The Not-So Fantastic Four . . .

Well, I saw the Fantastic Four movie earlier today, and it was not as good as I had hoped. It definitely wasn't Dolph Lundgren - Punisher bad (not by any means), but definitely not up to the same level as Batman Begins either. The effects were awesome, the characters looked great, and the action sequences (the few that were anyway) were handled well. But, the overall plot was somewhat lacking and much of what there was was overly contrived and what I liked to call 'hollywood-ized' by the studio.

In the first Batman movie, the only real problem I had with it was the plot line that intimated that the Joker was the one who killed Bruce Wayne's parents. It's not the way the comics went, and it felt like something to neatly tie the whole movie together, to bookend it if you will. It was obviously a mistake, since it was fixed by the events in Batman Begins. The Spider-Man movies had a similar situation regarding Peter Parker's webshooters (or lack thereof). In the comics, Peter developed a web-fluid and the wrist mounted devices to use it. It allowed for plot twists, like running out of fluid at a key moment or not having his web shooters on him when he wasn't planning on suiting up, etc. etc. The movies have the webs as something he secretes from behind his palm, organically, and it has always bothered me. Similarly, in Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom was not only included in the accident which gave the four their powers, but he was also given powers himself. Doom never had any superhuman abilities (except for the whole magic angle they oftentimes went back to), instead relying on his intellect, his armor, and his many robots and devices/weapons. It just irks me I guess, when something is clearly set up to help round out the story of a movie, while at the same time flying directly in the face of the original works the movie is based on.

Regardless of all that though, I enjoyed the movie. I think some of the actor choices were excellent. Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing works great, Chris Evans really epitomizes Johnny Storm. Human Torch, and I can't help but like Jessica Alba as the Invisible Girl (It could just be that she is smoking hot . . .) too. As bad as rottentomatoes rates it, and as bad as some people are reviewing it - I have to admit that it was fun. Unlike some movies I've seen that make me feel like I wasted my time, I enjoyed this one. It was a fun summer movie, and that's all there is to it I guess.