Movie Reviews

Fantastic Four

9 July 2005

Fantastic Four, the latest movie based on Marvel Comics superheroes, was supposed to be made back in the eighties. Its delay was fortunate. It requires 21st-century visual effects technology to do justice to the superhuman powers and epic battles of these particular good guys.

            But the powers, strangely, are not so important. When writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created these characters in 1961, their motto was “Character is more important than cosmic.” Like Marvel’s later heroes, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men, these were flawed human beings, whose powers were almost a curse. Complex characters, especially for the comics.

            The movie takes a few (quite excusable) liberties with the origin story. Scientific genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) convinces his equally brilliant rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) to fund and join a space mission. With them they take Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Victor’s assistant and Reed’s ex-girlfriend, as well as loyal pilot Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) and Sue’s obnoxious brother Johnny (Chris Evans).

            Their spaceship is exposed to radiation, giving them different super powers. Using his convenient surname, the now-bankrupt Victor becomes Dr Doom, using his powers for evil. The others become the Fantastic Four: the elastic Mr Fantastic, the forcefield-creating Invisible Woman, the monstrous Thing and the high-flying Human Torch. They use their powers to save lives and fight crime, whenever they’re not bickering amongst themselves.

            The genius of Lee’s comic-book writing was that, despite their faults, you found yourself liking these characters. On the big screen, that isn’t so easy. Johnny, now the Human Torch, is even more immature and insensitive than he ever was in the comics. Even his heroism is not enough to redeem him. You wish he would join forces with Dr Doom, just so he can be thrashed by the good guys. His team-mates come out looking better, but McMahon plays Dr Doom, one of Lee and Kirby’s best characters, like a matinee villain.

            And no, that isn’t good enough. Fantastic Four attempts to define these long-running, believable characters with witty lines and romantic dialogue. It’s all very entertaining, but it stops short of the classic comic-book stories. Forget the effects; the REAL challenge was the characters.

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