1960s Super Heroics at Their Best

My brother Scott and I went and saw "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" on Saturday.

But before I get started, let me just say that the first "Fantastic Four" movie wasn't nearly as bad as a lot of people seemed to think. I mean, it certainly wasn't a GREAT movie by any means, but it stayed true to the feel of the comic book. How would you propose adapting a story about a family of superheroes who all get their powers at the same time from a cosmic cloud of radiation? It's impossible to stay somewhat true to the source material AND not be somewhat corny. My main problem with the first film was the act of giving Dr. Doom powers, because he doesn't have them in the comics. He's more of an evil mastermind than the brawler-type (see the last ten minutes of "Unbreakable" for a good explanation of the differences between these binaries).

"Rise of the Silver Surfer" surpassed its predecessor, probably in that it moved along a little faster -- but not TOO quickly. In the film medium it is common for #2's in sets of movies to be less enjoyable than the first ("Batman Returns," "Temple of Doom," "Back to the Future," etc.) with notable exceptions ("Spider-Man 2," "Toy Story 2," "Empire Strikes Back," etc.). Thankfully, "Surfer" breaks the mold!

Perhaps there isn't a lot of depth in Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. And perhaps their romance isn't entirely acceptable by the viewer. But the story is written in a way that their shallowness doesn't bother me whatsoever. Honestly, I am fine with their romance. The film doesn't attempt to tell us something about love, it attempts to give us a fun time, and it does.

I mean... What else could you do with a film that develops a story from a comic book based on a family of superheroes in a sequel that revolves around a silver man riding a surf board through space? I think sometimes we get a little carried away with wanting everything to fit into a modern pop-culture context, forgetting that a lot of the characters we'd like to see adapted for screen (whether from comics or not) are based on pop culture from decades ago and really only remain popular for their nostalgic value. Altering them drastically would cause uproar from the fans who wanted to see them in the first place, therefore the only solution is to adapt them as truly as possible.

I liked the interaction between Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) and Ben Grimm (the Thing). There is still tension in their relationship, but over the course of the movie you see the tension turn into more of a playful teasing as an underlying friendship is built. Johnny himself goes through some great character development as he learns to be less selfish and focus on teamwork, and his personal storyline culminates with the team's galaxy-sized dilemma in a pretty awesome brawl between him and Dr. Doom which had Scott and I cheering in the theater!

The Surfer himself is very well done. I am not an avid reader of the Fantastic Four by any means, and if I have read any comics with the Surfer actually in it, he has only had brief appearances. Thus I can make no substantial claim as to whether or not he was done "correctly," yet I was impressed and thought that his display of power and inner-dilemma was overall pretty good.

Galactus' representation in the movie was... well... actually, expected. Without giving TOO much away, I've got to defend the filmmakers in their decision. As corny as the Fantastic Four is, how much cornier would it have been to have a giant man looking to take a giant bite out of planet Earth? Has anyone here seen "Pirates 3" with the jumbo-Callipso? A super-sized Jamaican chick is bad enough. A man whose stature rivals that of the solar system would just look lame in a live action film (though I swear there are some brief moments when we catch glimpses of the shape of Galactus' helmet in the film, nods to the original material).

I do take issue with how quickly the threat was vanquished once Surfer became traitor to his master, and I do think the movie had its flaws, but this is the best summer movie I've seen so far this summer. Why? Because it doesn't try to be anything more than it is, and is still fun, with good action scenes, great CGI (with the exception of some Mr. Fantastic dance scenes at the beginning), and witty dialogue.

"Spider-Man 3" and "Pirates 3" were two films recently released that were disappointments in their efforts to tell so much story AND be entertaining/coherent. "Spider-Man" attempted to carry the same impact and characterization that the original two films did, and failed in spreading itself too thin and cramming too many major plotlines into 2.5 hours. Removing any one of the plot elements, while severely cutting down the soap opera between Peter and MJ, would have made the film so much better. "Pirates" was expectedly insane, and while it was better than #2, it certainly pales in comparison to its original, which was a contemporary take on a classic swashbuckling genre. These past two installments have been capitalist endeavors to milk the cow for all its worth, cramming in as much CGI and grand-scale stories as possible in order to draw in the masses.

Remind me later to discuss why I think a lot of pop culture films these days are reflective of the mentality of the rising generation. It's too big to become a tangent for a post.

Anyways, to make a long post summarized: go see "Rise of the Silver Surfer." It won't disappoint you, and it's much shorter than the other two movies I mentioned above!