February 16, 2006
Fantastic Four is the latest in Hollywood's comic book cavalcade. Whereas Spiderman 1 and 2 aimed for teens and twenties, and Hulk for the highbrow, F4 is much more of a kids film. With enough crash and bang it lacks true wallop. Stunningly shot, F4 wants to look like comic book come to life - and it does. The visuals leap off the screen in lickable colour. It's the biggest plus.
But as a movie it's no page-turner. Miring itself too mundanely in the human reaction to being zapped by mega-radiation, it takes its time to let rip with the requisite set-pieces. Being morphed into a flaming torch, an invisible girl, a rubberised man and a boulder of a bloke must be stressful for sure. But Spiderman managed to nail the similar dilemma and exploit the possibilities much better. With four characters to flesh out, simply F4 overstretches itself. Teaming Hornblower (Ioan Gruffudd), The Shield's Michael Chiklis, Sin City's Jessica Alba, wideboy Chris Evans (Cellular) is interesting casting. They're just not given enough to do. And Victor Van Doom's transformation into the steel-skeletoned Dr Doom is laboured and underused. An evil mastermind needs to do more than make the lights flicker. And nicking Spiderman's Green Goblin helmet is a retread that denies us a gut-smacking revelation of a new monster-to-be-reckoned-with.
Gruffydd is convincingly square-jawed. And Alba is feisty and gets to show off her assets in some 'amusing' invisibly-undressed moments. But there's no fizzing chemistry between the leads and no three-dimensional depth to the predicaments. Banking on a slow story-arc to establish the characters, the groundwork-gamble for a sequel takes too long and doesn't pay off. It's good kiddie teatime fun - but not must-see.
But as a movie it's no page-turner. Miring itself too mundanely in the human reaction to being zapped by mega-radiation, it takes its time to let rip with the requisite set-pieces. Being morphed into a flaming torch, an invisible girl, a rubberised man and a boulder of a bloke must be stressful for sure. But Spiderman managed to nail the similar dilemma and exploit the possibilities much better. With four characters to flesh out, simply F4 overstretches itself. Teaming Hornblower (Ioan Gruffudd), The Shield's Michael Chiklis, Sin City's Jessica Alba, wideboy Chris Evans (Cellular) is interesting casting. They're just not given enough to do. And Victor Van Doom's transformation into the steel-skeletoned Dr Doom is laboured and underused. An evil mastermind needs to do more than make the lights flicker. And nicking Spiderman's Green Goblin helmet is a retread that denies us a gut-smacking revelation of a new monster-to-be-reckoned-with.
Gruffydd is convincingly square-jawed. And Alba is feisty and gets to show off her assets in some 'amusing' invisibly-undressed moments. But there's no fizzing chemistry between the leads and no three-dimensional depth to the predicaments. Banking on a slow story-arc to establish the characters, the groundwork-gamble for a sequel takes too long and doesn't pay off. It's good kiddie teatime fun - but not must-see.