Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer (2007)

Theatrical Poster
Source: Wikipedia

This film is not on the Empire 500.

Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is a sequel comic book super hero movie, following Mr Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing as they battle again to save the world.

This time it is the threat of a mysterious meteorite that is freezing part of the earth's surface and creating giant holes each time it flies by. The group must find out what's causing it by getting to the source of the meteorite.

Meanwhile, Mr Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) are trying to get through their wedding, isolating the Human Torch (Chris Evans) and The Thing (Michael Chiklid) as they both fear that the group will be split up and replaced by a family.

Most super hero movies, from Spiderman and Batman to X-Men and Ironman, are aimed at adolescents primarily for their darker undertones. On the other hand, Fantastic 4 has its own niche within the genre attempting to cash in on the family market. The original movie was very successful at this, currently grossing $330,120,875 (according to IMDb, June 2010).

Often the success of a movie is determined by the reviews that it is given, but in the family genre parents are more concerned with finding a film that everyone can enjoy, understand and have a laugh with. Fantastic 4 is all of these.

As the film progresses though it is evident that from a reviewers perspective it is never going to be a five-star film - the loosely constructed science is regularly replaced by even more loosely constructed jokes and the storyline hasn't the depth of any of its other Marvel compatriots. On the plus side, it doesn't try to be something that it is not.

Where it does focus is on the CGI, which is superb. While the effects of the four heroes are interesting, the shots of the Silver Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne) with all of his reflective surfaces is something special. The final scene (which I won't spoil) reminds me of the British Doctor Who series where it makes great use of the lighting effects of space.

Overall a solid continuation to the franchise - just don't expect anything more than family fun.