Fantastic Four
From AwardAnnals
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| Director(s) | Tim Story |
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| Distributor | 20th Century Fox |
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| Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis head a sexy, star-powered cast in this explosive adventure about a quartet of flawed, ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves with extraordinary abilities. After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission’s sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world’s most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special… | |
Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis head a sexy, star-powered cast in this explosive adventure about a quartet of flawed, ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves with extraordinary abilities.
After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission’s sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world’s most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is “powerful fun” (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!
Honors
Reviews
Amazon.com
Marvel Comics’ first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Hornblower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed’s best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who’s now Doom’s employee and love interest; and her hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don’t go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed—or is it cursed?—with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Characterization isn’t too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most “first” superhero movies, it has to go through the “how did we get these powers and what we will do with them” churn). But it’s a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF’s steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar’s animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it’s the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. —David Horiuchi
Barnes and Noble
A generally faithful comic-book adaptation that would have been impossible to make before the advent of computer-generated imagery, Fantastic Four does right by its four-color inspiration. Screenwriter Mark Frost deviates in small ways from the printed-page paradigm created in 1961 by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, but his script retains the comic’s essence, especially its flamboyant approach to action. While working in a space station, research team members Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Sue’s younger brother Johnny (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) are buffeted by cosmic rays that alter their molecular structures in various ways and give them super powers. Reed discovers he can stretch his body almost without limit; Sue gains the ability to disappear and bend light waves into force fields; Johnny becomes the Human Torch at will; and poor Ben acquires incredible strength, although he is also transformed into an inhuman-looking Thing. The team’s sponsor, industrialist Victor Von Doom (Nip/Tuck’s Julian McMahon), having also survived the cosmic rays, undergoes not only a physical metamorphosis but an emotional one as well, turning evil as a result of his inability to cope with the changes to his body. As is usually the case with movies intended to inaugurate a series, Fantastic Four takes quite a while to introduce its characters and flesh out their relationships before progressing to the major action. But director Tim Story makes the exposition interesting in its own right; when the Four finally use their powers in unison for the first time—in an extended sequence set on the Brooklyn Bridge—we already know how they feel about each other and how they will react in a crisis situation. Frost’s principal contribution to the Lee-Kirby mythos is a romantic triangle: Von Doom (shortly to become known as Doctor Doom) initially has romantic designs on Sue, who has broken up with Reed prior to the beginning of the story. This lends a personal dimension to the inevitable conflict that follows. The movie’s outstanding special effects make the Four’s most implausible feats quite believable, especially the Human Torch’s flying scenes and use of flame. And our hats are off to Chiklis, who spends most of the movie smothered in his bulging Thing costume, which perfectly resembles the character as drawn by Kirby but is a less than ideal medium for emoting. Ed Hulse
