Review of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) by Jeffrey M — 22 Apr 2014

Wow, so much criticism aimed at a superhero film. It's a superhero film! If Reed Richards were brooding and depressed, and if the thing impaled his enemies with a pencil through the eyeball, maybe some Dark Knight- comic book nerds would like it more... but it wouldn't be "The Fantastic Four" anymore.

Criticisms... a very stupid bachelor party scene. The unnecessary addition of Victor Von Doom. Galactus concealed within an energy cloud is fine by me... but why have the cloud about four times bigger than the earth? The theme of self sacrifice at the end is great... BUT the Surfer disposes of his "master" way too easily. And alas, we have the groan worthy Gitmo allusion.

The film shines in many way however. Chiklas is superb as the Thing. The mysterious pits the Surfer creates across the globe are disturbing and speilbergish in tone. The humor works...for the most part. The action in London is incredible, and the end battle is well done. The visual effects are great. The subtext of the story involves self sacrifice and duty, a subtext also handled by "Spider-Man 2.".

It seems to me that people hate the film for being "PG," and family friendly... HUH? People hate the light, entertaining fluff it presents... HUH? These attitudes did not exist decades ago, for the Christopher Reeve Superman films... which were full of great humor and fluff as well. When superman zoomed around the earth and reversed time... hey, people were okay with the silly premise. Why? Because it's a comic book on screen, it's not Macbeth. In that same spirit, this Fantastic Four film is more "even" than it's first film, and has more purpose. It has heart and fun.