It's clobberin' time!

The adaptation of Fantastic Four for the silver screen has almost only gotten bad reviews. Wired called it lazy and full of fluff. Others have called it inept, goofy, bad, etc. I want to disagree, but mostly to the fact that goofy would be a bad thing. To my mind comic book movies aren't goofy enough. The two Spider-man-movies are excellent adaptations. I really like them, even though Peter Parker/Spider-man isn't even a third as goofy as in the comic. All them witty remarks, bad jokes. The nerdiness. Of course there's a lot of seriousness in comic books too. And that has been explored very well in many movies, like the forementioned Spider-Man 1 & 2, and X-men 1 & 2, and the Hulk. This movie, The Fantastic Four, brings up an other side of some comic books. The goofiness, if you will. The funny dialouge. Sure, the movie felt kind of rushed sometimes, especially nearing the end. Nice tempo up to two thirds of the movie, and then it rushes through the end. Wouldn't had hurt anything to slow it down, take some time to explain some things, characters motivation. (Dr.Doom for example.) Critics has said that F.F. totally misses the opportunities to explore deeper issues like how to handle fame, or power, or love. And it does. The movie doesn't go very "deep", and to me that's not necessarily a bad thing. It felt almost sort of "fresh" in comparison with what some would call "deeper" comic book movies. There was alot of entertainment, alot of thrilling action and basically a lot of good times.
About the casting. Overall good casting, I'd say. Especially Chris Evans as Johnny Storm/Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm/The Thing. I'd say those two where better than O.K. They where right on the money. Jessica Alba as Sue Storm/Invicible Girl wasn't so good. Didn't really work, I thought. Didn't really believe that she'd be a superscientist. Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic was allright. Kind of the same nerdy, abscent-minded-but-still-sharp kind of guy. Finaly, Julian McMahon as Vincent von Doom. He was good. Too bad his character wasn't explored enough.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It certainly wasn't the best comic book adaptation I've seen. Far from it. The movie had a lot of problems. But it was the same kind of enjoyment I get from reading a random comic book. Very entertaining. Don't like pulp, don't go see it. Enjoy pulp? Run to the cinema, dude.

Flame on!