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Pass the popcorn ... Fantastic Four delivers summer action
By Ellen Schweir
Splash!
Fantastic Four is a great action movie with a minor romance and interesting graphics. Although the actors are not all teens, the movie is still the type to attract that age group.
In the movie, Reed, a brilliant graduate of MIT, approaches an old colleague, Mr. Von Doom, about performing a study on a cosmic wave that supposedly started life on Earth millions of years ago. They go up to space along with Sue, Ben, and Johnny to perform the study when they are suddenly hit by the storm.
The five develop new abilities, explained by a change in DNA.
Reed, who has never been flexible in his career or social life, can now stretch to amazing limits physically and is renamed Mr. Fantastic.
Sue has always felt that people ignored her or couldn’t see her, and now has the ability to turn invisible and create force fields, giving her the nickname Invisible Girl.
Sue’s brother, Johnny, who is the perpetual playboy, gains the ability to make fire and fly. He is the one who nicknames the others and affectionately calls himself Torch.
Torch names Ben ‘The Thing’ because he was morphed into a creature made entirely of rock.
The last of the five, Mr. Von Doom, was inside the shields, and therefore starts turning into the same material as the shields. He, who has always wanted power, is also able to conduct electricity at great force. He is not a member of the Fantastic Four and is predictably the bad guy.
Despite the thought put into the five’s new abilities, the movie lacks something which all other Marvel productions have: a point. The movie has great action scenes and the prefect soundtrack that includes songs by Taking Back Sunday and Simple Plan.
The movie has a basic plot, which involves gaining new powers, learning about them, and defeating the bad guy, but the movie does not leave you with anything to think about. The characters did not have to overcome any fears, or win any internal battles.
There were very interesting relationship problems, both platonic and romantic, but no other serious moral issues to be dealt with. Sue and Johnny have the usual sibling bickering, there is the classic love triangle, Ben has marital problems, and Reed has to break out of the technical mindset.
The most recognizable actor is the one who plays Johnny. Chris Evans has also acted in other teens movies including The Perfect Score and Not Another Teen Movie. Of the other actors, Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Julian McMahon, Jessica Alba as Sue did the best job.
The movie appeals to a wide enough audience to warrant movie previews for Into the Blue, an action movie with a lot of scenes with women wearing bikinis, and Ice Age 2, a sequel to a kids movie. It may also appeal to Florida residents for the 10 second clip of Florida from space.
Whatever the reason, a lot of people will enjoy Fantastic Four.
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