Continuing in what seems to be the summer of sequels, I caught Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer this weekend. I have to say that I liked this movie better than the 1st in the series. It is a comic book movie, so you do have to check your brain at the door to a certain extent, but after you do that, I think this is a pretty good sequel. As you can see from the previews, the Four are pitted against the Silver Surfer, an alien whose presence heralds the imminent end of the world. This crisis is set against Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s attempts to get married and start a family, and the return of Doctor Doom. The effects are good, and the Surfer in particular looks really cool. There’s some cool trading of powers between the heroes, and the normal “crisis averted at the last moment but only through teamwork” theme. The acting is what you’d expect, but again, it’s a comic book movie. The only distraction, in my mind, was the blonde hair and blue eyes they put on Jessica Alba, which don’t look entirely natural in a lot of the movie. All in all, good family fun (rated PG I think), with good action, some decent humor, good effects, and a feel good theme.
I didn’t like the movie as much as the first one, but Silver Surfer is one of the more cooler comic book characters. THe effects were spectacular.
The actual concept of “silver surfer” is pretty ridiculous, but he still manages to be interesting and “cool”.
Funny part when (the actual) “Stan Lee” is denied entrance to Reed Richards and Invisible Woman’s wedding.
My son, a huge SS fan (from the videom game, Ultimate Alliance), was mesmorized everytime SS came on the screen.
Funny part when (the actual) “Stan Lee” is denied entrance to Reed Richards and Invisible Woman’s wedding.
that’s always the best part of Marvel movies. waiting to see where his cameo is.
I saw the movie last night. First, in general I like comic book movies, but that said, I thought the movie wasn’t all that good. The Silver Surfer was the only good thing about it. The writing was craptastic. The whole wedding sideplot was just stupid as all get-out, and the whole von Doom & US military story-line just made no sense whatsoever – which is saying a lot for a comic book movie.
SS needs his own movie, the craptastic four need a permanent vacation. They are just annoying – the dialog/writing and acting is horrendous.
Ummmm…I forgot, I own Marvel stock, so you should go see the movie. :=)
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**The writing was craptastic. The whole wedding sideplot was just stupid as all get-out, and the whole von Doom & US military story-line just made no sense whatsoever – which is saying a lot for a comic book movie. **
I hereby request that you chime in on EVRY movie review thread. You’ve got style.
I have no idea why Dr Doom came back in the role he did. If you bring him back, then at the end of the mocvie, you have to have him discover some weapon or power source that wil.l give him an advantage … y’know setting the table for FF3 … I mean, b/c every movie has to have a trilogy.
SS needs his own movie, the craptastic four need a permanent vacation. They are just annoying – the dialog/writing and acting is horrendous.
I completely agree. SS is just cool. Completely unbelievable, but cool. Fantastic Four is just plain lame. Some characters, like Ghost Rider, Nightcrawler, etc are just cool … even without knowing their silly, ridiculous, background/transformation/history. Fantastic Four have always IMO been lame, and I can’t figure out why people like them.
I do agree that it’s funny that we are bashing the writing of a comic book movie.
“I have no idea why Dr Doom came back in the role he did”
Because it roughly matches the plot in the original comic books.
Oh.
I admit I’ve never read a FF comic book. Captain America gets killed, Mister Fantastic lives. It’s not fair. =)
The worst thing about FF movies, for anyone who watched the tremendous series of Horatio Hornblower movies on A&E, is Ioan Gruffund is basically wasted. He is a damn fine actor. The only thing worth seeing in FF1 was Jessica in her underwear.
I read that this movie is supposed to be a launch platform for a Silver Surfer movie. It is supposed to be a little darker or heavier or something and will not have a pg rating.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/la-et-scriptland13jun13,1,3712954.story
The Silver Surfer character makes me think of Joe Satriani’s “Surfing With The Alien” album cover.
Do any pop culture gurus know if there is a relationship? (I’m a Satch fan, but not into comic books-I mean graphic novels).
Brett
Although I have not heard or read anything about this, I definitely think that this FF movie was setting up the SS for his own movies. He is mysterious, sad, troubled, brooding, powerful, an alien, cool looking. I could definitely see his movies being darker. Fits his persona. He is SO getting his own flick(s). Even the name of the FF movie “The Rise of the Silver Surfer” lends credence to this.
The SS used to be one of my favorite Marvel comic characters back in the day (1970’s).
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I’ve just come back from watching this with a friend - both disappointed. It was nowhere near as good as the first film (which wasn’t brilliant but was far more enjoyable)
It was (remembering it was a comic book film) all style and effects over any substance. I think they could have done a lot more with the silver surfer character - even if they wanted to do a SS film. A film like Ghostrider (also comic book) had far more substance and actual story than this film.
I agree with those who’ve said Ioan Gruffud is wasted (I have all the Hornblower films) and Jessica Alba is pretty talentless…
I gotta say I really liked the movie ! Being old enough to have read the original comic books, this movie tracked more closely to the comics than the first.
The humor between the Torch and the Thing is straight from the comic books and the FF at its heart is about a “family” of superheros (which is what the animated The Incredibles was loosley based on ).