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Fantastic Four Reviews & Opinions

Started by Pyroclasm, June 15, 2007, 03:56:31 AM

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Pyroclasm

Quote from: Daniel Putman...most of the same heinous problems with the original are in full force here, only this time the movie reminds of something no comic book film should ever want to be compared to: 1987's laughable, franchise-obliterating "Superman IV: The Quest for Peace.
http://www.themovieboy.com/reviews/f/07_fan4rise.htm (1 of 4 stars)
The trailers seemed like this might actually be good.  Given that I really didn't enjoy the first one, I'd like to find out opinions from others before I subject myself to watching it.

crimsonquill

Well, I've seen two reviews thus far....

From Michael San Giacomo:
QuoteThe best thing I can tell you about the new Fantastic Four flick is that it could have been worse.

It could have been Catwoman bad instead of Punisher bad. As it stands, Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer makes the first Fantastic Four movie look like Spidey 1.

This movie is what people who don’t read comic books would expect from a comic book movie. That’s a shame, because the comic plots are often so much better than the film.

What about the saving grace of all comic book movies, the special effects?

They are killer, of course. But the special effects are like the icing on the cake, not the whole cake. The Surfer is cool and there are some great scenes with him flitting around the Earth preparing it like a suckling pig for his boss’ dinner.

Bottom line is even with its shortcomings Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer it’s worth seeing in the theater, if only for the special effects. And to make fun of the dialogue.

From Steve Ekstrom:

QuoteGoing into this film with fairly low expectations based on the previous film, I was really surprised, very early on in the film, at how much I was enjoying this movie. From the start, The Rise of the Silver Surfer was far superior to the original Fantastic Four flick—from the over-the-top modernization of the premise to the cheesy, flimsy dialog; the sequel seemed to actually weigh in as if someone at Twentieth Century Fox took notes over the previous film’s critical failings.

While Rise of the Silver Surfer has its faults, it’s not a dud—the payoff is real in this movie—there is no anticlimactic final battle without results. After all this is the Herald of Galactus we’re talking about. Further, there is a genuinely strong premise to this flick—with a couple of really nice sub-plot dynamics that don’t draw the audience away from the course of the movie. What really surprised me was how close to the actual product this movie actually got—it’s a sci-fi family thrill ride; just like the comic book. I think this movie can please general audiences with its accessibility and it can please the comic book purist in the tonal accuracy it delivers.

Well, I'm probably going to catch it on a matinee showing on Sunday so it's all good for me... I'll throw out my opinion then along with everyone else here to wants to add in their two cents.

- CrimsonQuill

stumpy

In short order, I've gone from wanting to see it, to not sure if I even want to rent it, and back to maybe I'll catch it in a matinée if I can take off early one day and no movie that I want to see has come out in the meanwhile.

Xorn

Here's a review from Scoot Chitwood over at comingsoon.net:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/reviewsnews.php?id=21001

Rating 7 out of 10.

I will be going to see it on Sunday. It sounds good despite it's short comings...

Spring Heeled Jack

I'm not the least bit interested in this film, or most any other cheap popcorn/comic flick anymore. I think instead I'll pick up The Science of Sleep this weekend.

catwhowalksbyhimself

Unfortunately, that last review confirms that the spoiler said by official sources to be only a rumor is confirmed to have been true, namely that

[spoiler]Galactic is a giant storm cloud.  Ick.  How is that better than a giant purple guy?[/spoiler]

This of course means that certain people high up in the chain lied.  I read a paragraph that was an exact quote from one of the directors or producers or whatever promising that this was not a case and that they had something better in mind.  Lying to pacify upset fans won't get you anywhere.

Figure Fan

My brother saw it early and said it was pretty cool. According to him, it was much better than the first.

So...go see it. I'm gonna.


P.S. Apparently you can see Galactus' helmet inside of the cloud.

Pyroclasm

Quote from: catwhowalksbyhimself on June 15, 2007, 12:34:11 PM
Unfortunately, that last review confirms that the spoiler said by official sources to be only a rumor is confirmed to have been true, namely that

[spoiler]Galactic is a giant storm cloud.  Ick.  How is that better than a giant purple guy?[/spoiler]

This of course means that certain people high up in the chain lied.  I read a paragraph that was an exact quote from one of the directors or producers or whatever promising that this was not a case and that they had something better in mind.  Lying to pacify upset fans won't get you anywhere.
Thanks Cat.  You just confirmed for me the ONLY reason I would have watched the movie was not really included.  Guess this one I will avoid like I did Elektra and Catwoman.

BentonGrey

Does anyone know if this one will be part of a two parter?  What I mean is, Galactus shows up in this one, but the real story is about Silver Surfer, while G's showdown takes place in the second?  I hope that's what they're doing.

GrizzlyBearTalon

It was overall, an alright movie. The good and the bad sort of neutralize one another in the flick.

The good...

[spoiler]The way the members of the Fan 4 are portrayed is spot on. Mr. Fantastic & Sue did much much better in this film and actually felt like they were really in love. Of course Thing & Johnny are pitch perfect again.

Some really good laughs in this one as well. The humor was very good, a few groans but not nearly as many as before.

The special effects were spectacular. You just have to see the Silver Surfer... wow...[/spoiler]

The bad...

[spoiler]Doom despite some retconning was terrible. He use a doomlike scheme to accomplish his gaols but... he acted off... he wasn't Doom at all, more like an evil Richie Rich. The guys voice is totally pathetic, he sounds like someone I would espect to help me redecorate or style my hair. Terrible casting.

Notice I never mentioned plot as a good point. A lot of plot holes and odd changes.

Silver Surfer is depowered by getting knocked off his board. That was... um... stupid... The idea to depower him sounded believable except the goal wasn't to depower him but... knock him off his gnarly board!

Lastly, and this is a big major stinker... GALACTUS IS A CLOUD! A FRIGGIN' CLOUD! Total letdown, and totally pulling the wool over your eyes. The way they hid him and only showed glimpses has you thinking what could he be? What is this thing that will devour the earth? Then you realize they were really showing him all along! He wasn't smokey and hard to see... HE WAS THE SMOKE! Terrible... awful... pathetic...[/spoiler]

The special effects and humor are worth seeing but not in theaters... in my opinion just wait for it to come out on DVD.

cripp12

Well  I saw it today and although it was better then the first 0ne it still wasn't good.  spider-man 3 blew it out of the water. Silver Surfer is one of my favorite characters and they did an excellent job on him. Galactus was a joke.  The chase scenes were also excellent.  My kids thought the Thing was very funny.
They had to bring Doom back in this movie so The FF had someone to fight otherwise they would of had no action.  That has been the problem the past 2 movies little fighting.

They deffinetly left the door open for a SS movie. Although I do not know of any movies whose leading star was all CGI.

BentonGrey

Well..........that settles it.  If the big G is a cloud and they flat out lied to us about it, I'm not going to see it yet.  I'll wait until it's in the dollar theatre, but I'm not paying more than a buck for this kind of dreck.

I hate that SO freakin' much.  I have been really excited about this movie for months, and I was just telling my wife earlier today that I was going to drag her to see it tomorrow.  If he were just a cloud, I'd be really annoyed, but I'd still go see it.  I can't abide the fact that they lied to us about it though.

Shogunn2517

So far I'm the only one here who liked the first one.

Based on that...

[spoiler]It was generally much like the first one, however the two, actually three problems I had are consistant with others.  Two of the biggest things I was afraid of actually came true.  One being the fact that the Silver Surfer was actually depowered.  I mean he had most of the powers he does have, matter and energy manipulation, healing abilities and others, but as it's been said they linked his powers to the board.  We all know the source of his power comes from Galactus and not only that, his connection with his board was inconsistent.  He was able to control it telepathically sometimes, but not others.  Seriously, the Surfer does need the board to be one of the most powerful beings in the universe and I was really hoping they didn't do something like this, which they did.

Of course the next, like what others have said was Galactus.  Story did blatantly deny the cloud rumor and that's what we all saw.  Now, I don't know how many of you despise the Ultimate version of Galactus, but it looked as if they were bringing elements of that as well, which is horrid.  And what was worse than a depowered Silver Surfer serving a cloud?  A depowered Silver Surfer serving a depowered cloud.  I'm sorry, the Silver Surfer might be one powerful(depowered) dude, but no matter what he is, he's not even a 10th of what Galactus is.  Hell, he's probably not a fraction of it.  The Silver Surfer is what Galactus made him.  He cannot destory or even tickle Galactus.  And this depowered cloud lead to my third problem...

The ending.  Johnny became ultimately Super Skrull and was able to beat Doom(who looked good btw), and the Silver Surfer got his board back and did... something to the depowered cloud and made it go away like a sunshine.  We all know it was Alicia Masters(who they seemingly gave a bigger role for... what?) who convinced the Silver Surfer about the aspects of humanity and that it must be saved and from there he refused to serve Galactus(couldn't really stop him).  It was the Ultimate Nullifier that stopped Galactus.  Now, I know it's a movie and they'll have to take certain liberities, but if they wanted to make this movie about the Silver Surfer, they should have did that.  They should not have made Galactus a 10 minute villain that can be beaten by doing... whatever.  He's too powerful, too important and too much of  his own entity to be a cloud beaten by the Silver Surfer.  Galactus' role should be a totally separate movie.

Quite frankly, these problems are what made it worse than the first movie for me.  Again, I liked the first movie, and ultimately, I also liked this one as well, but they didn't have to take the routes they did.  I enjoyed it.  As a movie goer looking for an escape with a good popcorn, I'd be entertained.  But it's hard to convince a fan about this movie, particularly when we all know what should be happening that we have no hint of.[/spoiler]

But I'll watch this 30 times before I watch Spider-Man 3 again.

Figure Fan

Haha! Exactly! I can't believe people actually liked Spider-Man after the first half. Eek..

Ares_God_of_War

I liked it well enough. It wasnt the best comic book movie ever but it was better than the first one. I liked the core group but they are right about Doom. When they were saying he was really going to be Doom I was expecting more Doom dialog etc. really it was just his look that was Doom

Protomorph

Saw it. Enjoyed it. But still had problems. Mostly what everyone else has already said (with the exception of the dialogue, which was fine, IMO). Still better than Spidey 3.

Problems: [spoiler]Surfer having no interraction with Alicia, Surfer's board being his power source, Galactus being a cloud, Surfer having the power to defeat Galactus, Doom's odd powers.

Let me extrapolate that last one more. Doom had his powers affected by the passing of Surfer, to the point that he was able to move again. Did he transform again into the flesh?. His second encounter healed his body completely (for some reason). Did he merely have his skin back covering his metal body? It was unclear, but he did withstand a direct blow by Ben smashing him into a wall. Could have explained better. Even his face was healed (another annoying case of letting the people constantly see the actor playing the masked person, a la "Toby McGuire 3") leaving really NO REASON WHATSOEVER for him to have the mask. He did seem to have his armor from the comics, which seems strange, given that he should have a metal body?

I DID enjoy that Brian Posehn was the priest. Patton Oswalt must be SO jealous.[/spoiler]

vortex

I thought it was a little better than the first, though only marginally so.

[spoiler]When they first showed Galactus entering in our solar system, passing Saturn, it seems to me that it showed him as a swarm of ships - a-la the Ultimate series.  Did anybody else catch this, or was I just seeing things? [/spoiler]

GhostMachine

I'm definitely skipping this and catching it on cable - not on PPV, mind you, but when it ends up on HBO, Starz, Encore, or even FX or TNT.

One question: did they bother to explain the change in Sue's eye color in this, because I seem to recall Jessica Alba didn't wear colored contacts in the first movie, or if she did they were fairly subdued. But in all the footage I've seen from this she has blue eyes....and looks disturbingly kinda like Lauren Holly from a distance.

Mowgli

It wasn't too bad. The movie goer in me kind of liked the film. The Fantastic Four were in character and a lot of fun. But the comic geek in me is confused...

:spoiler:



- Why set up several opportunities to fix the problems with Doom, and then do nothing? I mean, he drops the weird mask, and is seen forging a new one... cool- here comes the real Doom mask. He loses his "powers" when hit by Surfer... cool, Doom has no powers. He starts talking to Richards like he is smarter to Reed, and very condescending... cool, that's Doom all over.

And then... he puts on a mask that is virtually the same. He still has powers, and is just as stupid. Why even go through the events that look like change is coming, if he's going to stay exactly the same? That was disappointing.  :(

- Galactus is a ball of energy or something? Then why tease us with a shadow over Saturn with two big horns that make you think , "Galatus' helmet!"? Disappointing.  :(

- Silver Surfer flies up into the sky and defeats Galactus in less than 30 seconds... bwu-huh? Why was anyone afraid of him to begin with... appparently he is nothing more than a minor annoyance. Disappointing.  :(

bredon7777

Just got back.

First, let me join the (somewhat surprised) chorus about how much better this film was than spider-man 3.   While there were still groan inducing moments (Thing burping) they did not feel as grossly out of character as they did in Spidey.  Part of it boils down to the nature of the charcters- the interaction allows for more humorous moments than spider-man did. And part of it is that this film played the serious moments seriously, whereas in spider-man several serious moments  than shouldve been serious were inappropriatley played for laughs.  Though in here, there was still too much playing for laughs by my liking.

Substantially better than the first one, if they keep getting this much better with every movie by the 4th, they could have something rivaling the first two Spideys and the first two Xmen.

But it still wasnt as good as it couldve and shouldve been, and heres why:

[spoiler]
First, it was short. I went to a 345 showing, had 20+ minutes of previews and was out by 5:45- and, I stayed till the end credits.

Second, Galactus gave the Surfer enough power to destroy him? I dont think so.  I got around the cloud thing by choosing to belive it was the big G's ship extruding tentacles into the craters below and that the real deal was in there somewhere that we never saw.  But the Surfer is like an ant to Galactus, so that didnt sit well.

Third, Victor was responible for a ton of damge to NY.  Even if he claimed diplomatic immunity any General that would let a petty resentment of Reed blind him to the necssity of distruting Victor is too stupid to be in command.

Fourth, While "smart librarians" are  indeed, hot;  Adding glasses to a charcter does not automatically get me to belive they are any smarter than they were last time, nor does it get me to take them more seriously.  It actually made me take Sue less seriously because my thoughts kept drifting away to selcuded library corners...:)

Fifth, What is it with marvel movies and lame dance routines this summer?  Nuff said!
[/spoiler]

But enough of that- here's what they got right:

[spoiler]
The Surfer was perfect.  The board, not so much, but Fishburn/Doug Jones really turned in an amazing perfomance and nailed the part (though since when can SS turn his tummy into a TV screen?)

Doom- I had a very differnt take then Mogwli. He didnt lose his powers, just his "organic armor" as a result of the Surfers cosmic rays.  After all, hes very clearly human when he blasts the general.  He built new armor to channel the baords power through, and wore the mask to protect his face.  I suspect he'll keep wearing it out of vanity next time (other than the designated "face time" that will be in Julian McMahans contract.

Suprisingly, Reed and Sue improved as well. (Johnny and Ben remain perfect).  I coould actually buy Reed as Reed this time- smart, rich, and most of all confident.  That was the key thing that was missing from his perfomance in the first one.  And call it cheesy, but I loved the Sue/Johnny interaction- made them feel like real brother and sister especially with "This is who we are"/"That's what I've been trying to tell you." Sue coming to terms with her new life was a well done story arc, and Alba gets kudos for pulling it off.

The combat sequences.  Amazing!  Espeically with Johnny. There was an audible cheer in our theater when Johnny said "To quote a friend of mine, It's Clobbering Time!".  Brillant effects work on 99% of the movie. Only one 10 second sequence looked cheap.
[/spoiler]

Three and a half stars out of five (as opposed to Spideys 2).

So given that its going to make enough money to get another one (and this time, they deserve it instead of needing another one to correct the last one) Who does everyone want to see next?  Thinker? Wizard? Puppet Master? Paste Pot Pete? Diablo? :lol:

Shogunn2517

You know, I actually liked the board.  Before and as far as I could tell, the board has it has been drawn traditionally looks broad and long, much like a surf board from the time period it was first created, mid 60s.  I just came from the beach today looking at surf boards and their no more than five feet long, more angled at the ends instead of round and more... sleek.

[spoiler]As far as the other characters, again, I liked the way Doom looked.  I agree, the encounter(s) with the surfer just reversed his skin condition.  I guess the mask and armor were more for combat purposes.  It would make sense consider that he's encountered the Fantastic Four before, encountered the Silver Surfer before and lost his skin armor so making his own was logical.  I liked the challege he gave and his actions from what I could tell where Doom-like, so I had littl problem with him.

The Fantastic Four themselves were consistant with the way they were in the last movie.  I do have to say, the first movie displayed their interactions better with the antagonism and frustrations they have with each other.  We did see better usages of their powers individually.  However, I do have to say, there were some inconsistancies like with Reed's clothes.  He can stretch and I assume his costume stretches with him, but why his regular clothes?

Overall, this movie seemed more comical and that's the direction they clearly want to take with both movies.  From that standpoint, the previous spider-man movies weren't as slapstick and the third seemingly tried to be... anyway, the serious parts it had seem to go seriously as well.

As far as Galactus goes, I certainly hope he was hidden in the cloud, but we received no hint that this was the case.  And the Surfer cannot defeat Galactus, especially in 30 seconds.

Anyway I would like to think this set up a 3rd movie with Galactus being the villain, but if this were the case there shouldn't be the resolution they had.  They hinted at the Surfer surviving and a possible spinoff movie, what they wanted originally, which the villain would likely be Galactus... or even possibly Thanos.  But why in God's name would the Surfer survive and not Galactus?  That's... weak.[/spoiler]

Xorn

I saw it and liked it much more than part 1 (and I liked part 1).... The character interactions between the group where done exceptionally well this time around and the story progresses very well with the action. It was all going pretty good until the big G... It was a pretty big misstep... I just hope they come up with a way to maybe bring him back in his more traditional form in a sufer movie... But overall I will give it 7 1/2 out of 10 due mostly to the disappointment of G....

herodad1


udasu

With that army gal 'Franki' I thought they were setting her up as the herald for Galactus. But whatever. It's amazing they packed as much into 90 minutes as they did. Johnny's 'power switch' power, Doom's healing/stealing, the awsome Surfer, and more character development were all good. I figured Galactus was going to be a cloud, so I wasn't disappointed. For the F/X alone, it's good to see on the big screen.

Silver Shocker

QuoteWho does everyone want to see next?  Thinker? Wizard? Puppet Master? Paste Pot Pete? Diablo?

Scrulls. No contest in my mind. The above listed villains are very diffucult to impossible to make serious enough for the big screen, but Scrulls are a no brainer. Make them a look a little less silly and create a really scare with the idea of an alien race that could be anyone, and maybe throw in the Super-Scrull and you're in business. And I'm sure Doom will show up again to cause more trouble.

[spoiler]I don't know what everyone's talking about with that "fog/can't see Galalctus" business. I read a review in the newspaper before going to see the movie where Galactus was described as resembling a vacuum cleaner. As such I made sure to take a good look anytime he aproached and sure enough, right in the center of the "fog" I saw the shape of his helmet. I can't believe noone else seems to noticed that.[/spoiler]
QuoteWith that army gal 'Franki' I thought they were setting her up as the herald for Galactus.


[spoiler]The character was credited as "Captain Raye" thus making her Frankie Raye, so yes, that was the character who became Galactus's new herald in the comics. Might have been a decent idea. [/spoiler]

Figure Fan

I'm so excited to see this! Arghhhh!

Protomorph

Being that the last we see of Doom in this film is him splashing down in the ocean, I think it is a perfect setup to intriduce Namor for the next film.

Ares_God_of_War

Didnt someone have the rights and was planning on making a Namor movie? I would love to see Namor in FF before he makes a solo big screen appearance. I checked with wikipedia it says Universal has the rights to Namor. All that was announced was in sept. 06 that Jonathan Mostow is directing and rewriting it

Verfall


Mr. Hamrick

Just got back from seeing it and quite frankly I was reminded of why I do not like going to see movies with certain schoolmates and collaborators of mine.  Having said that . . .

I liked it but didn't love it.  It definitely had its flaws. 

As for the Galactus issue, everyone here please . . . and I am thinking of some certain people here . . . PLEASE GET A GRIP!

We didn't get to see Galactus full on and that was disappointing.  However, I beg to differ on anyone who says that "Galactus was simply a cloud of smoke".  The "cloud of smoke" everyone is whinning about was not Galactus.  It was the draining of the organic and geothermal energy from the planet.  We get "the helmet" and a vague outline of what was either him or his ship but no, it was not him.

The bigger problem to me was the movie was WAAAAAYYY too short.  It was an hour and a half and the thing should've been about two hours.  I think they could've done so much more with that extra thirty minutes. 

Anyway, to offer my thoughts on what we might see for FF 3, I will offer the following:


  • We will see either The Inhumans.  With Doom returning and trying to siphon the terragen mist.
  • Some indication of The Skrull/Kree War.
  • Galactus . . . full on and not in his ship trying to feed off the planet.  He will be spared by Frankie Raye becoming his herald.
  • Namor or Black Panther