Villagers With Pitchforks

The flaming torches were delayed in transit, sorry.

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Location: Glendale, Arizona, U.S. Outlying Islands

Monday, July 11, 2005

Poor Four

How the hell can a competently-acted comic-book movie with great effects be so damn boring?

I refer to Fantastic Four.

Okay. The high points: Michael Chiklis' portrayal of Ben (the Thing) Grimm is right on the money. Likewise, Chris Evans was having fun as Johnny Storm. Whatever building lobby the Baxter Building was based on is an architectural gem. Very nice. One of the more expensive fight scenes had its amusing aspects. And the form-fitting superhero uniforms had some good-looking bodies to fill them.

Those are the good things I can say. I suppose I could add that it's shot on a decent grade of color film and provided paid employment to a number of artists and technicians, but that's about it. It's a "see-once" and don't pay full price.

Yes, we see the Four get their powers, and yes, there's some Marvel comics angst and no, the characters don't all get along. Of course Dr. Doom is in the movie, but there was little sense of menace. At the climactic battle I was wondering why they were bothering to fight that spoiled brat. Had I been watching this movie on DVD instead of on the big screen, I would have drifted away and got a snack or something.

And yet this is really, truly, the best Fantastic Four movie ever made. Sigh.

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