Hey folks, Harry here. Just got out of LAND OF THE DEAD, which was just a pure joy. So far, I've had a great time with REVENGE OF THE SITH, MR & MRS SMITH, KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, BATMAN BEGINS and now LAND OF THE DEAD. I'm anticipating greatness from WAR OF THE WORLDS. In their own light amusing ways, I enjoyed MADAGASCAR and BEWITCHED... but ya know, I'd absolutely love to eat crow on this whole FANTASTIC FOUR thing. It was my favorite Marvel comic. But check this review out. To me it is among the worst sort of reviews. 5/10 - straight up mediocre. The good points and bad points. And Ryan here seemed to enjoy it while in the theater, but is saying he's disliking the film the more he thinks about it. Here ya go...

Hey Harry,

Ryan here from Mukmouth.com

caught a media screening of Fantastic Four last sunday here in New Zealand so I thought I send you a review. I didn't hate the film, but there too much crap stuff in the film to actually like it, and to be honest the more I sit down and talk about it with others that saw it, I begin to dislike it even more, so I had to write a review before my opinion completely changed.

I had such high hopes for this film, right up until the day I saw it. What a fool!

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FANTASITC FOUR REVIEW

5/10

With the X Men and Spiderman movies proving that superhero films can be extremely good, it's a real shame that Fantastic Four is a step backwards for the genre.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like about the Fan 4, but unfortunately, there's even more to dislike! The reason X Men, Spiderman and even the new Batman film work so well is the studios treat them with respect by hiring top directors like Bryan Singer, Sam Raimi and Chris Nolan and actually casting good actors for the iconic roles, shock horror!

It's weird, but it seems like Fox totally forgot that they were the ones who have raised the bar and went against everything they did right with X Men and Spiderman. Gone is the visionary director and in their place, Tim Story, who without being too harsh, is merely......your generic director for hire, someone who is extremely capable of standing behind a camera and yelling "action" but has no real vision, sure Barbershop was a fairly good movie, but it's in no way a great stepping stone to move on to a mega budget superhero film.

This, I'm assuming, is why Fantastic Four feels very much like an extended episode of Charmed with great special effects. The best shots in the film are the ones that are completely computer generated eg, city shots and zooms, and that's thanks to the effects team not the director.

As for the cast, well.....they're not too bad, Michael Chiklis (TV's The Shield) does justice to Ben Grimm/The Thing but unfortunately this is one time that I wish they had used 100% CG for a character rather than a rubber suit, as it clearly looks like a rubber suit, not rock like it should!

Jessica Alba, who will never be known for her amazing acting abilities, does an adequate job as Sue Storm/Invisible Girl and Ioan Gruffud (last seen as King Arthur) is ok though completely underused, the standout however is Chris Evans who does a wicked job as Johnny Storm/Human Torch, he seems the most comfortable in his role and just has fun with it, which makes the cheesy dialogue seem acceptable.

I know it seems like I hated the film, but that's not true at all, so now that I've got all the poo-pooing out of my system, lets look at the good bits. The effects and action for the most part are great, (apart from The Thing looking a little rubbery at times) the Human Torch flame effects are outstanding and are the highlight of the film, it's just a shame you don’t get to seem them all that often, but when you do, it's very cool! The film benefits from having a fairly interesting origin story. It's cool to see a bunch of characters getting their superpowers and all dealing with them in their own way eg, Johnny Storm embracing his flaming abilities and loving the superhero idea to Ben Grimm/The Thing dealing with the burden of being covered in rock and looking, to most, like a monster. It makes you realise that we haven't really seen that in a superhero film before. Also, I have to mention, Julian McMahon, best known as the womanising Christian on TV's Nip/Tuck, does a surprisingly good job as the movie's main villain Victor Von Doom aka Dr Doom.

All in all the film suffers from a weak script and lackluster directing and is only slightly redeemed by it's few impressive action scenes and some nice effects. It's hard to believe that visionary directors such as Steven Sodebergh and Peyton Reed were once attached to direct, hmmm, what went wrong.

Cheers

Ryan - www.mukmouth.com