Dan M
Reviewer

      “The brightest flame burns out the quickest.” In an age of superhero flicks, there is this trend that desires not action, but rather the motivation behind why they do what they do. Consider “Spider Man 2,” “The Hulk,” and more recently, “Batman Begins.” They have left action on the curb in exchange for seeing what makes the superhero want to fight. The newest of Stan Lee’s comics to grace the silver screen, “The Fantastic Four,” is no exception. However, unlike the films aforementioned, it fails to fully complete the cycle, showing the transformation, the adaptation, and the ultimate confrontation.
 
     It begins with Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffuld) desperately asking Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon of “Nip/Tuck” fame) for permission to study a cloud of cosmic radiation that may or may not have caused the massive stages of evolution on Earth. Along for the ride are his former girlfriend Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), her pilot brother Johnny (Chris Evans) and the muscle of Reed’s organization Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis). Of course something goes wrong, and when they return to earth each member slowly discovers they have some new gift.
 
     The film's strength relies in the humanization of these mutations. Each character approaches their newfound gifts in vastly different ways. Whereas Johnny, aka The Human Torch, embraces his chance to become even more popular with the outside world, especially the ladies, Ben Grimm, aka The Thing, has to deal with his wife leaving him and adjusting to a world where people gasp at the sight of him. The comic one-liner exchanges between The Thing and The Human Torch also make the movie somewhat enjoyable, although their moments are clichéd and fleeting. The other strength resides in the villain, Victor Von Doom. His cockiness and smugness radiates as he puts his plan into motion. His little smile, along with the special powers he acquired, makes him shockingly “bad” enough while, at the same time, also makes him likeable enough that seeing him struggle with his powers adds a level to the film that has been consistently explored over the past few years in the superhero genre.
 
     The film, however, falters on numerous levels, the least of which is the action sequences. As The Thing utters his catch phrase, “It’s clobbering time,” the movie becomes a complete bore. The special effects, an obvious retread from the “X-Men” franchise complete with not-so-conspicuous shots of the Statue of Liberty, doesn’t make any new headway and is, quite frankly, boring. The tongue-in-cheek aspects of the comic book have been semi-stripped away and replaced with a misfired attempt at bold seriousness. Sure, it’s campy and it’s pure escapism, but one element is missing and that completely belittles the befuddled mess into something the censors won’t allow to be printed here.
 
     The basis of movie criticism is to inform people of what a good movie is. A good movie is one that, after seeing it, the viewer cannot finish out the rest of their life without seeing it again. The Fantastic Four, if it ended about 55 minutes into the film, could very well have been one of those films. As is, it’s an hour and forty minutes of confusion and boredom, of laughter and yawning. As Groucho Marx said, “I’ve had a wonderful time, and this wasn’t it.”