Fantastic Four: Movie & DVD Review (2005)

(Originally published 2005)

It’s impossible to watch Tim Story’s disappointing superhero movie, “Fantastic Four,” without being reminded of last year’s Academy Award-winning superhero movie, “The Incredibles.” In every sense, the latter movie--which also follows four superheroes trying to defeat a nasty little zealot with an attitude problem--is superior.

The similarities don’t end with the storyline.

For instance, “Fantastic Four” features Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, who has the power to become invisible and create force fields, just as teenage Violet could in “The Incredibles.” There’s Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), otherwise known as Mr. Fantastic, who recalls Violet’s mother, Elastigirl, in that he can stretch his limbs to infinity and beyond.

There’s Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), a.k.a. The Thing, who brings to mind Mr. Incredible in his bulk and body issues, which plunge deep into the doldrums long before they improve as the story unfolds.

Rounding out the Four is the Human Torch ( Chris Evans), who is here to provide comic relief--as Dash was in “The Incredibles”--and who indirectly recalls Dash in the sheer speed he can achieve while burning through the air.

As his name implies, Torch possesses the unique ability to generate fire at will. He can snap his fingers and--poof!--there’s a flame or, for that matter, a super nova. Too bad he didn’t turn either on this movie.

While “Fantastic Four” was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961 and thus can’t be accused of ripping off “The Incredibles,” its familiarity doesn’t let it off the hook. One only has to look at how Christopher Nolan approached “Batman Begins” to see how Story should have approached his own film about the origins of well-known characters.

Instead of breaking free from expectations and raising the bar for superhero movies, as Nolan did by focusing on the core of who Batman is, Story never goes deeper than the ink on a comic book. His film about five people whose DNAs are altered by a radioactive space cloud features no surprises. It’s never more than slight, uninteresting kitsch wrapped around some of the worst special effects of the year.

Not even the evil fifth person, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), has the necessary bite to be a great villain. For much of the movie, he’s just seen festering along the edges, wringing his hands and smirking malevolently, until his electrical powers are called upon to generate some trouble in the flame-out finale.

This is the third movie in as many weeks that relies on hundreds of extras to bolster key moments of dread. But unlike “Land of the Dead” and “War of the Worlds,” in which the extras effectively darkened the mood of each movie, here they are so poorly directed and so eager to draw attention to themselves, you want to fire the lot of them.

Reacting to each catastrophe in warbling mock horror while their terrified eyes seek out the camera, it’s their presence in this boring movie that serves to break its already shaky spell.

Grade: D


DVD Features

• Available Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Available Audio Tracks: English, English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Commentary by: cast
• 3 deleted scenes
• The Fantastic Tour: Exclusive behind-the-scenes home video hosted by the entire cast
• Making of Fantastic Four
• Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session & Making A Scene
• Music videos: Everything Burns, Come On Come In, Music
• Exclusive inside look at X-Men 3 - hosted by producer Avi Arad