Not as bad as I thought it was going to be

By: daforce
Date: Friday, June 15, 2007

So I was given a few passes to see this thing last night. I walked in with some pretty low expectations...okay, I was expecting this thing to suck harder than a galaxy-wide black hole. I really disliked the first movie, it was poorly written, had some bad acting choices, and some really bad f/x.

This movie seems to have corrected a lot of those wrongs. No more forced puns, no more dead spaces where the bad acting could hang in the balance, and a much tighter story all around this time around.

Things that I really could have done without: the myriad of closeups of Jessica Alba's face (the really blue contacts made her look freakish, especially with the tanning bed overdose she subjected her skin to) and Julian McMahon's 'acting'. I'd have to say, I really wish they would have changed Dr. Doom's voice (they changed the Surfer's voice, after all) to actually be menancing rather than sounding like he was flirting with Reed Richards. It was pretty embarassing.

The story is pretty concise, and doesn't have any dead space in it. It moves along pretty crisply for its 92 min. running time. The Surfer looks amazing. The fire effects are a bit better this time around, and even The Thing's suit looks a lot better. Mr. Fantastic's stretching effects still suck, but you can't win them all.

The movie was fairly entertaining. It had action, humor, a bit of romance, and even a little bit of shlocky drama. I've got to admit that I was surprised. Would I see it again on the big screen? Probably not. But, I'd probably pay to see the third sequel in this franchise.

Oh, and as for the question, do you or don't you see Galactus? No, you don't. BUT you do see faint outlines of him in shadows and in the flames of the clouds. So while we don't actually get to see the giant purple guy himself, it might be for the best.

Remember to stay for just a little bit after the credits start to roll, because there is a break back to the movie to show you the fate of one of the characters.

Rating: Bargain matinee for one viewing.

Click here to read the staff review by Mania.