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Anyone who reads comics knows the ups and downs of ongoing titles. A great creative team will get on a book and redefine it. Put the characters through changes that alter them permanently. Send the heroes to new worlds that boggle the mind. Pit them against villains that both frighten us with their power and intrigue us with their motives. The writers and artists accomplish this without ever forgetting what makes the characters great. They never lose sight of what makes them iconic yet accessible.

The bad teams just mine the history and try to retread what works. Often they resort to cheap laughs and throw in fan-favorite characters for no reason at all. The creators never inject any real passion into it. In the end the reader understands the only reason that issue was published was to have something out that month. The creators of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer seem to only aspire to the latter.

The movie begins with a large ominous cloud sweeping over an unnamed planet. After the storm passes the orb is now desolate and looks incapable of hosting life. Out of this a silver object is seen streaking toward Earth. We then catch up with the F.F. Reed (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue (Jessica Alba) are planning another wedding. It seems like every-time they start a ceremony some catastrophic event occurs and the team must must come to the rescue. Johnny (Chris Evans) and Ben (Michael Chiklis) are just where we left them from the last film. The hot shot and the lovable oaf. A group of military personnel led by General Hager (Andre Braugher) arrive to ask for Reed’s help. It appears that the silver object is actually a man on a surf board. This “Silver Surfer” has been traveling around the planet and leaving strange craters in his wake. Reed creates a machine that can track the surfer. The surfer shows up in time to interrupt the wedding and Johnny takes off after him. While all this is going on Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) has reawakened from his coma-like state and makes his move for power.

It’s a good set up but, it takes almost half the movie to get there. Unfortunately we are bombarded with humor that never quite works. It’s mostly “cutesy” jokes. Look how Reed stretches, Johnny lights something on fire to impress a girl, Sue puts up a force field and smashes Reed’s face, and Ben, well Ben is big and rocky. They filled the last movie with this type of stuff and try out all the old material here.

They missed some great opportunities to be witty or do something original. For instance, in an early scene Johnny is shown with a costume covered advertisements. He looks more like a NASCAR driver. This could have been a great place to do some witty humor about fame and advertising. Instead later in the film when we finally see the Fantasticar, it has the Dodge logo all over it. They do a bad “This thing have a hemi?” joke. It is not funny, and turns out to be distracting.

Or later in the film when the team is in a forest, setting up devices that can capture the Silver Surfer. As Ben is setting up his device a bear comes out of the woods and growls at him. Ben tells the bear “I don’t want to hurt you”, but the bear just growls again. I was hoping there would be some kind of conflict here. The Thing wrestling a bear is the kind of cool throw away moment you would see in a comic. Not here though, Ben growls back and scares the bear away. What a waisted opportunity.

However, the movie is not a complete train wreck. When the actual plot is happening it’s not bad. The special effects are decent, only towards the end does it look like a cartoon. Those not familiar with the comics will find a little mystery as to who the Silver Surfer is and what he is doing. The character of Dr. Doom is handled right this time. He is more concerned about beating the Surfer to steal his power then getting simple revenge. McMahon plays him much more menacing as opposed to the whinier Doom of the first film.

After being so disappointed by The Fantastic Four, I lowered my expectations for this one. The trailers looked really cool which gave some hope. But the finished product is merely tepid. The plot works but the humor doesn’t. If the film had been longer it may have had time to redeem itself. The cast is competent, but if there is going to be another film, new writers and a different director are needed. A creative team that can not only awe us, but put the “Fantastic” in the Fantastic Four.

If you liked The Fantastic Four, Daredevil, or Ghost Rider, you should like Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.