Fantastic Four Review

I don't usually do film reviews, but I went out this morning to catch the first showing of the day.  For $5 and only a handful of other people it's a win win.

When I collected comics as a kid the Fantastic Four was my favorite group.  The Thing my favorite superhero.  When they released the previous Fantastic Four from...what about 10 years ago...I was disappointed.  Nope, I was pissed.  I'll give a little ground that the second one was better, but that's like saying an infected open sore smells better than a maggot covered corpse. 

The hype leading up to this movie has been all negative.  I can't think of anything positive except maybe one guy saying the movie was horrible, but at least it was short.  Which I can appreciate.  Then you have the idiots bitching about the Torch being played by a black guy.  When I hear complaints like that I put them in that special little box in my mind where senseless dumb stuff get thrown in the incinerator.  Then you had the director saying the movie is different from the one he cut.  So, not too much good was said about it.

But I don't give two shits or a nickle what others say about a film.  I'll make up my own damn mind. 

My expectation for this movie was nothing more than to watch a superhero movie on the big screen.  And appreciate it for what it is, tumors and all.

I liked the movie.  It was a decent movie for a summer watch.  That's all I wanted.  It is a very flawed movie, yes.  My biggest complaint is one I have for many superhero movies that always want to go over the goddamn origin story again and again and again.  I've seen batman's parents get shot enough.  I've seen Uncle Ben get whacked enough and the radioactive spider chomp Peter, I've seen enough versions of Superman crashing into a country cornfield to make me puke.  The difference however for those examples is they embraced becoming something different.

For some reason it has become canon that the Fantastic Four must bitch about being changed.  Then, near the end they accept who they are.  This version of the Fantastic Four is no different.  Except for Torch.  Torch always likes being the Torch.  It's like these movies are a first level adventure that they keep using over and over and rarely do we get to see them reach a different level.  Avengers does this well, showing the development of power and its cost.

Despite the whiny part in the middle, the Fantastic Four had some interesting bits in it.   I really enjoyed the dimension they were exploring.  They called it Planet Zero.  I'm not sure where that falls in the mythology of the FF4.  I remember the Negative Zone!  It kinda looked like the Negative Zone.

The boss fight at the end seemed to have been cut down.  I liked the introduction of Dr. Doom, it was kinda creepy.  But the final fight was over quick. 

Will I run out and see this film again?  No.  Will I get it on DVD?  Probably not.  Am I glad I went and saw it?  Absolutely.  It was a fun summer movie.  Just check your expectations at the door and sit back have fun.