Positive Features About 2007´s FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

2005´s Fantastic Four wasn´t that good but the sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer could have improved upon the mistakes made by the first one. Now the team is complete, they are rich with a huge celebrity status and all of them have developed their powers since the first one. For the most part it did but you could argue that they BARELY improved those mistakes and even created more. In my opinion, this movie surpases its predecesor and it offers a lot of awesome THINGs that hold the movie a little above from mediocre. Some of these things are:

1.- The score: The music for these movies remains awesome and this time around John Ottman adds a more apocalyptic mood than before but without losing the fun Fantastic Four theme that he created before, its nice that they kept Ottman since it creates a music continuity that makes it feel like a true sequel of the first one.

2.- The Fantastic Three: Once again we get great performances from Chris Evans, Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Chiklis who develop their characters further. Gruffudd in particular gets to play the more confident and authoritarian Reed Richards and he comes off as very effective in the leader role (dance scene excluded). Evans plays the Torch with a coming-of-age vibe, as he is forced to assume greater responsability and become a better superhero. The funny THING is that Ben Grimm was at the fore-front of the first movie and they spent most of the movie on his storyline. But now, he is given less to do but it works, since Chiklis plays it very charismatic and lovable that even if he is pushed back a little he STILL stands out. Jessica Alba just sucks IMHO.

3.- Silver Surfer: Played by the awesome Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishbourne, the Silver Surfer is easily the highlight of the movie. The CGI on him is outstanding and actually I noticed that the rest of the effects on the movie look considerably worse than the first one, I guess they blew all their money on Surfer. The movie portrays the character accuratetly to his comic-book conterpart and the action scenes involving him are absolutely AWESOME. Also cool is the fact that he is not completely CGI and that it was Jones in a real costume interacting with the actors.

4.- Stan Lee´s cameo:  Bit of a minor thing but IMO, this is by far the BEST cameo by the man himself in a Marvel movie. Directly inspired by the comicbooks, this gag was SPECIFICALLY created for us fans and I pity the general audiences who were left scratching their heads in confusion thinking why it was funny.

5.- Mistakes corrected: ´This movie corrected many of the issues that bothered me in the first movie. The stakes are higher and there is an actual threat that the four must deal with instead of a jelous bussinessman. Speaking of which, Dr Doom´s role in this movie is actually more like the traditional Doom: power hungry, arrogant and not caring about anyone else. The four now are celebrities like in the comics and there are some nice touches like them having their own toy store or the city sending them a bill for a destroyed truck. The Baxter Building is HUGELY improved, now being a full half of a building with a giant 4 on the top and the action is bigger and more high speed than last time. Also: Fantastic-Car. ´Nuff Said.

6.- A better plot: A BIG problem with the first one was the fact that after they get their powers the plot meanders around for many periods of time and while this movie also wanders around mostly in the beggining, the moment the Surfer shows up the plot does becomes more focused and 100 times more interesting that the Dr Doom plot in the first one.

7.- Comedy?: Again, great comedic banter between the four heroes but still a lot of dum jokes though this time there wasn´t a lot of them.

So there you have my reasons. Now, I know a lot of people hate of this movie comes from the fact that Galactus was portrayed as a cosmic cloud instead of a giant in a purple armor. In my opinion it made sense for them to change him to keep it believable but I DO understand why people hate this change and they have provided great criticisms of this choice. I just want to add this: imagine if we would have gotten the giant G on-screen, now imagine the genius Tim Story trying to portray him in his superhero- comedy. He would have been completely wasted and out of place in the hands of that hack and if Fant4stic proves to be any good, I wish Josh Trank portrays Galactus in a more dignifed manner. So guys, click the comments to let me know what do you think of the movie and this article.


MORE POSITIVE FEATURES:
2004´s The Punisher
2005´s Fantastic four