the armed forces at all. Which is nothing compared to that silly fool general who works alongside Von Doom when he should full well remember what Von Doom did in the last film, especially since a lot of his evil actions occurred IN PUBLIC IN NEW YORK. So whatever, that severely strained credibility. Needless to say, I totally enjoyed it when Mr Fantastic shut him down in royal fashion in front of his troops. I was also mind-boggled at their (the armys) audacity when they went to bag the Silver Surfer. The film clearly states in white lettering on the screen that this scene occurs in BLACK FORREST - GERMANY yet there isnt a German soldier in sight. Theyre all U.S!! I thought the film did an unnaturally excellent job or portraying this as a GLOBAL problem, especially when in most U.S. blockbusters, GLOBAL equates to U.S. ONLY, with a few mentions of Eurpoe or Japan or China. The film breaks this mould by having the entire climax happen in Asia, so this seemed rather lazy on the part of the film writers/editors/etc.

My final two disappointments (or rather, negative comments) about the film are this. Firstly, and it is rather ludicrous and minor, but Im going to tell you anyway. Its at the end of the sequence set in London, where the Surfer is busy making a crater in the middle of the River Thames. Okay, so he makes this crater and the entire river is drained down so that there IS NO RIVER anymore. This is all well and good, but my problem comes in the final frame of this scene. They take an aerial shot over London so the audience sees not only the massive special effects effort in making a River Thames with no water. Okay, so my problem is this. In the aerial shot, you see the bridge over the river (cant recall the actual name of this bridge). And, on the bridge you see cars driving about. Okay, now Londons internationally famous River Thames HAS JUST BEEN COMPLETELY DRAINED. This is an event of historic significance and yet these cars are just driving on like nothings happened. I would imagine if this happened in reality, they might, I dont know STOP THEIR CARS. I know it is minor, but it really pissed me off for some reason.

And the final irritation is this (and it has more substance): I found throughout the course of the movie three things that made me think of certain other franchises where I shouldnt have been and that pulled me out of the film. The first was in the opening credits. We are introduced to Galactus in all his/its badassery. It eats a planet and then we spend the time it takes to list the top billed actors journeying with Galactus/Silver Surfer on part of their merry trip to our solar system. Okay, now, this entire opening sequence is so similar to that of Superman Returns in which Kryptons sun goes supernova, Krypton is fragmented and we follow Supermans pod to Earth. FF2s opening is eerily similar to this. Galactic eats a planet which fragments to similarly to Krypton and then Galactus/Surfer whooshes off through stellar phenomena that echo what Supermans pod did in the opening of SR. While spectacular in its own right (I tell you, the special effects used to Destroy Planets Spectacularly has gotten better and better since the days of Alderaan and Praxis spectacular explosions). But yeah, this distracted me. I know Marvel and DC are competing companies and all, but do you really have to snurch the opening credits of one of your rivals' films?

The second was when Mr Fantastic goes and mentions tachyons. In my minds eye, right after he said this, was a flashing multi-coloured neon sign that all but screamed, STAR TREK. Of all the interstellar particles im all the universe Richards could have mentioned, he specifically mentioned TACHYONS, the most often mentioned piece of technobabble in all the modern Treks. This was more than an irritation, if only because I understand none of that crappy technobabble despite being a Trekkie. To have it mentioned here made me feel like clawing my eyes out. And the third came when the wedding kept on getting interrupted and interrupted. I'm sitting there having flashbacks to half a dozen random soap operas and TV dramas and thinking, "Geez, it's a wonder anyone DOES get married anymore." This just irked me because I thought that this was too much of a farce. And then even at the end, although they get married, they're all, "Priest, skip to the end and just tell us to kiss." I guess the romantic in me wanted more from this.

Since the film is titled Rise of the Silver Surfer, Id better spend some time discussing the guy. I was impressed at his look; so majestic and simple. His gracefulness belied what he was capable of, and I suppose I dont actually have much else to say about him: He was a big drawcard. And Laurence Fishburn doing his voice was a great choice. Laurence Fishburn has one of Those Voices. Other Those Voices include James Earl Jones, Keifer Sutherland, Alec Baldwin, Natalie Portman, Leonard Nimoy, Cate Blanchett, Claudia Black etc Those Voices are the kind of voices that you could listen to reading off of toilet paper packaging; theres just something about them that is so enticing. So much appreciation for Laurence Fishburn; he makes a character made solely out of SFX extremely human and full of character. Especially when he only utters a smattering of dialogue.

Galactus was also portrayed excellently. Despite being what is essentially a planet-easting cloud of massive proportions and not even really a character in the sense that he/it talks and has characterisation, it was simply cool. I think the entity of Galactus just appeals to that comic book reading fanatic is us. Hes a cloud the size of a world. And it eats planets. The SFX used to make it were astoundingly real. Although I know there is some disappointment in hardcore Fantastic Fourers that he wasnt depicted like in the comics, I do feel that if it was a gigantic man-alien in a Viking helmet, generic movie-goers would be rolling around the cinema aisles in laughter. Although there was a tip of the hat so to speak, when Galactus was munching on a section of Saturns rings and you see the silhouette of what is undeniably a helmet passing across Saturns face. Not being a reader of the FF comics, I wasnt really aware of what those craters that the Surfer makes omn targeted worlds were for until right at the end where Galactus puts him teeth in them: I assume the craters (and other phenomena; the frozen bodies of water, snow in hot climates, etc) simply made the planets more palatable for the big guy. So yeah, not subscribing to the Galactus is a giant man way of thinking, I was extremely impressed by the fellow/entity. I only wish there had of been a little more of it. I will admit that despite staying through the first section of the credits and witnessing that coda with the Surfer in space Im still confused as to whether or not the Surfer is actually alive.

What drew me into this film first and foremost where the quartet playing the Fantastic Four. All of them were a joy to watch and I can safely say that it is they who will entice me to go see the third film whenever that is due for release. There camaraderie is (one of the things) what made this film as enjoyable as what it was and elevated it above the generic popcorn blockbuster such as they are. So yeah, there were a few things that just made me screw my face in disgust and while this film isnt as intellectually captivating as others in the genre, it definitely is worth going to see and there should be something in it to keep people engaged with it. I do think that any and all criticism of the actors playing the Fantastic Four is unwarranted, as they did do their best (and it shows) with what could have been a disaster in the hands of some of their lesser colleagues. Im thankful for that, because it was they who kept this moviegoer watching.