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Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
Reviewed by Rich Drees
To call the comic book adaptation sequel Fantastic Four: Rise Of
The Silver Surfer a better film than its predecessor, would be
damning it with the faintest of praise. The film manages to
capitalize and improve upon what worked in the first installment,
but unfortunately finds a whole new series of problems as well.
A combination
of two classic comic book storylines, this film finds the
super-powered Fantastic Four investigating a series of mysterious
events only to discover that there cause is a cosmically powered
entity they dub the “Silver Surfer.” Things go from bad to worse
when the Surfer reveals that he is preparing Earth to be consumed by
an even more powerful alien creature called Galactus who feeds off
of the life forces of entire planets. Racing against time to find a
way to stop Galactus, the Four find themselves allied with their old
enemy Doctor Doom. But Doom has an agenda of his own.
Essential a
rather unconventional family of superheroes, this installment of the
Fantastic Four’s adventures is aimed strictly at family audiences.
Despite the threat of planetary genocide, the film’s tone is light
and jokey. Sure, some of the moments strain credulity. It’s funny
seeing the bulky Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) trying to squeeze into
an airline’s narrow coach-class seat, though you may balk at the
idea that media darlings like the Four have become would be flying a
regular commercial flight.
As with the
first film, the character moments are what the film captures best.
Super scientist and super-elastic Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and
his fiancée Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) are preparing for their wedding
but are stressed by the media scrutiny their nuptials have come
under. Sue’s brother Johnny (Chris Evans), the Human Torch, and Ben
continue their friendly rivalry, but also share an honest and
heartfelt chat in a bar that reveals a bit more about the each of
them to the other than they’d probably care to admit.
Director Tim
Story shows courage for attempting to bring the comic story of the
Silver Surfer to the big screen, especially as it depends on the
character Galactus - a hundreds feet tall giant dressed in purple
and blue with a giant tuning fork-like helmet – who would be hard to
translate cinematically without him looking entirely goofy. As such,
he makes the only choice possible- by keeping the world-devouring
entity off camera or obscured by a giant debris cloud, only hinted
at in quick glimpses of shadow. The unfortunate side-effect is that
any real tension and sense of urgency the film tries to generate is
severely undercut because the film’s primary threat is often talked
about, but seldom seen.
Someone we see
far too much of in the film is Julian McMahon’s Doctor Doom. With
the film not being as weighted and dark an affair as many other
superhero adaptations that have graced the screens in recent years,
McMahon takes this as license to turn in a rather hammy,
over-the-top performance that helps to unbalance the film. |
