A Pinoy Blog About Nothing

This may seem like heresy to fanboy & girls out there but I love the Fantastic Four movie. Granted it’s not a great movie, but at least its heart is in the right place. I’ll go a step further: I like it better than Batman Begins (zipping up asbestos suit for flamers).

Sure it’s another BLSM — the acting may not be spectacular (I’m looking at your direction Ms. Jessica Alba!), the effects a bit less seamless than we’d like, and there are certain glaring mistakes which require certain huge suspension of disbelief. For me it achieved something Batman Begins couldn’t: it’s actually a fun movie to watch. It could’ve been worse, I tell you. It’s based on a comicbook about a guy who’s rubber, a guy made of stone, another guy who catches on fire and woman who can turn invisible. They have spectacular super powers and portrayed as so. On the big screen it’s fun to watch. However, I doubt it’ll survive a second viewing on DVD/video though unless you have a big-ass TV. Some spoilers after the jump.

So Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) accompanied Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) to seek the help of Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon ) to fund one of his experiments. It seems that NASA would not let Richards do his experiments and his grants were on the low side. As successful businessman Von Doom, Richards’ college rival both in academics and for the heart of one Susan Storm (Jessica Alba) who now works for Von Doom, agrees to bankroll the experiment. Once in space however, they were caught unaware and were exposed to the cosmic storm they were supposed to watch from the protection of Von Doom’s space station. All five - Richards, Von Doom, Grimm, Susan and Susan’s brother Johnny (Chris Evans) survive the exposure and were returned to Earth.

Once on Earth, it wasn’t long before the five started manifesting unusual abilities. Richards can make parts of his body stretch, Grimm has put on a layer of rock in place of his skin, Susan can turn invisible, Johnny’s can engulf his body in flames and Von Doom - his skin started turning into metal and he starts absorbing electricity.

The premise of course is a slight deviation from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s original idea of the Fantastic Four. First published in the 1960s, Fantastic Four paved the way for the rise of Marvel Comics and the whole slew of modern pantheon of super-heroes: Spider-Man, the Hulk, the X-Men, etc. They are indeed the First Family of comics, albeit a dysfunctional one, and this movie is the first big-screen adaptation which have done it justice. The awful Roger Corman produced picture in 1994 was never meant to be released in theaters.

Outside of Alba, the casting for the movie is perfect: Gruffudd brings a certain clueless dorkiness to the emotional distant but brilliant egghead scientist in Richards. Chiklis can project more emotion in his one prosthetic eyebrow as the Thing than Ms. Alba and her umm assets. Evans nailed the Human Torch’s personality perfectly providing much of the comic-relief in the movie often times at the expense of Chiklis’ Thing.

Special mention goes to McMahon who played Von Doom with such aplomb I can’t think of anyone else doing a much better job at it. He maybe channeled his other doctor character from Nip/Tuck but this time he jettisoned any moral pretensions it had and just became this ruthless, would-be world conqueror. Despite some cheesy lines (”Sue, you’re fired”) and bordering on campiness of having V-shaped stuff around him (a giant V behind his throne like chair in the office, a mirror shaped like a V, even his space station is V-shaped for crying out loud), McMahon’s Von Doom doesn’t go over the top yet succeeds in being a menacing presence in the movie even if he’s not on screen. It’s in his eyes, I tell you. Ironically, it was the Dr. Doom costume which curtailed his effectivity as the movie’s bad guy.

Speaking of Doom, fanboys might be peeved they changed his origin a bit. In the comic book Von Doom’s hatred of Reed started when he was scarred from a lab accident in college in which he blamed Richards. He donned a mask to hide his scars and made suit of armor to give him superhuman abilities. The changes for the movie is of course understandable since they needed something more visual for the screen than just a really smart guy putting on armor.

Everything comes together nicely in the final act as the Fantastic Four uses their powers and team-work, something we haven’t seen in the X-Men movies, to take down Dr. Doom. That ending gives Victor enough reason to hate Richards more, I think.

Director Tim Story, did a good job balancing the focus of the movie so that the audience gets a glimpse of each character’s nuances. Although some effects could’ve been better, the special effects on the characters were well executed and served the story rather call attention to itself. The movie even manages to give a nod to its comic-book roots: The Thing’s look is from its comcbook first appearance drawn by Kirby and not the popular, lumpy, modern browbeetle look; Ben Grimm in the trenchcoat and hat, Stan Lee’s cameo as Willy Lumpkin the mailman and Human Torch’s sky writing were nice little touches.

The movie won’t win any Oscars and it may not be as tightly developed as the Spider-Man movies, but Fantastic Four is still very entertaining and worth a trip to the theater. There’s eye candy for the whole family: special effects for the kids, Alba for the guys, Evans for the girls and Chiklis for your pet rock.

Suspend Your Disbelief!

* That first incident on the bridge was caused primarily by the Thing. And yet the police, the firemen and the people who witnessed it still called them heroes? Won’t the truck guy sue the Thing for wrecking his rig and putting him in danger?

* Ben Grimm’s fiancee followed him to the bridge only to break up with him? Wasn’t that implied when she FLED FROM THE SIGHT OF HIM the night before?

* If the Fantastic Four’s costume changed because they were wearing it during the space accident, shouldn’t the whole space station possess powers too?

* If Richards could replicate the cosmic storm in his lab, why couldn’t he just done that instead of getting Von Doom’s help? (Possible explanation: he didn’t have the data before the went up)

* If everyone was knocked unconscious after the cosmic storm, how did they get back to Earth?

Yes, I think about these things.