Movie Review: Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer
When it comes to film adaptations, superheroes and comic books get a very mixed treatment. Some are actually good, some are bad, and some are horrible. Consider Spiderman (good), Batman and Robin (horrible), or V for Vendetta (good despite its departures from the better comic book). The first Fantastic 4 movie was decent, although not brilliant by any means. I enjoyed it despite its shortcomings. It managed to encapsulate the drama of the comic book, primarily Ben Grimm’s trouble dealing with his transformation into the rocklike Thing.
And that brings me to Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. With The Thing’s story arc set and finished, the angst over the FF’s situation falls to Sue Storm, replacing genuine pathos with a whiny bridal obsession that doesn’t fit Jessica Alba very well. Instead of really sympathizing with her like I did with Grimm in the first movie, I found myself wanting to throttle her and say “you’re a super-celebrity and you’re marrying a workaholic made of rubber! You’re not going to have a normal wedding no matter how hard you try!†And then, after what seems like 45 minutes, the actual story begins.
Basically, the Silver Surfer comes down and wreaks havoc, preparing the Earth for being devoured by Galactus. Our bold heroes have to stop him while dealing with their own issues. The plotline follows a predictable path, and then Dr. Doom gets involved, and it continues to follow a predictable path. My biggest complaint? Galactus is a cloud. A cloud. Where’s the garish pink and purple armor and the ridiculous hat? Where’s Reed Richards threatening the gigantic Galactus with the absurdly tiny Ultimate Nullifier?
By letting Ben Grimm accept himself as The Thing in the first movie, the filmmakers left themselves nowhere to go with this adaptation. While there were fun moments and the effects were nice (check out that Silver Surfer’s sheen!), I was left wanting more. As hokey as comics were back in the early days of the Fantastic Four, this movie just doesn’t live up to the storyline that inspired it. If you like comics, it might be worth a rental, but nothing more. Also, the title is kind of pretentious.
Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, staring Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, and Michael Chiklis. Directed by Tim Story. 2007.
November 15th, 2007 at 5:11 am
The sad fact is that almost any adaptation is going to fall short of the original. I try to go into these movies without expectations and expecting to see something unique. Otherwise I spend the whole time looking for the differences and miss the movie - if that makes sense.
November 16th, 2007 at 1:59 am
Kathryn: Oh yeah. I try to do that too, and it usually helps a lot. I mean, I liked the first Fantastic 4 movie, and that one didn’t really get a good reception either. I didn’t exactly sit through Silver Surfer thinking about all the changes they made, but they kind of bowled me over when the film was done. When you lower your standards and the movie still doesn’t impress, that’s not a good sign.
At least comic book adaptations tend to be better than video game movies. I guess there’s always going to be major differences when you switch from one medium to another — but I still wish they’d do it better.