Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone on Ciao! many thanks for all the r/r/c's I've received ...
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to everyone on Ciao! many thanks for all the r/r/c's I've received throughout the year! RIP Holly, Christmas wont be the same without you...
Member since:27.07.2006
Reviews:241
Members who trust:90
- Introduction - Yes again this is another movie that was shown on TV and with my trusty PVR at my side I decided to record it out of interest and watch it a bit later, which I did last night. I had heard of this movie before and I have watched some similar movies, Daredevil I thought was quite good and I've seen the first 2 Spiderman movies, which I thought were ok. I remembered as a child, one of the first VHS videos my parents bought me was one that featured a Fantastic 4 cartoon, so I was somewhat familiar with the characters and I do like a good fantasy type movie every now and then, so I thought I'd give this a watch. I'm glad I didn't purchase the DVD, it wouldn't have been worth it.
- Main Credits (non-actors, which are mentioned further on in the review) - Source:- IMDB (see:-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120667/fullcredits) Director - Tim Story Written by - Mark Frost and Michael France Original Marvel Comic books written by - Stan Lee and Jack Kirkby Producers - Avi Arad, Bernd Eichinger, Ralph Winter Associate Producers - Lee Cleary, David Gorder, Kurt Williams Executive Producers - Michael Barnathan, Chris Colombus, Kevin Feige, Stan Lee, Mark Radcliffe Cinematography - Oliver Wood
- Story (incl. main acting cast) - Fantastic Four is a Hollywood live action movie based on the well known Marvel comic. The movie starts off with four astronauts who work with a scientist, Reed Richards (played by Ioan Gruffudd) to try and harness the power of a cloud of cosmic energy. However, this has some strange side effects for the astronaust as once they return home, it soon becomes clear that they have all suffered some kind of strange mutation, Reed can stretch like rubber, Sue Storm (played by Jessica Alba) can turn invisible, Johnny Storm (played by Chris Evans, not the radio DJ/TFI Friday host may I add!) can produce fire at very high temperatures and can fly and finally Ben Grimm (played by Michael Chiklis, from the drama show 'The Shield') is transformed into what they call 'The Thing', a sort of giant made of rock whos obviously very strong.
The media soon become aware of the who they dub as being the 'Fantastic Four' (hence the movie name et al) and while the others manage to become at least somewhat used to their new abilities, Ben aka The Thing, finds it particularly difficult, with him being the most changed or most
disfigured of the four of them. His relationship breaks down and he's left analysing his life. Reed feels bad for Ben and vows to do his best to try and find a cure to bring Ben back to normal and in the meantime, it becomes clear that someone else who accompanied them on their mission, someone called Victor von Doom who had agreed to sponsor the mission (he's played by Julian McMahon who you may know as having played Cole in Charmed, he's also known for being in Nip/Tuck), has some rather sinister qualities and ideas himself and so its up to the newly named Fantastic Four to stop him before its too late. Will they manage to get used to their powers or will their powers overcome them and become too much? what will the media make of them? and, somewhat more importantly, what evilness lies within Victor von Doom and can they stop him in time?!
- Genre/Themes etc. - This is mainly a live action sort of remake of a well known comic book and its also quite heavily science fiction based, so it would fit under either or both of those genres really.
There are the usual themes of saving the day and dealing with being well known, the superhero theme and the theme of superpowers, the discovery and application of (I guess those are themes, right?). There's also again pretty typical for this kind of a movie, themes of using power for good and stopping the bad guy of course and in the case of Ben or The Thing, there's the theme or issue of self awareness and of struggling to come to terms with change and being able to like yourself I suppose.
Also with Victor von Doom (what a great super baddy name, you've got to give him that much, right?), there's the sort of theme of getting carried away with feelings of power and how you use it, whether for good or bad. Its all pretty much the usual stuff you get in most of these kind of movies really.
- My Thoughts/Opinions - I have to say, I really wasn't too impressed with this movie. I know others will probably disagree but as the point of reviews are to give consumers honest opinions and experiences, I want to prove that I don't just rate or review movies that I really enjoy and this is one movie that I can honestly say, I didn't feel that I particularly enjoyed it. I wouldn't say that its a really awful movie, the cast seemed alright and the special effects were pretty good, about what you'd expect from a modern day movie of this type. I'm sure it would look good, visually speaking, if the DVD is bought and played on a large sized TV screen but it was the story that really made me think that it didn't work, to be honest.
I will admit to being someone that does need at least a semi-decent storyline in a movie, or my mind will wander and I'll get fidgety and maybe even walk off and do something else. This is where the film failed in my eyes. I just didn't feel that there was a proper story here... it was clear that at the start, it was all about the characters discovering their powers and then deciding what to do with that, which was ok but then the film seemed to slow down a bit, there was a rather boring part, which is about the four of them talking about how to deal with the media and with The Thing trying to get to terms with his new, um, look (you do have to feel sorry for the poor guy, he can't even hold a glass of his favourite tipple without it smashing, darn you rock hand and strength!).
It wasn't long after this that the film just didn't seem to be picking up pace much at all and to be honest, I was left sitting there thinking, well really I was thinking 'ok so where is the story here?! what are we waiting to find out?' yes there's the underlying story of Victor von Doom and what was happening with him, what his evil plans were but I just didn't feel interested in it enough, I think I was maybe being a little greedy, expecting more action and more clear and more so more fast moving storyline(s). This just didn't seem to be happening at all and with the story seeming to make us want to feel so sorry for these guys, which I felt in a way shouldn't be what the movie should be about, im not entirely sure why I just felt a bit uncomfortable that the movie seemed to be going so slow and was becoming rather boring with the main aspect being about oh boo hoo these super heroes having to deal with the media, how will they cope? ehhh I don't know, it just didn't feel like it worked. Suffice to say that I can't comment on what happened afterwards, perhaps it does get alot better soon afterwards but I'll admit it, I did stop watching the movie after around about 50 minutes or so, I just felt that the story (which was weak enough IMO) was moving too slowly and wasn't interesting me enough, so I decided I wanted to watch something else that would be better. Now there aren't too many times when I'll just stop watching a movie but this was one, so it proves that, at least for me, it just didn't work im afraid. I think that the script could have been alot better and that it was just a bit too blan and average really... average is about the only word I can think to describe it really, average and a bit slow and boring really. Call me harsh but thats what I felt, so thats what im saying.
- Certificate - Fantastic Four is rated PG in the UK. This is mainly for some scenes of action and 'suggestive content', according to IMDB. Not entirely sure what thats referring to but I didn't notice any particularly bad language or anything too offensive in the amount of the movie I managed to watch and im sure that slightly older kids (of maybe 7 or 8 years and older) would be able to enjoy this. This is about right considering the target audience im sure, kids would probably quite enjoy parts of the movie to see the CGI effects with the characters using their special super powers in full effect.
- Official Website - The official Fantastic Four movie website can be found here:- http://www.fantastic4dvd.com/ by clicking on the 'enter' button, the main site loads in a pop-up window, so be sure to disable any pop-up blockers or it won't load properly. On this site, you can find information on each of the super heros. You can find photos, a biography, downloads and videos for them all (the moving links might make you feel a bit queasy if your like me, you've been warned! If you put your cursor over the '4' symbol, it should slow down the speed of the moving links though). If you click on 'quick links' at the bottom of the main page, you'll find links to the following:- Information on the DVD, the film trailer and a deleted scene, a desktop, a game and a photo gallery.
- Conclusions - Personally I felt that this movie lagged too much mid way through it, although I don't think its entirely true to say that it doesn't have a story, it just didn't feel very strong and I didn't feel that it was moving at all quickly enough to keep me interested. I felt that it could have been done better, it definately suffered because of the script, I'm sure others will disagree but this is what I remember thinking and so this is my honest opinion.
I have seen other live action versions of comic book characters and I have managed to enjoy them but this one I didn't enjoy so much. I think that perhaps kids would enjoy this to see the characters using their special powers, the CGI is pretty cool, I just didn't feel that there was really enough of this I suppose.
I couldn't help but feel that it screamed average and while it was rather cheesy and predictable when it came to portraying the characters discovery of their powers and the way it was done to make you feel sorry for them, it just didn't pick up well enough to move on past this and on to the more action based side of the movie. Perhaps I stopped watching a bit too soon, I didn't see it to the end so I can't comment on that but if I found it just a bit too bland and not interesting enough to watch on, then does it really matter how well it picks up past that point? if I got bored then you might well too. I feel that there are much better examples of comic books brought to life that are more exciting and more interesting and while this is still a mildly entertaining movie, it just didn't really 'do it' for me and so I decided to stop watching it. So because of this, I have to mark it down and thus im giving it two out of five, for the pretty decent special effects and CGI and the cast weren't too bad, I just felt that it suffered alot from the plot and certainly could have been quite a bit better.
Personally if your interested, either wait until you can get it on DVD cheap or wait until its shown on Channel 4/Film4 or another free TV channel again, I wouldn't bother paying much if anything for it really. If your a die-hard fan of Marvel comics and particularly Fantastic Four comics then you might well find this interesting, I just hoped it would be a bit, well, better, thats all!
I can't comment on the DVD as I don't have it and haven't looked into it. If your interested, you can find it for sale on Amazon.co.uk and probably other similar sites too for a few quid, as there has since been a sequel released called 'The Rise of the Silver Surfer' (no its not to do with elderly internet users! sorry, couldn't resist that joke!), so now the original movie is a couple of years old it should be available fairly cheap, I wouldn't bother buying it myself though.
I hope you found my review useful in deciding whether to see the movie/buy the DVD, thanks for reading!
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Production Year: 2005 - Science Fiction - Director: Keith Brook, Euros Lyn - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper, Camille Coduri, Simon Callow, Zoe Wannamaker
Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
Have to confess I enjoyed this quite a bit. Ayesha x
dan_pentagram 06.01.2008 15:58
Ive got to admit i agree with your comments! I think the Fantastic Four Film series is one of the worst superhero series out there. I loved the cartoon when i was younger though
Bollinger28 05.01.2008 21:33
Sounds a bit disappointing, but you're right, Victor von Doom is a great name for the baddie! Lexy
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![Fantastic Four (Single Disc Edition) [DVD] [2005]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/78511273.jpg "Fantastic Four (Single Disc Edition) [DVD] [2005]")
Jan 3rd, 2008
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