Fantastic Four (2005)

Title: Fantastic Four
Director: Tim Story
Genre: Comic Book
Highs: Michael Chiklis as the Thing
Lows: Slow moving story
RhynoBot Grade: C

I vaguely remember watching old Fantastic Four cartoons as a kid (I do recall thinking the cartoon wasn't that good) and I was never into reading comic books. So needless to say I am not what you would consider a Fantastic Four fan going into this movie and that status has not changed after watching this film. Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate this film but I didn't really like it either. I guess that's really the problem, this film exists but I don't really care.

There is really nothing new in this movie that we haven't seen before in other comic book movies, done better (Spider-Man). I know most superhero origins are really far fetched with no base in scientific fact but here is a movie where all the characters are brilliant scientist exposed to a solar flare without any radiation protection and they don't asking the simplest scientific question like, how is it possible we survived? (The answer being it isn't.) Anyway, I suspend disbelief and all is right with the Fantastic Four world.

The story was painfully slow at times, dwelling too much on Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Woman's former relationship and running tests to change themselves back to normal. It's really kind of strange that for a comic book action film there really wasn't a lot of action until the end. Personally, the saving grace of the film was the performance by Michael Chiklis as The Thing. He was by far the most talented of the actors in the main cast and his performance made me interested in what was going to happen to him. But then he would leave the screen and I would forget about him and stop caring. Another highlight, mainly from an entertainment value alone, was from Chris Evans who played the Human Torch. The constant back and forth between Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm in the early part of the film and then continued throughout the film as The Thing and the Human Torch was one of the best parts of the movie and seemingly most real aspect of the film.

All in all there is nothing to be gained by watching this film. If you are a fan, you will be entertained by seeing your favorite characters come to life with great special effects. If you're not a fan, you will be bored at time, entertained at others, but ultimately you walk away thinking - this movie was better when it was called "The Incredibles". Go see The Incredibles again, it's 4 times more fantastic then this movie.

Dull movie, you can skip it.