*** Official FANTASTIC FOUR Review Thread

Peter McM · 07-05-2005, 11:45 PM

Just attended a special screening tonight of this terrific film. Well written, good characterization, and funny; most of the humor coming from Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm, the playboy who has no problem accepting his super powers.

The print we saw this evening was a simple 2-channel stereo mix, and I have a feeling the editing wasn't quite nailed down in places. But that didn't deter the audience from giving rousing applause at the end.

Spero D · 07-07-2005, 05:09 AM

Just came from seeing it and I'll go with plaintastic. One for the kids? considering the cutsie dialogue. Johnny Storm being the only funny part of the movie and Jessia Alba was nice to look at

Patrick Sun · 07-08-2005, 03:36 PM

For 2/3 of the film, I had a good time with the film, but having to balance the levity by the FF with the the Dr. Doom segments made the last third of the film very uneven.

The interplay between the FF members was pretty good, much of it was true to the spirit of the characters in the comics. Johnny Storm provided most of the yuks, and usually at Ben Grimm's expense. I can't say there was great on-screen chemistry between Reed Richard and Sue Storm, but it wasn't horrible.

After the "origin" segment is over, the film sort of putters along, but it never gains a lot of traction, so the final act is average, not terrible, but not great either.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.

WarrenL · 07-08-2005, 04:44 PM

I saw this movie last night and not since the new Dawn of the Dead have I enjoyed a movie so much. I've seen Batman Returns, Land of the Dead, and War of the Worlds and after those this was so much fun to watch. I thought it moved fast and covered things it took some other movies two tries to cover. I was skeptical about many things but it was all laid to rest in the enjoyment of the movie. In the end it left me wanting more. I realize I stand pretty much alone in my views..so be it! bring on the DVD. I'll probably check it out again one last time on Sunday.

Adam Portrais · 07-08-2005, 06:19 PM

Got back from seeing a 2:30 show and I was very pleased. Being long time Fantastic Four fans I went with my Dad (who has been a fan since FF#1, of which he still has) and we both thought the film was done really well. Yeah, it's an origin film and things are changed around a bit but the essence of the FF is still there.

I thought Alba would totally suck ass but she really wasn't all that bad. The Thing looked a whole lot better than I thought he would (his size and weight were handled really well, you do get a sense of how big this guy is). Johnny is as much of a smartass as he should be and the flames....damn they look good. And as far as the "Reed's powers looked crappie in the trailer" stuff, let me say that what you saw was very little. Reeds powers could have been a disaster but they ended up looking great. But please keep in mind that this is a set up movie. Remember that (as of late) superhero movies tend to get better with sequels; X-Men, Spider-man, (and finally) Batman anyone?

My advice is this: You shouldn't give two shits about what anyone says. You like the FF? Go see it! Then decide if you think it sucks. Don't let some slob at his keyboard tell you if it's any good (this includes me), get off your ass and see for yourself, economic times are not sooo bad that you can't spring $6.50 for a matinee. Buck up and do it.

By the by, in case you did want to know I rate this flick

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Stephen Orr · 07-08-2005, 06:55 PM

I just got back from a sold-out showing of FF at our local AMC. I had a free ticket from the "I Robot" dvd, so it didn't cost me anything. While not as polished as the Spiderman movies, nor a character-driven as Batman Begins, I will say that I really enjoyed the movie. I'll be buying the DVD when it comes out.

Jonathan_Clarke · 07-08-2005, 11:51 PM

Just saw it. I'm a huge fan of the FF comic book and I found this was good but not great. They got all the little moments right. The charcaters felt true and the tiny scnes between them work very well.

The bigger stuff, the plot and action were clumsy. I don't think Tim Story was ready for this kind of movie. His direction is uninspired and ham handed. and the jokes are hit way too hard to have life to them. such as when

Spoiler:

My wife came up with an interesting theory as we were walking out of the theatre. She supposes that marvel doesn't want the same audience to see their movies, they want different KINDS of audiences coming. X-Men was dark and dramatic, Spider-Man was romantic, Hulk was indie movie intellectual (which is why it failed. It's the freakin Hulk!), Blade was horror, and Fantastic Four was for kids. Judging by how many kids were in our audience, I'd say the strategy worked.

JoSAN · 07-09-2005, 02:57 AM

Robert Crawford · 07-09-2005, 09:29 AM

This thread is now the Official Review Thread for "Fantastic Four". Please post all HTF member reviews in this thread.

Any other comments, links to other reviews, or discussion items will be deleted from this thread without warning!

If you need to discuss those type of issues then I have designated an Official Discussion Thread.

Crawdaddy

todd s · 07-09-2005, 04:53 PM

From all the bad reviews...I had low expectations. Went to see it last night. It wasn't that bad. My friends and I enjoyed it.

Joe Karlosi · 07-09-2005, 04:54 PM

(out of 4)

Just got back, and my wife and I liked it! My wife kept feeling sorry for poor ol' Ben Grimm, and I felt the same. I was never a big fan of the Fantastic Four comic, so I'm sure I couldn't tell you if there were mistakes in the movie (though anyone else please feel free to clue me in on this) but I am somewhat familiar with the character of The Ever-Luvin' THING -- and I though he was very well captured in this movie. I used to read MARVEL TEAM-UP or MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, where the Thing would guest star, so he was always cool with me. His sympathetic, tragic character is the best element of the film.

I think this one spent a lot of time on the origin, and getting to see how the cosmic ray accident is affecting all the members, more than much of anything else - and that was okay with me. Someone tell me, though - was the Human Torch always that much of a jerk in the comic book? I thought it was fun how he nagged Ben, but I'm referring to his being so childishly gung-ho about his new ability. I'd like to know if this was consistent with Johnny's character in the mag, and either way at least it was a contrast from the others'.

Really liked the effects, and was pleased that The Thing had a costume and wasn't all CGI rendered. And I didn't see any broken glove.

I know the response to this has been lukewarm by many, but the audience I was with loved it, and applauded at the end.