space
head
head head head
Home Contact RSS Feed
COMICS   •   MOVIES   •   MUSIC   •   TELEVISION   •   GAMES   •   BOOKS
Movie Review: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer – Thumbs Down!
space
LaRae   |  

Fantastic Four 2Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is the second installment in the Fantastic Four series. Many of the attempts at emotional resonance fall flat but the action scenes are shameless entertainment.

Reed Richards, or Mr. Fantastic (played by Ioan Gruffudd) is set to marry Sue Storm, or The Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) when the world is disrupted by an unknown force. Later it is discovered that the Silver Surfer (physical acting by Doug Jones and voice by Laurence Fishburne) is creating craters that are disrupting more than just what the Fantastic Four can see. The Fantastic Four — Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, Human Torch (Chris Evans) and The Thing (Michael Chiklis) — set out to save the world from the doom the Silver Surfer has bestowed upon them. They must work with the pompous General Hager (Andre Braugher) who brings with him the treacherous Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon).

The acting in this sequel is kiddie pool deep at best. There are no painfully shallow scenes, but there are no scenes that stick with you either.

Jessica Alba suffers from a horrific case of the overacties! Every time she makes a force field it looks like she is trying to push it out her butt instead of through her hands. She couldn’t muster an attachment for her fiancé, brother, or long-time friend. The closest she gets to actually portraying an emotional attachment is for the Silver Surfer. I am having Jessica’s last name changed to Albarf.

Ioan Gruffundd is only slightly better. While he can’t seem to look adoringly on his future wife, he can look adoringly on his PDA and scientific equipment. He is in his element when he is discussing the science-ish stuff. He never comes across as heroic because most of his heroic scenes are done poorly, by computer generation, so you never see his face or his mannerisms.

The only actor that caught my attention as particularly good was Doug Jones. He lends his face and dare I say, tremendous body, to the Silver Surfer. The true gift Jones gives the Silver Surfer is the great stone face that only occasionally cracks but does so subtly, avoiding the pitfalls of melodrama.

Usually in movies like this the actors are stunted by the script. Don’t get me wrong, there quite a few minor issues with the screen play but it is the best part of the movie. The characters attempt complexity and in the case of the Silver Surfer, achieve it. There is a lot of funny banter between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. Even the relationship between Reed Richards and Sue Storm attempts depth, and with better actors, might have achieved it. We aren’t talking middle of the ocean depth here, just deep end of the pool. Even so, there isn’t too much wrong with the script. It has good flow, fun action, and mostly good dialogue. Too bad we couldn’t say the same for the rest of the movie.

This movie suffers from the same problem so many super hero movies do: too many bad guys.

I don’t believe in writing spoilers but I’m going to make an exception this one time. Dodge, the car company, is the major sponsor of the movie. We know this from the repeated product placements and blatant mentions of Dodge products.

Even with all the bad acting and ridiculous product placement, the movie does have pretty enjoyable moments. I loved all the scenes with the Silver Surfer. All of his special effects are fantastic. Lawrence Fishbourne’s voice resonates wonderfully in your head.

I am not going to recommend that you see this movie, nor will I tell you to run screaming from it. If you just need a little mindless entertainment coupled with a mind coma, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer may be the one for you.

 

Check out another Geeks of Doom review for FF: RotSS here.

4 Comments »

  1. thanks :)

    Comment by 动画片 — June 15, 2007 @ 11:02 am

  2. Its a fair enough review, thanks for this.

    Comment by Dell — June 15, 2007 @ 11:40 am

  3. While I did enjoy the movie, you hit the mark on many points. Jessica Alba wasn’t *all that*, and there were times I wanted to knock her out! Braugher’s General character was a completely unnecessary adversary. And the product placement… wow! It actually took me out of the movie.

    I also agree that Doug Jones, with the aid of Fishburne (Mayhew to his Earl Jones), was captivating!

    Also, what I did like was Ioan’s Mr. Fantastic. As you said, he was able to look more lovingly at his PDA than his fiancé, which in my opinion hitting the Reed Richards nail on the head. And the set pieces were, at times, gloriously well done. SFX have definitely come a long way!

    Comment by Dave3 — June 15, 2007 @ 9:44 pm

  4. What happened to Jessica Alba’s face in this movie?

    Comment by Matt — June 18, 2007 @ 1:06 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

space
Tags:
space
Previous Article
space
Next Article
«
»
space
space
space
Amazon.com
space
You may have noticed that we're now AD FREE! Please support Geeks of Doom by using the Amazon Affiliate link above. All of our proceeds from the program go toward maintaining this site.
space
Geeks of Doom on Twitter Geeks of Doom on Facebook Geeks of Doom on Instagram Follow Geeks of Doom on Tumblr Geeks of Doom on YouTube Geeks of Doom Email Digest Geeks of Doom RSS Feed
space
space
space
space
The Drill Down Podcast TARDISblend Podcast Westworld Podcast
2023  ·   2022  ·   2021  ·   2020  ·   2019  ·   2018  ·   2017  ·   2016  ·   2015  ·   2014  ·  
2013  ·   2012  ·   2011  ·   2010  ·   2009  ·   2008  ·   2007  ·   2006  ·   2005
space
Geeks of Doom is proudly powered by WordPress.

Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press

Geeks of Doom is designed and maintained by our geeky webmaster
All original content copyright ©2005-2023 Geeks of Doom
All external content copyright of its respective owner, except where noted
space
Creative Commons License
This website is licensed under
a Creative Commons License.
space
About | Privacy Policy | Contact
space