Fantastic Four

 6/10

Movie:

The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

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| Entry | I think this one is probably better than the first FF film.. I did enjoy that one, but I understand a lot of people's criticisms of it. This one has a much less complicated plot, which is probably a good thing given the trend in recent summer blockbusters (Spider-Man 3, Pirates 3, etc). It may be a little too simple, lacking much in the way of character development or depth, but sometimes thats alright... after all its a comic book movie after all.

Basically the Silver Surfer comes to earth to prepare it for Galactus (the devourer of worlds). FF try to stop him, can't, team up with (a conveniently resurrected) Doctor Doom and the army... yada yada yada, Doctor Doom is still evil but the world doesn't get destroyed. :-P

Some of the special effects were pretty weak (at some points it seems like the mr. fantastic CG in the first one was better than this one, and silver surfer is horribly fake looking in a few shots), but some shots and effects were pretty cool. It has a lot of action (most of which is CG). Too little Julian McMahon (Dr. Doom) though, I felt he was the best thing about the first one, but in this movie he's pretty superfluous, but the FF actors seem to be more comfortable with their roles than the first one.

The only thing I really have a problem with is the ending... the final showdown takes place in Shanghai for some reason... but its so obviously NOT shanghai... the street signs look like some art director's fantasy of what Shanghai might look like... but it comes out as some sort of bizarre mash-up of Hong Kong and Tokyo... wtf?

And then there's the end end... i'll use spoiler tags:

you seriously have to wonder if they also don't know the difference between China and Japan... since they have a quasi-japanese wedding for some reason, despite the fact that they were supposed to be in China (again, obviously not really filmed in Japan too. A japanese garden in Vancouver or the US by my guess). I mean its all good to be multicultural, but what the hell, at least put in a line that says "hey, let's fly to japan to do a 'japanese' wedding."

I'll give it a 6/10. Not Spider-Man 2, but not bad. Time for bed!