Quickly: not as bad as I expected but definately not good. The effects are cool.
Summary: okay lets start with this, I haven't read too much Fantastic 4. Maybe a total of 4 issues in my entire life as well as a few cross overs. I used to watch the cartoon. Now I don't know if the FF have changed a lot over the years or if this movie was based on Ultimate FF but the FF in the movie is not any FF I know. 5 friends and co-workers go out in space to experiment with some space cloud started the human race thing. Things go bad, everyone it hit with Gamma rays (or something) and all end up getting super powers. There is a love triangle between two doctors and a secretary. Ben Grim gets all emo. one doctor, Victor Von Doom goes nuts and tries to kill eveyone else. During this time the Xtreme teen goofs off. Eventually everyone gets in a Fight and the badguy is defeated, or is he? Pretty typical plot.
The Good: The effects were damn good. Johnny Storm in particular I thought looked amamzing. The Things look didn't even bother me, though I cringed at the original screens way back when. The Invisibility was pretty good, but the use of invisible force shields and blasts I thought was awesome. If you want to see a movie of people doing cool things with superpowers and have it look pretty damn good and really don't care about characters and plots, then this is the movie for you. I like Johnny Storm, they did a good job, he was just the right amount of jackass/smartass/brash youth I expected from the character. It was a bit over the top with the ski trip thing though.
The Bad: The whole emo Ben Grimm thing. Again, I didn't read a bunch of FF as a kid, very few. But I don't remember the Thing being a winey bitch who just keeps compaining about being turned to rock. Nor do I remember him lossing his GF over it, but that I could at least see as a marvel plot. I also don't remember a three way love afair between Doom, Reed and Sue. Though again, I could see that as a marvel plot. It wouldn't have even been that bad if it wasn't pretty much the whole damn movie.
The Ugly: okay I may not know FF, but I know Dr. Doom from enough Marvel series I did read. I don't remember him being up in space with Reed, I don't remember him being some young corp with millions. I don't remember him being made out of metal, nor do I remember him having electic powers to put Electro to shame. The Dr. I know is a misguided dictator from Latveria (sp) who is trying to take over the world. He was brutally scared in an experiment that went wrong while working with a colleage in collage, Reid Richards. He went on to build himself a powered suit to both hide his scared body and to get revenge on Reed who he blamed for the experiment gone wrong. Now maybe Marvel changed that, but that's the Doom I know.... that was definately not the Doom in the movie. Who was that Pretty boy with electro powers that stole Dooms suit and namesake?
Overall: a lot of people told me this movie was horrible. Maybe that is what made it tollerable to me. I expected such a bad movie that it supprised me with the good parts. It's definately not the best, it's no where near as good as Daredevel or Spidey, but it's no Captain America either. It's worth a rent just to see some of the powers on the screen. The story is contrived, relies way to much on a love triangle and Grimm being winey, and Doom in this movie is no Doom I have ever seen, but it's not as horrible as you might think. It was way better then the last movie I reviewed.
