A short review of the movie: FANTASTIC FOUR

We had a rainy day on the cruise so Donna and I spent some time in our stateroom. She caught some sleep, while I decided to check out the free movies on the cabin set. I was surprised to discover that on this particular day they were showing the FANTASTIC FOUR. I never had the chance to catch it in the theatres so figured this was the perfect opportunity.

Since I didn't see it when it was in release I don't know if the film was edited for viewing by 'general audiences' on the ship, as there were kids on board. Assuming nothing major was lost here's what I thought.

Let's be honest here, the entire cast except for Michael Chiklis could have been replaced with the cast from the never "officially released" FF film Roger Corman made. I find it hard to believe that this is the best that Tim Story & company could have gotten. Ioan Grufford and Julian McMahon could have easily exchanged roles and the casting director could have watched any prime time show on the WB to come up with somebody more talented then Chris Evans. Jessica Alba looks like she watched BATMAN FOREVER and channeled Nicole Kidman's performance from that flick. Ten seconds of lingerie shots don't make a character.

I will give it up for most of the FX in the film, only a couple of shots of Mr. Fantastic in action looked shoddy. In the final confrontation with Victor (who never really becomes DOCTOR DOOM, in my opinion) makes good use of CGI with Reed turning from spinning wheel to blanket. Chiklis did what he could under all that make up and I thought he made you feel for Ben.

Overall not as bad as some folks had led me to believe. I don't know if the feature made enough for a sequel, but I'd count on it. Perhaps they'll recast all but Grimm and give us something a bit better.