Oh sure, Spidey might swing higher, and Wolverine has those shiny claws, but the Fantastic Four have always been the real heart of the Marvel Universe.
With their constant squabbling, anxieties, and the nifty balance between cosmic battles and real world problems, the FF were revolutionary, the first truly modern comic super stars. They were the vanguard of a new era, ending the tyranny of endless giant monster titles and ushering the in dynamic age of Marvel heroes.
Not only were they the first, but their book was the best of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's many collaborations, with the very pinnacle being the classic story arc that introduced the mysterious Silver Surfer and the all powerful, world devouring menace of Galactus.
Of course epic storytelling would surely call for an A list filmmaker with the talent, imagination and gravitas to bring these characters to the silver screen. So who did they get? Sam Raimi? Robert Zemeckis? Peter Jackson? Nope. Tim Story. You know, the gifted visionary behind the action classic Barbershop? The hiring of such a major league hack is merely a symptom of the disease plaguing this franchise, and most Marvel films at the moment, a condition known as chronic cheapness.
It's a strategy that was employed on Ghost Rider: sign a name actor, crank up the effects, and use a journeyman to shoot it fast and cheap. With a semi obscure loser like GR it's understandable, but with one of the crown jewels of the kingdom it's tragic.
The first FF film was merely tolerable, not a flat out disaster but far, far short of a quality picture, yet it posted respectable box office numbers, so Story and company were retained for the follow up. So how does the sequel stack up?
Surprisingly it's a modest upgrade, and at this rate of improvement the fourth or fifth entry in the series should be almost good. Since the DVD arrives barely three months since Rise of the Silver Surfer hit the multiplex, an in depth plot recap is probably unnecessary. It's your fairly standard tale of a metallic coated alien surfer/philosophy major who works part time for an omnipotent, planet chewing nebula, and the family of cosmically enhanced celebrity scientists who are out to stop them. The same old stuff really. This time out the budget has been raised a bit, most of it going into the effects, which are definitely better, with the Surfer himself being undeniably cool.
As a hybrid of actor Doug Jones physical performance, Laurence Fishbourne's voice and the cgi work of Spectral Motion, Norrin Radd comes convincingly alive, or at least as much as a cosmic wave rider can be.
Unfortunately no digital enhancement was applied to make Jessica Alba a seem like a real actress, and her line readings are as awful as ever. Equally grating is that Doctor Doom is still more of a yuppie prick than a dictator, though his costume is now somewhat more comics accurate.
The movie is being offered in several different packages, a bare bones pan and scan, Widescreen and HD editions. The standard def "Power Cosmic" edition looks good on an HD set, and the 5.1 stereo mix is solid. The requisite special features include the expected "Making Of..." featurettes, two different commentaries and an "interactive Fantistcar" to play with if that's your bag.
One of the better segments shows the elaborate make up process of turning Michael Chiklis in the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing, in his new more mobile and stream lined look. What's missing are storyboards, production sketches really showing the evolution of the character's looks since the first movie.
The highlight is a mini-doc called "Sentinel of the Spaceways: Comic book origins of the Silver Surfer", that features interviews with all the major writers who've worked on the character Stan Lee, Jim Starlin and Ron Marz, reminding us that newsprint and india ink can still transport us to far off places that Hollywood is still trying to reach.
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