There's certainly four of them, but whether you think they're fantastic or not will probably depend on your age and your love of the comic book series. For my money, they're the Mostly Agreeable Four.
As a follow-up to the boring but successful original, Fantastic Four: The Rise Of The Silver Surfer is a definite improvement. The introduction of the titular board rider from space increases the interest. He's a brooding shiny alien who unwillingly serves as the advance party for Galactus, a giant eater of planets who's about to snack on Earth.
The surfer's arrival does all sorts of nasty things – he freezes oceans, blacks out communications, causes snow to fall on the pyramids. Even worse, when he streaks into New York he interrupts the already dicey nuptials between the stretchy Reed Richards and invisible woman Sue Storm.
And when Johnny Storm – aka the Human Torch – tangles with the surfer it causes him to switch powers with anyone he touches, an effect first demonstrated on Ben Grimm, aka the rock-faced The Thing.
The Surfer also resurrects evil earthling Victor Von Doom, who has his sights set on the power of the silver surfboard. The villains here are the most interesting: the surfer because he's been forced into being a bad guy, and Victor because Australia's own Julian McMahon plays him with such relish all he needs is a moustache to twirl.
It's the Four who're a little wishy-washy.
Yo-wahn Griffith's Reed isn't quite so wet this time and I did enjoy his elongated dance routine. As before, Sue isn't much more than Jessica Alba as eye candy for the fanboy audience, while Michael Chiklis's does the gruff thing as Ben. It's left to Chris Evans to steal every scene as the smart-mouthed Johnny.
His cheeky, cynical comments – he wants to get sponsorship logos on the four's outfits, for instance - are the best thing about the script.
Fantastic Four's one-story plot and linear action scenes make this like a big budget episode of a TV series rather than a muscular blockbuster. That said, in a year of bloated running times, a 90-minute feature isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Similarly, Fantastic Four is a resolutely PG superhero movie – there's not much here to scare the kids, and they'll probably have a ball. As an agreeably light on its feet – if lightweight – superhero flick, this chalks up three stars.
