Saturday, December 29, 2007

SYC Reviews: Fantastic Four - Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Time for our next review and this time, it's Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer. This sequel finds us not long after the original film. Now I went into the original expecting very little and was surprised that it was mildly enjoyable. Not that I went into this one with greater expectations but I did expect some kind of improvement in this film. Instead it feels stuck in neutral and that this universe will continue to be the same kind of interpretation.

The early part of the film dealing with the F4 all acclimated to life and trying to get on with Sue and Reed's wedding tries way too hard to go for some comedy that is often miss. In fact the funniest moment might be when after Johnny has encountered the Surfer and has power switching problems, Sue gets his power and is screaming about being on fire through the window Reed is blankly staring at. This series continually tries to pander to families, not that it shouldn't be family oriented, but it has a hard time being just a little mature when necessary.

The plot is simple enough, the wedding is interrupted by the entrance of the Silver Surfer, whom Reed is trying to track as he makes disturbances around the world. And I do mean around the world, this film manages to take place in New York, China, Siberia, England, and even Latveria. Yes Latveria, where the previous villain Dr. Doom is magically brought back by the cosmic energy of the Surfer. Unfortunately his interpretation still lacks, especially the use of his normal, non-scary voice with the mask on. Eventually he joins forces with the four to bring down the Surfer who is working for "the destroyer". As every comic book fan knows, that's Galactus. Soon enough they manage to catch the Surfer, whose representation is actually handled pretty well, though I keep picturing Morpheus everytime he talks.

Suffice it to say that the best sequence in the film involves Doom's double cross, when he steals the Surfer's board (because the military helping them are complete fools) and goes on a rampage, chased by the four in the Fantasticar, a neat little sequence of special effects. The ending isn't all that thrilling since only the Surfer can stop Galactus and I won't complain about his appearance, it's moot at this point.

While the film does still manage to be entertaining and keep you watching throughout, perhaps what also held it back for me was that it reminded a little too much of X2, having the good and bad guys team up while also dealing with a military organization. F4 is clearly the most laid back of all the comic book adaptations, and while it is the most imaginative and fun book to base stuff off of, it doesn't quite translate that well to the big screen.

With that said, I'm willing to give it the Silver Medal of Surfing, because anything else just wouldn't be appropriate. Now Julian McMahon do us a favor and develop a real villain voice. I can only imagine how dumb Christian Bale would sound with his normal voice as Batman.

4 comments:

Adam Entertainment said...

Christian Bale using his regular voice for Batman? I don't think the world is ready for an English Batman yet!

I liked FF2. It's mindless, knows it, and revels in it. Can the FF be better movie, a more serious one like X-Men or Batman? Sure. But for what its worth, the FF are amusing and somewhat entertaining.

Gonch In Goal said...

I know I was a bit harsh on it, but I don't know, I wish it could be something a little more. Maybe I just notice a little too much when a film like that stakes out the minimum hour and a half that there's not much plot to be had. Especially when they are drawing from such famous story in comic book circles.

It's still more entertaining than stuff like Punisher, Blade, or Daredevil for sure, because it doesn't lose it's fun factor at any point. Doom really doesn't add much to it though, it helped that Surfer was pretty darn cool. I don't expect the film to be serious I guess, but I don't know that they really did much with the story is all.

David McIntyre said...

You take that back, Punisher was perfect. I was still laughing from previous scenes while people were being tortured. It was a new experience.

Gonch In Goal said...

True, that was some screwed up stuff. Plus killing John Travolta wins you points. It wasn't anything special beyond that though. Course I wasn't expecting as much. I found at least Daredevil to be rather underwhelming.