Fantastic Four 2 (2007)

And so in the wake of two, third installment movies, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer steps up to show us what a fun movie is supposed to be. Seeing the potential for it the producers decided to make this movie PG and geared towards families, and it’s pulled off well as it never really feels watered down though there are a few moments in the film that I’m surprised didn’t push it to PG-13.

Though not watered down, it does feel a bit campier than the first, but again that just adds to the fun of it. The oddest of these however is a scene at a dance club where Johnny has dragged Reed for his bachelor party. Reed is sitting with a group of women and explaining the Big Bang theory. Since it’s a family movie I can let this slide, however I just find it odd that Reed happened upon this many women who clearly have no idea what the Big Bang theory is. I imagine this was done for the sole purpose of letting Reed do some showy things with his powers, but still it would’ve made more sense if he was explaining something complicated like what the theory of relativity actually is, or quantum physics. Either way this is nitpicking. It does lead to a small scene of two girls getting Reed to loosen up and dance with them, again showing off his powers. This scene just feels off to me as the expression on Reeds face becomes way too self confident and uncharacteristically smug. But again, nitpicking.

On the front of things that aren’t nitpicking is the sudden decision to use a muppet to play Sue Storm. Oh wait, my mistake, that’s still Jessica Alba, they just decided to make her hair incredibly blonde and to give her blue contact lenses that make her look like a Barbie doll. Seriously, it’s very distracting and never stops being so.

Doctor Doom also makes his return and it looks to be very promising as he shows up getting his mask sawed off of his face, the skin beneath properly scarred. This is quickly done away with as he confronts the Silver Surfer and is somehow healed. Though they do armor him up better later, it’s just sad that they felt they couldn’t leave him scarred and just have him walk around fully armored.

Lastly I must point out the product placement for Dodge is just painful as it’s suggested that the Fantasticar is powered by a Hemi, leaving us to assume that for some reason a super advanced personal flying craft (that splits into three separate crafts) is powered by a combustible engine.

Aside from that the movie is yet again just incredibly fun and though I may have gone into length about what I didn’t like about the movie, the fun factor makes up for every bit of it.

Now a lot of fans complained about the appearance of Galactus, shown to us as a large cloud in space. Yes this is incredibly ridiculous in theory but upon further thought it has since become apparent that this cloud was meant only to represent the process which Galactus uses to absorb a planet’s energy.

The Silver Surfer himself is awesome, as is Stan Lee’s cameo as himself. Even the final fight scene with Johnny and Doom is awesome even though a major factor of Johnny’s involvement doesn’t make sense. Just like the first one you’re enjoying yourself too much to care.

Marvel Movie Score: 8.5

Why That?: This movie is a perfect companion to the first and hopefully they make a third and not drop the ball like Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man did. It seems really evident that everyone involved just wanted movie goers to have a good time, and for me they succeeded. Oh, and it isn’t over two hours of people crying and moping. If they officially make a Spider-Man 4, the writers and producers better watch this movie first.