Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Jun. 22nd, 2007 07:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seawaspSummary: This continues the trend of the first movie of making a superhero movie that you can take your kids to. The other super-franchises -- X, Spider-Man -- get too dark for me to take young kids to, but the FF movies avoid that. They're not KIDDIE movies... they're FAMILY movies. And that's a good thing. I took the whole family to this one, and everyone watched, and no one got too scared or freaked out. And it's a fun movie.
First, the negative: They failed to salvage Doctor Doom. They COULD have -- there were some excellent plot possibilities -- but the guy playing him wasn't handed Doom lines, and perhaps just couldn't handle the role. Doom is DRAMATIC. He's a scenery-chewing, MAJESTIC, ranting, HONORABLE villain with grandiose plans. Unfortunately they only got pieces of him. The plan he had was, actually, quite a Doomlike plan. He just didn't have... DOOM in him.
Part of that's probably just the actor; to pull off that character requires a lot of stage presence so you don't look stupid. If he was about 40 years younger, Christopher Lee would be perfect. (Count Dooku from the Star Wars prequels was very much like Doom, actually.)
That, however, is the ONLY failing of this movie. And they get the rest SO VERY RIGHT.
The Silver Surfer is *PERFECT*. From his mysterious, cold, unspeaking entrance to his slow humanization to his final decision, he is visually, artistically, and emotionally The Silver Surfer, straight out of the comics.
The Fantastic Four are *PERFECT*. These are the Four as I remember them from the comics, especially the earlier years, when Johnny was still a wiseass, arrogant pain in the ass, Sue and Reed still figuring out how to deal with being The Fantastic Couple, and Ben Grimm stolidly soldiering along and mostly not complaining, no matter how much complaining he had a right to do. Of the four actors, Jessica Alba is the only one who doesn't have the perfect LOOK (Susan Storm was more model-gorgeous than blonde-cute), but even she *IS* her role. These actors either read the comics, or were coached by people who intimately understood those four characters. (this does make the failure to make Victor Von Doom correctly more of a mystery; how you can get the Four note-perfect and completely fail to understand Doom, I don't know.)
The reimagining of Galactus... excellent. Much as I love him, our favorite Art-Deco Helmet-wearing giant would just look stupid on the screen, no matter who was wearing the costume. The cosmic force they depicted in this movie is much more awesome and terrifying, and convincing. (and we did get one nod to the original Galactus, in the shape of the shadow moving over Saturn)
Overall, this is an 8.5 movie. Very fun, pretty much family-friendly, and pretty well paced, too.
First, the negative: They failed to salvage Doctor Doom. They COULD have -- there were some excellent plot possibilities -- but the guy playing him wasn't handed Doom lines, and perhaps just couldn't handle the role. Doom is DRAMATIC. He's a scenery-chewing, MAJESTIC, ranting, HONORABLE villain with grandiose plans. Unfortunately they only got pieces of him. The plan he had was, actually, quite a Doomlike plan. He just didn't have... DOOM in him.
Part of that's probably just the actor; to pull off that character requires a lot of stage presence so you don't look stupid. If he was about 40 years younger, Christopher Lee would be perfect. (Count Dooku from the Star Wars prequels was very much like Doom, actually.)
That, however, is the ONLY failing of this movie. And they get the rest SO VERY RIGHT.
The Silver Surfer is *PERFECT*. From his mysterious, cold, unspeaking entrance to his slow humanization to his final decision, he is visually, artistically, and emotionally The Silver Surfer, straight out of the comics.
The Fantastic Four are *PERFECT*. These are the Four as I remember them from the comics, especially the earlier years, when Johnny was still a wiseass, arrogant pain in the ass, Sue and Reed still figuring out how to deal with being The Fantastic Couple, and Ben Grimm stolidly soldiering along and mostly not complaining, no matter how much complaining he had a right to do. Of the four actors, Jessica Alba is the only one who doesn't have the perfect LOOK (Susan Storm was more model-gorgeous than blonde-cute), but even she *IS* her role. These actors either read the comics, or were coached by people who intimately understood those four characters. (this does make the failure to make Victor Von Doom correctly more of a mystery; how you can get the Four note-perfect and completely fail to understand Doom, I don't know.)
The reimagining of Galactus... excellent. Much as I love him, our favorite Art-Deco Helmet-wearing giant would just look stupid on the screen, no matter who was wearing the costume. The cosmic force they depicted in this movie is much more awesome and terrifying, and convincing. (and we did get one nod to the original Galactus, in the shape of the shadow moving over Saturn)
Overall, this is an 8.5 movie. Very fun, pretty much family-friendly, and pretty well paced, too.
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no subject
Date: 2007-06-23 01:39 am (UTC)Johnny and Ben are perfect.
We also get a glimpse of the Kirby Galactus at the end. Look closely at that swirling mass of energy...
But yeah, fun film, with enough humor and action to make it worth the popcorn.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-23 02:03 am (UTC)Admittedly, I was never that big a fan of the F4 or Galactus in the first place, so I was less likely to be either enraged by them getting it wrong or delighted by them getting it right.
Speaking broadly, though, we've been lucky to get some very good comic-book movies over the last few years. The Spider-Man movies, the X-Men movies (mostly), Batman Begins... I'd put movies like F4 or Daredevil in the second tier, as not great but still plenty watchable. It more than makes up for the occasional Catwoman or Elektra.
It was much better than the first one ...
Date: 2007-06-25 04:15 pm (UTC)It was a nice light pop-corn flick and I brought my 9 yr old to with no worries.
The first one got a little bogged down with the Thing's "I'm a monster" angst. But seriously -- a large orange rock/man -- how scary is that in today's view? It's not like he's dripping gore, with fangs, etc.
I understand that they pulled the feeling from the comics -- and I can understand it from the character's viewpoint -- but how it was handled on film didn't really work for me. I can understand him being stared at -- but a cop shooting him? *rolls eyes*
But then again -- I never read the comics.
Re: It was much better than the first one ...
Date: 2007-06-25 04:16 pm (UTC)Re: It was much better than the first one ...
Date: 2007-07-01 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-01 11:55 pm (UTC)http://tmpiper.livejournal.com/851480.html
Anyway, I saw your name on the usenet ST:VOY group and thought I would add you to my list of friends. I hope you don't mind. If you do, let me know and I will remove you right away.
I never...
Date: 2007-07-02 12:41 am (UTC)I'm curious as to how I ended up on a ST:Voyager group, though. Must have been a crosspost or something, as (being honest) Voyager is to me the absolute nadir of Star Trek. :)
Re: I never...
Date: 2007-07-02 12:54 am (UTC)The usenet post was a cross-posted thread (rec.arts.anime.misc, rec.sport.pro-wrestling, alt.fan.dragons, alt.tv.star-trek.voyager, rec.games.roguelike.nethack) and you were replying to a user named "Sanjian." You were espousing a two method plan for dealing with trolls.