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As it stands, recent months have delivered us a number of disappointing filmic ventures - Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Shrek 3 were all, at least in my opinion, not up to the standard of the originals. With the sequel to 2005's "Fantastic Four", things are a little different - the original, whilst fun, was never held in the high regard that the aforementioned titles were, but nonetheless, can this sequel retain the coveted title of the "great Summer blockbuster" that we are currently missing this year?
The plot, in a nutshell, leaves off where the last film left us - Dr. Doom is imprisoned in Latveria, and Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) are preparing to finally marry. Just as the pivotal moment approaches, all Hell breaks loose as an alien entity arrives on Earth, who is soon identified as the Silver Surfer. To add to the chaos, Dr. Doom is somehow awakened from his tomb, and through the myriad of double-crosses and questionable motives, there's certainly a lot going on.
That being said, the film is about as good as I, at least, would expect. Given how the original film was an enjoyable Summer actioner, but was ultimately soaked in cheese, I expected much the same here. What you see is what you get, but other than the excellent Silver Surfer, this film just felt lacking. The cheese was just too much, the humour was dire, and perhaps my chief complaint - everything is just too blatant. Stan Lee's cameo, for example, topples over the edge of ridiculousness to the point where I had to laugh, and the product placement, whilst clearly self-aware, was totally insane.
The first half an hour of the film could have been cut down immensely and therefore more time could have been left for the Silver Surfer. Running in at just 90 minutes, donating almost 30 to building up the rather tiresome marriage story and re-acquainting us with the characters just doesn't cut it. That said, the second the Silver Surfer shows up, this film improves by leaps and bounds. The Surfer is excellently rendered, effects-wise, and whilst I was a tad concerned that Lawrence Fishburne was the wrong voice for the job, he did fantastically. Some of the Surfer's dialogue is extremely memorable (i.e. - "All that you know...is coming to an end"). I think comic fanboys will at least appreciate that this is the one thing, above all else, that Tim Story and company got right. That said, Silver Surfer spends a large portion of the film either off-screen, or simply constrained, and so his potential is never truly showcased. However, the scenes involving the Surfer near the climax of the film are great.
There's nothing to write home about performance-wise - nobody pulls off anything particularly impressive (not even the superb Michael Chiklis), but perhaps the most characterised and fleshed-out character in this film is Johnny Storm (the Human Torch, played by Chris Evans). Evans puts on an admirable effort, but again, there's no tour-de-force or career-making performances on-board here. In fact, one could even say that the character with the greatest screen presence was the Silver Surfer, a large component of which is CGI.
Now onto what the fanboys absolutely loathed - the portrayal of Galactus. Fans were expecting some sort of physical entity, it can be assumed, but the end result, without spoiling it, is far from this, and furthermore, Galactus "screen time" (if you can call it that) is no more than five-to-ten minutes. This is largely the point that turned the film into a downer for many avid fans of the comics, and when things like this are changed for seemingly no reason, one can find it difficult to sympathise with the filmmakers.
In conclusion, Fantastic Four 2 is a deeply flawed film, forcing cheese-soaked dialogue and sometimes hokey acting down our throats. However, one cannot fault the Silver Surfer's portrayal, nor the CGI in general. Fanboys beware - you will more than likely loathe this film for its portrayal of Galactus, so my advice to not only fanboys, but all viewers, is to just try to sit back and enjoy the action. This joints the aforementioned in not quite delivering what I hoped for in a Summer blockbuster, and that charge is now left to either Die Hard 4.0 or Transformers. We shall see.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer.
The plot, in a nutshell, leaves off where the last film left us - Dr. Doom is imprisoned in Latveria, and Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) are preparing to finally marry. Just as the pivotal moment approaches, all Hell breaks loose as an alien entity arrives on Earth, who is soon identified as the Silver Surfer. To add to the chaos, Dr. Doom is somehow awakened from his tomb, and through the myriad of double-crosses and questionable motives, there's certainly a lot going on.
That being said, the film is about as good as I, at least, would expect. Given how the original film was an enjoyable Summer actioner, but was ultimately soaked in cheese, I expected much the same here. What you see is what you get, but other than the excellent Silver Surfer, this film just felt lacking. The cheese was just too much, the humour was dire, and perhaps my chief complaint - everything is just too blatant. Stan Lee's cameo, for example, topples over the edge of ridiculousness to the point where I had to laugh, and the product placement, whilst clearly self-aware, was totally insane.
The first half an hour of the film could have been cut down immensely and therefore more time could have been left for the Silver Surfer. Running in at just 90 minutes, donating almost 30 to building up the rather tiresome marriage story and re-acquainting us with the characters just doesn't cut it. That said, the second the Silver Surfer shows up, this film improves by leaps and bounds. The Surfer is excellently rendered, effects-wise, and whilst I was a tad concerned that Lawrence Fishburne was the wrong voice for the job, he did fantastically. Some of the Surfer's dialogue is extremely memorable (i.e. - "All that you know...is coming to an end"). I think comic fanboys will at least appreciate that this is the one thing, above all else, that Tim Story and company got right. That said, Silver Surfer spends a large portion of the film either off-screen, or simply constrained, and so his potential is never truly showcased. However, the scenes involving the Surfer near the climax of the film are great.
There's nothing to write home about performance-wise - nobody pulls off anything particularly impressive (not even the superb Michael Chiklis), but perhaps the most characterised and fleshed-out character in this film is Johnny Storm (the Human Torch, played by Chris Evans). Evans puts on an admirable effort, but again, there's no tour-de-force or career-making performances on-board here. In fact, one could even say that the character with the greatest screen presence was the Silver Surfer, a large component of which is CGI.
Now onto what the fanboys absolutely loathed - the portrayal of Galactus. Fans were expecting some sort of physical entity, it can be assumed, but the end result, without spoiling it, is far from this, and furthermore, Galactus "screen time" (if you can call it that) is no more than five-to-ten minutes. This is largely the point that turned the film into a downer for many avid fans of the comics, and when things like this are changed for seemingly no reason, one can find it difficult to sympathise with the filmmakers.
In conclusion, Fantastic Four 2 is a deeply flawed film, forcing cheese-soaked dialogue and sometimes hokey acting down our throats. However, one cannot fault the Silver Surfer's portrayal, nor the CGI in general. Fanboys beware - you will more than likely loathe this film for its portrayal of Galactus, so my advice to not only fanboys, but all viewers, is to just try to sit back and enjoy the action. This joints the aforementioned in not quite delivering what I hoped for in a Summer blockbuster, and that charge is now left to either Die Hard 4.0 or Transformers. We shall see.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer.
As it stands, recent months have delivered us a number of disappointing filmic ventures - Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Shrek 3 were all, at least in my opinion, not up to the standard of the originals. With the sequel to 2005's "Fantastic Four", things are a little different - the original, whilst fun, was never held in the high regard that the aforementioned titles were, but nonetheless, can this sequel retain the coveted title of the "great Summer blockbuster" that we are currently missing this year?
The plot, in a nutshell, leaves off where the last film left us - Dr. Doom is imprisoned in Latveria, and Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) are preparing to finally marry. Just as the pivotal moment approaches, all Hell breaks loose as an alien entity arrives on Earth, who is soon identified as the Silver Surfer. To add to the chaos, Dr. Doom is somehow awakened from his tomb, and through the myriad of double-crosses and questionable motives, there's certainly a lot going on.
That being said, the film is about as good as I, at least, would expect. Given how the original film was an enjoyable Summer actioner, but was ultimately soaked in cheese, I expected much the same here. What you see is what you get, but other than the excellent Silver Surfer, this film just felt lacking. The cheese was just too much, the humour was dire, and perhaps my chief complaint - everything is just too blatant. Stan Lee's cameo, for example, topples over the edge of ridiculousness to the point where I had to laugh, and the product placement, whilst clearly self-aware, was totally insane.
The first half an hour of the film could have been cut down immensely and therefore more time could have been left for the Silver Surfer. Running in at just 90 minutes, donating almost 30 to building up the rather tiresome marriage story and re-acquainting us with the characters just doesn't cut it. That said, the second the Silver Surfer shows up, this film improves by leaps and bounds. The Surfer is excellently rendered, effects-wise, and whilst I was a tad concerned that Lawrence Fishburne was the wrong voice for the job, he did fantastically. Some of the Surfer's dialogue is extremely memorable (i.e. - "All that you know...is coming to an end"). I think comic fanboys will at least appreciate that this is the one thing, above all else, that Tim Story and company got right. That said, Silver Surfer spends a large portion of the film either off-screen, or simply constrained, and so his potential is never truly showcased. However, the scenes involving the Surfer near the climax of the film are great.
There's nothing to write home about performance-wise - nobody pulls off anything particularly impressive (not even the superb Michael Chiklis), but perhaps the most characterised and fleshed-out character in this film is Johnny Storm (the Human Torch, played by Chris Evans). Evans puts on an admirable effort, but again, there's no tour-de-force or career-making performances on-board here. In fact, one could even say that the character with the greatest screen presence was the Silver Surfer, a large component of which is CGI.
Now onto what the fanboys absolutely loathed - the portrayal of Galactus. Fans were expecting some sort of physical entity, it can be assumed, but the end result, without spoiling it, is far from this, and furthermore, Galactus "screen time" (if you can call it that) is no more than five-to-ten minutes. This is largely the point that turned the film into a downer for many avid fans of the comics, and when things like this are changed for seemingly no reason, one can find it difficult to sympathise with the filmmakers.
In conclusion, Fantastic Four 2 is a deeply flawed film, forcing cheese-soaked dialogue and sometimes hokey acting down our throats. However, one cannot fault the Silver Surfer's portrayal, nor the CGI in general. Fanboys beware - you will more than likely loathe this film for its portrayal of Galactus, so my advice to not only fanboys, but all viewers, is to just try to sit back and enjoy the action. This joints the aforementioned in not quite delivering what I hoped for in a Summer blockbuster, and that charge is now left to either Die Hard 4.0 or Transformers. We shall see.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer.
The plot, in a nutshell, leaves off where the last film left us - Dr. Doom is imprisoned in Latveria, and Sue Storm (the Invisible Woman) and Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) are preparing to finally marry. Just as the pivotal moment approaches, all Hell breaks loose as an alien entity arrives on Earth, who is soon identified as the Silver Surfer. To add to the chaos, Dr. Doom is somehow awakened from his tomb, and through the myriad of double-crosses and questionable motives, there's certainly a lot going on.
That being said, the film is about as good as I, at least, would expect. Given how the original film was an enjoyable Summer actioner, but was ultimately soaked in cheese, I expected much the same here. What you see is what you get, but other than the excellent Silver Surfer, this film just felt lacking. The cheese was just too much, the humour was dire, and perhaps my chief complaint - everything is just too blatant. Stan Lee's cameo, for example, topples over the edge of ridiculousness to the point where I had to laugh, and the product placement, whilst clearly self-aware, was totally insane.
The first half an hour of the film could have been cut down immensely and therefore more time could have been left for the Silver Surfer. Running in at just 90 minutes, donating almost 30 to building up the rather tiresome marriage story and re-acquainting us with the characters just doesn't cut it. That said, the second the Silver Surfer shows up, this film improves by leaps and bounds. The Surfer is excellently rendered, effects-wise, and whilst I was a tad concerned that Lawrence Fishburne was the wrong voice for the job, he did fantastically. Some of the Surfer's dialogue is extremely memorable (i.e. - "All that you know...is coming to an end"). I think comic fanboys will at least appreciate that this is the one thing, above all else, that Tim Story and company got right. That said, Silver Surfer spends a large portion of the film either off-screen, or simply constrained, and so his potential is never truly showcased. However, the scenes involving the Surfer near the climax of the film are great.
There's nothing to write home about performance-wise - nobody pulls off anything particularly impressive (not even the superb Michael Chiklis), but perhaps the most characterised and fleshed-out character in this film is Johnny Storm (the Human Torch, played by Chris Evans). Evans puts on an admirable effort, but again, there's no tour-de-force or career-making performances on-board here. In fact, one could even say that the character with the greatest screen presence was the Silver Surfer, a large component of which is CGI.
Now onto what the fanboys absolutely loathed - the portrayal of Galactus. Fans were expecting some sort of physical entity, it can be assumed, but the end result, without spoiling it, is far from this, and furthermore, Galactus "screen time" (if you can call it that) is no more than five-to-ten minutes. This is largely the point that turned the film into a downer for many avid fans of the comics, and when things like this are changed for seemingly no reason, one can find it difficult to sympathise with the filmmakers.
In conclusion, Fantastic Four 2 is a deeply flawed film, forcing cheese-soaked dialogue and sometimes hokey acting down our throats. However, one cannot fault the Silver Surfer's portrayal, nor the CGI in general. Fanboys beware - you will more than likely loathe this film for its portrayal of Galactus, so my advice to not only fanboys, but all viewers, is to just try to sit back and enjoy the action. This joints the aforementioned in not quite delivering what I hoped for in a Summer blockbuster, and that charge is now left to either Die Hard 4.0 or Transformers. We shall see.
Thanks for reading,
Reefer.
Good review, my thoughts exactly, really cheesy.
There were times when the only people laughing in the cinema were two 5-9 boys and my brother...who is 20.
There were times when the only people laughing in the cinema were two 5-9 boys and my brother...who is 20.
Well when we saw it, the sound kept cutting out, and we dubbed the film ourselves.
Had the whole audience laughing =D
Had the whole audience laughing =D
If you put the first film into super duper slomo on that Jessica Alba shower part, you can see her breasts. If I don't get a gameaday for that contribution then this system is corrupt.
Alfonse wrote:
> If you put the first film into super duper slomo on that Jessica
> Alba shower part, you can see her breasts. If I don't get a
> gameaday for that contribution then this system is corrupt.
I agree, i've got to watch it now, it's on the Sky Anytime Planner,
> If you put the first film into super duper slomo on that Jessica
> Alba shower part, you can see her breasts. If I don't get a
> gameaday for that contribution then this system is corrupt.
I agree, i've got to watch it now, it's on the Sky Anytime Planner,
Dont forget your magnifying glass, you'll need it.
Zooooooom.