Fantastic 4 (2005)

 

For some reason it has never been an easy task to bring a truly convincing version of Marvel's earliest group of superheroes to life. Yet not for lack of trying. But to be fair: even though this one gets flack (and sometimes for good reason), it really isn't thàt bad. Honestly. Is it more directed towards kids with goofier undertones? Sure. 

Except you get gnarly scenes of people getting holes blown through them and burning a metal man alive, but hey: kids could occasionally use some nightmare fuel. 

This is very much an origin story, so we get our four main characters plus one Victor Von Doom who go up to a space station, get blasted by some undefined cloud from outer space and discover that they have very specific superpowers. No secret identities, as everyone knows who these people are. Reed Richards, the brains of the operation, tries to work on a way to get them all back to normal, but when Victor Von Doom decides he wants to go pure evil and get some sort of payback on the team, they eventually stick to their guns and powers in order to use them for good. 

That really is the entire story and if this would have come out when I was a kid, I would have loved it to bits. But as it is, it does have flaws. Mostly that it is a little too 'safe' and takes absolutely no chances whatsoever. Sure, you could argue the Fantastic 4 aren't as sexy or hip as some others, but don't forget that few people outside of comic aficionados knew who or what Iron Man was until Robert Downey Jr laid it down. So this is fine. 

Maybe that's the perfect summation of this one: it is fine. Nothing more, nothing less.

People have - of course - been bitching about Dr Doom here, but honestly: Julian McMahon does a decent job. He might be less cold or controlled as in some of the comics, but an angry, vengeful millionaire in a comic book accurate suit? Bring it on! 

No really: this Dr Doom (when he finally dons the costume) looks awesome and I love it. 

Also also: how nice is it to see that they actually stuck Michael Chiklis in a pretty okay suit and makeup for the part of Ben Grimm aka The Thing? You know: instead of CG-ing the everloving shit out of that character like they tried with the clusterfuck that was 'Fant4stic' which looked absolutely horrendous?

So yeah: nothing earth-shattering, but an okay adventure that is pretty light but still enjoyable.