Fantastic Four (2005)

 

Genre: Action/ Superhero

Time: 1h 46mins

Director: Tim Story

Quick Summary: A group of astronauts gain superpowers after being exposed to cosmic radiation and must use them to oppose the plans of their enemy, Doctor Victor Von Doom.

I went into this expecting to hate it only to discover how enjoyable it is. Obviously very campy and a ball of fun the whole way through. I do think this is a more "Family Friendly" superhero film but honestly, I don't care because not everything needs to be serious or dramatic. It does get corny and the lines are absolutely hilarious at times. I mean there is a point where one guy is proposing to Sue and I couldn't tell if they were together as partners or co-workers for 2 years because how they interacted with each other gave no connection between them at all. That said, I loved most of Johnny's lines mostly because he was such a dickbag, but he was a funny dickbag constantly through jabs and one-liners at the team.

This does follow the usual steps of every other superhero film, something goes wrong causing a life-changing aspect, they need to get used to this new aspect, they have fun while exploring this, a villain appears, and they beat the villain down. Easy and simple, and really predictable, but sometimes you need to let go and just enjoy something like this. There are some surface-level deep moments, like when Ben's wife leaves him because he's now deformed, which I actually thought was horrible but we don't really go deeper than that. Mostly the film focuses on Ben and his transformation and barely of anything to do with Johnny aside when he's being an ass, but it does manage to balance itself with this and action. 

As for the CGI, I can say they probably did their best considering the time and the Fantastic Four weren't exactly a popular comic book series either. We get some kinda strange looking flames for Johnny and when Reed stretches out, it's actually really gross. Though that said, it does have that comic book feel. Which mostly I think comes from the costumes and the script, which are both equally as cheesy.

I do complain about action scenes a lot as someone who doesn't really enjoy them, the ones in this were actually pretty good. There are a lot of elements of teamwork and coming together to defeat something. In one of the first scenes they actually work together as the FF and while it was tense, it wasn't overly dramatic. Again it managed to have that comic book feel when the team saved various people through their various power uses. I can't imagine what this would have been like if everything was super serious, cool and edgy. 

I do think it's a shame the villain kind of sucked. We got all this time building him up for him to not do much. From what I could tell the only reason he became a villain was because he was jealous, so he went absolutely berserk and tried to kill a bunch of people. Honestly, he was really thin and I think if more screentime went into developing him and his motivations, he would have worked better. Also, I'm still not sure what his powers actually were as it never really explicitly said what they were.

Classic and cheesy, and most of all very enjoyable. There are a lot of elements to this which gives it that 2000's feel, especially the soundtrack which is full of pop-punk and hip-hop, but I love that. A brilliant way to pass a couple of hours if you don't want to watch something too serious.

6/10

"Susan Storm: Johnny, it's too dangerous for you to be in public.

Johnny Storm: You've been saying that for years."

"Johnny Storm: [to Ben, after first seeing him as The Thing] Where are your ears?"