Fantastic Four (2005) — Not Quite That Fantastic For Me
Written: Jan 16 '07 (Updated Jan 17 '07)
Product Rating:
Action Factor:
Special Effects:
Pros: Michael Chiklis as the Thing
Cons: Julian McMahon as Dr. Doom
The Bottom Line: Fantastic Four needs some life injected into its characters as they all came off flat. I thought Mr. Fantastic was supposed to be the flat one.
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
The first family of Marvel Comics made a spectacular impression when they broke onto the scene in 1961. The Fantastic Four was the genesis of the whole Marvel Universe spawning many other memorable characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk and so much more. Unfortunately, they couldn’t make that same spectacular impression on the big screen in 2005.
Fantastic Four is the next Marvel movie franchise to make it to the silver screen, hoping to capitalize on the rabid interest in the comic genre thanks to the recent successes of both Spider-Man and X-Men movies. But as impressive as it was to see these characters come to life, I wasn’t invested at all in the characters, whether it was individually or together as a unit.
Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Away From Your Girlfriend
Reed Richards is a brilliant scientist by every stretch of the imagination and wishes to prove his latest theory of evolution by putting it to the test. Along with his best friend and pilot Ben Grimm, they need the financial aid of Victor von Doom, an ultra-rich CEO of a huge enterprise and Reed’s college classmate, in order build a space station to monitor the clouds of cosmic energy that Reed is convinced to be the catalyst of the evolutionary state. Susan Storm, working for von Doom as a genetic researcher, and her brother Johnny come along for the ride. This makes things awkward for Reed as he once dated Sue in college and some tension still exists between he, Sue, and Victor.
But not everything goes according to plan as a cosmic energy cloud appears ahead of schedule. It engulfs all five in its strange energies and transforms them all into something different. Reed has the ability to stretch like rubber; Sue can turn invisible and create invisible objects; Johnny can transform himself into a being of fire that can fly; and Ben becomes a huge, rock like creature with enormous super strength.
All are appalled by what has happened except for Johnny. He embraces his newfound powers and uses it to his advantage towards fame and fortune. Reed is extremely adamant at helping Ben regain his human form. But before he can do anything about it, the public gets wind of this amazing quartet and dub them “The Fantastic Four”—Mr. Fantastic (Reed), Invisible Girl (Sue), Human Torch (Johnny) and the Thing (Ben), as nicknamed by Johnny.
Meanwhile, Victor has noticed his new abilities from the accident as his body is turning into organic metal. He is able to control and manipulate energy around him, and sees the opportunity to get rid of Richards once and for all, blaming him for all his latest company misfortunes. But Doom is also a schemer and turns Ben Grimm against Reed. Everything seems to be crumbling apart around Reed and he doesn’t know how to pull it all together. But he has to do it quickly as Doom is coming for him.
Even Cosmic Rays Couldn't Save This Movie
One thing really bugged me about the movie. Actually, quite a lot more than that but this one stuck out the most for me.
I hate, hate, hate, hate, hate the depiction of Dr. Doom in this movie. He is one of the premier supervillains in the Marvel Universe that is feared by everyone. Even Magneto, a powerhouse in his own right, respects this man. He rules a country as a cruel and ruthless dictator, yet he also treats his subjects in a fair manner. I didn’t see this Doom at all in the movie and it’s such a travesty. Here is the archetypal supervillain of all time and he isn’t portrayed as such.
The whole organic metal scenario did not sit well with me. Most of the movie version of Doom is similar to the one from Ultimate Fantastic Four, a comic book set in a different universe from the mainstream Marvel Universe. I didn’t like the organic metal concept in the comic book and I don’t like it in this film. It’s easier to give him an X-Men uniform and call him Colossus instead.
Doom’s uniqueness stems for the sheer fact that he is one of the most brilliant intellects on the planet, rivaled only by Reed Richards. Victor von Doom doesn’t need superpowers; he is extremely smart enough to go toe-to-toe with the Fantastic Four with his own ingenuity. And his bitterness stems from his jealousy against Richards. This is the part I wish was really explored, though it was lightly touched upon in this movie. Instead of a genius, I saw a bully and a thug.
I like Julian McMahon as an actor, but he really didn’t bring anything to the table in his portrayal of Victor von Doom. In fact I think he was sleepwalking and phoned in most of his lines. There was no passion and there was no interest oozing from his portrayal. If anything it felt all very bland.
I’m still unsure about Jessica Alba’s role as Sue Storm. I know she was chosen for her sex appeal, but her performance was similar to McMahon’s and it became her undoing. Ioan Gruffudd probably looked mostly like his comic book counterpart as Reed Richards but his indecisiveness and timid ways was getting really old. Then it hit me as to why it felt all wrong. These characters were so indifferent to the changes happening to them that it didn’t make me interested at all. If you were given a superpowered ability, how would you react? The only ones who really showed any emotion to these changes were Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm.
Johnny quickly embraced his new powers and rode it to the fast track of fame and glory. Chris Evans played the part of the hotshot to a tee, sometimes a bit cocky and arrogant at times, but nevertheless was definitely a breath of fresh air. Michael Chiklas as the Thing did the same thing as well giving us the tragic side to the whole experience. His was the most realistic reaction considering his transformation resulted a change in his physical appearance. I was actually impressed with the bodysuit created for Chiklas and was glad they didn’t go down the computer-generated route.
Fantastic Four is not as bad as I first envisioned but it took multiple viewings for me to change my mind, and not by much as well. The story and the villain were weak. I expected better treatment for this foursome considering their previous movie attempt in 1994 wasn’t even worth the film that was used in shooting it (note: if you haven’t seen it, consider yourself lucky). But with the origin story out of the way, the only place to go is up. Hopefully, Doom will get another shot at villainy and will be true to his form since he and the main characters came out flat. And I’m talking thinner than Mr. Fantastic flat.
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