Flame On!
URGA MOTW
Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer
... or as my movie ticket would have it, "Fant-Four2"
Yes, it's time for yet another sequel. Compared to a lot of other recent Comic Book Superhero films, the first Fantastic Four movie wasn't anything special. It was not nearly as good as say, Batman Begins or Spider-man or X-Men, but it was also not nearly as bad as Catwoman or Elektra (thankfully which I've seen neither). Still, it was obviously popular enough to warrant a sequel, and here we are...
The Fantastic Four are getting on with their lives as celebrities and heroes now - Reed & Susan are trying to get married, again (the ceremony keeps getting postponed for various reasons) and there's way too much media hype surrounding it, reflecting on our obsession with paparazzism. (Is that even a word?). Johnny's all about the four getting corporate sponsors, and Ben is... erm, nothing new with him, as far as I could tell.
Then the Silver Surfer arrives, causing havoc. He breaks up the wedding, and after a nice chase, defeats Johnny and makes his powers 'unstable' and swappable... a few amusing spots as Johnny swaps powers with Susan & Ben, providing a few needed light-hearted jokes and yet another opportunity for some PG-rated 'fan service'.
Dr Doom is also reawakened by the Surfer's power and does the traditional double-cross that we'd expect. The plot is simple and easy, the dialogue is neither great nor woeful, and the action sequences are fairly pleasant. The biggest problem is, once again, it's a fairly bland movie. The characters have very little depth and are essentially 2-D caricatures: Reed is obsessed with his science to the detriment of his relationship, Johnny is a self-important ass, Ben is the tough guy with a sensitive heart and Susan is... um, not sure what' she's for. Probably just eye candy.
The Silver Surfer (Body: Doug Jones, Voice: Laurence Fishburne) isn't given a huge amount of time to develop a character either, but boiling his opinions/actions/decisions to their bare minimum does still make sense, and he's not such a bad character.
On the whole... it was average, just like the first one. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Only a few bits of cheese (Stan Lee's cameo and The big 4 at the end) and some nice special effects, sparingly used.
6/10
And next time, on URGA MOTW...
Transformers
Oh I do hope this doesn't suck. Although I have heard it's big on action, short on character depth and plot, which I guess is OK as long as it's not too ridiculous...
Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer
... or as my movie ticket would have it, "Fant-Four2"
Yes, it's time for yet another sequel. Compared to a lot of other recent Comic Book Superhero films, the first Fantastic Four movie wasn't anything special. It was not nearly as good as say, Batman Begins or Spider-man or X-Men, but it was also not nearly as bad as Catwoman or Elektra (thankfully which I've seen neither). Still, it was obviously popular enough to warrant a sequel, and here we are...
The Fantastic Four are getting on with their lives as celebrities and heroes now - Reed & Susan are trying to get married, again (the ceremony keeps getting postponed for various reasons) and there's way too much media hype surrounding it, reflecting on our obsession with paparazzism. (Is that even a word?). Johnny's all about the four getting corporate sponsors, and Ben is... erm, nothing new with him, as far as I could tell.
Then the Silver Surfer arrives, causing havoc. He breaks up the wedding, and after a nice chase, defeats Johnny and makes his powers 'unstable' and swappable... a few amusing spots as Johnny swaps powers with Susan & Ben, providing a few needed light-hearted jokes and yet another opportunity for some PG-rated 'fan service'.
Dr Doom is also reawakened by the Surfer's power and does the traditional double-cross that we'd expect. The plot is simple and easy, the dialogue is neither great nor woeful, and the action sequences are fairly pleasant. The biggest problem is, once again, it's a fairly bland movie. The characters have very little depth and are essentially 2-D caricatures: Reed is obsessed with his science to the detriment of his relationship, Johnny is a self-important ass, Ben is the tough guy with a sensitive heart and Susan is... um, not sure what' she's for. Probably just eye candy.
The Silver Surfer (Body: Doug Jones, Voice: Laurence Fishburne) isn't given a huge amount of time to develop a character either, but boiling his opinions/actions/decisions to their bare minimum does still make sense, and he's not such a bad character.
On the whole... it was average, just like the first one. Nothing great, nothing horrible. Only a few bits of cheese (Stan Lee's cameo and The big 4 at the end) and some nice special effects, sparingly used.
6/10
And next time, on URGA MOTW...
Transformers
Oh I do hope this doesn't suck. Although I have heard it's big on action, short on character depth and plot, which I guess is OK as long as it's not too ridiculous...