Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Posted by Nathan Deen (nathan@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 15, 2007

If there’s one thing to be said about “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” it’s that it’s a significant improvement upon the original. I have to say I got a lot more out of it than I expected and didn’t hate it by any means. I’d say it’s a whole letter grade’s worth of improvement.

The opening title sequence is very reminiscent of “Superman Returns” with a little hint of “X2: X-Men United.” We see a planet explode and get a quick look at the Silver Surfer. We jump down to planet Earth and join the Fantastic Four. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffud) and Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) are in the celebrity spotlight as they are about to get married. Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) seem to be the same as where we left them in the first film except Ben now has a girlfriend.

Reed is still obsessed with his science projects even though it’s a week before his wedding. Johnny tries to get him to unwind with a bachelor party, which is a very poor and silly scene. At this point the film looks destined to be the same garbage that the first one was. But once the Silver Surfer arrives and the action gets going, it hardly bores you from there.

Reed and Susan’s wedding is interrupted by that most unwanted Silver Surfer and a very cool chase sequence between Johnny and the Surfer follows. Soon the group discovers that the Surfer is there to destroy the planet and they have eight days to stop him before it succeeds.

Meanwhile, Fantastic Four’s old arch-nemesis, Victor von Doom, is alive and well. The role he plays is basically the equivalent of that of Magneto in “X2: X-Men United.” He’s not the bigger threat here but his personal agenda and misleading ways could spell doom for the whole world. First, he tries to team up with the Surfer. Then, when he realizes what the Surfer is up to, he makes a pact with the Fantastic Four, just like Magneto made a pact with the X-Men in “X2.” Of course, if you’ve seen “X2,” you can guess what Dr. Doom tries to do towards the end.

The action sequences and special effects are marvelous (about as good as those in “X2”), the flow of the picture is good, and this second installment is shorter (93 minutes compared to the 123 minute running time of the first) and thank goodness for that. Director Tim Story and writers Don Payne and Mark Frost seem to understand a little bit better that less is more.

However, in spite of all this, there are still leftovers of the cheap, poorly executed scenes, inept dialogue and lack of character development that plagued the first film; and the ending really takes a cheap route to draw a conclusion. Reed and Victor speak like they’re in an episode of Star Trek in which the viewer has no idea what they’re talking about and Susan is just as corny as ever. Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm do manage to throw in a couple of hilarious one-liners. But with that aside there’s just not much to these characters and they seem one-dimensional. When your characters have such talents as becoming a human torch, being invisible, having stretchy limbs, and having a body of stone, one would think they would be interesting enough and be worth caring about. Unfortunately, the film makes them hide behind these high budget action sequences and special effects.

I think “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer” is a good popcorn flick, but I for one just wish it was more than that. The most disappointing thing about the movie is there are flashes of great potential here and one can’t help but think how good this franchise could be. Everyone who has tried to make a great comic book trilogy so far has failed. A couple have come close; Spider-man and X-Men almost did it but couldn’t quite tie the knot. It’s just too bad the Fantastic Four crew never gave themselves a chance to begin with.

Read more articles by Nathan Deen