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July 17, 2005
Review: Fantastic Four (2005)
by Torque
Sometimes I wish I was twelve again.
I remember the summer of '86 quite well. I had just finished elementary school, had received my first "proper" kiss (for proper, read: french) and the big event movie of the summer that everyone was talking about was Top Gun. Produced by the juggernaut pair of Simpson/Bruckheimer and starring a hot and upcoming young actor as a hot, upcoming and cocky fighter pilot, you weren't "in" unless you had seen this movie.
I was twelve and male. I always had an interest in the military and this movie was about FIGHTER PILOTS! performing DOG FIGHTS! at HIGH ALTITUDE! (Yes, that's how my mind worked back in them days, including exclamation marks AND CAPITALS!).
Needless to say, I loved it.
That was then and this is now.
Until a few years ago, F4 would have been standard summer fare. For a few months in the year, movies would dumb down and brains would turn off. In any of those years, F4 would have gotten a warmer reception than it did. Nowadays, we are spoiled. In recent years, even the blockbuster season is filled with movies that, while appealing to a mass audience, manage to tell a story in an intelligent manner. Had F4 competed with The Mummy or Tomb Raider, I'd wager that many of the reviews would have been favourable. Unfortunately, following the double-whammy of Batman Begins and War Of The Worlds, it's not even an also-ran.
Plus, I'm older. More experienced as a movie viewer, what satisfied me at the age of twelve (WATCHING SHIT BLOW UP!) no longer holds the appeal it once did.
Yet still I can't totally dislike F4. As origin stories go, it's no X-Men or Batman Begins, but then again, there are few movies that could live up to those examples.
It was an adequate effort. The group dynamic worked well enough and I found the humour pretty funny. The "You're Hot. Thanks, so are you" exchange that induced so many groans in the trailer, worked well enough in the context it was used that it actually ellicited a chuckle. The acting was, again I use that word, adequate. One that I would like to single out, though is Michael Chiklis.
I'm a big fan of The Shield and of Michael Chiklis. It can't be easy trying to act under a ton of prostetics and make-up, but Chiklis did an admirable job. I really cared for the big lug.
Some of the stretchy effects on Mr Fantastic were a bit ropey, though and the score is nothing to write home about. Your basic mix of Nu-Metal and chart faves that seem to be the norm for many of these second-tier superhero movies.
Still, I managed to enjoy myself for the full two hours of its running-time.
And just so you know...
We took our nieces, Nicky and Sacha (who are both twelve years old) and they LOVED! this movie. And OHMYGOD! wasn't Chris Evans (The Human Torch/Johnny Storm) just the CUTEST! And did you know that SHIT BLOWS UP! in this movie?
*sigh*
Sometimes I wish I was twelve again...
Posted by astor at July 17, 2005 01:50 AM