Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

I don't know what it is about superhero movies surprising me more than most other movies, but this is another instance where that happened. I felt this was much more of a solid superhero movie compared to its predecessor, and that the first movie should have been more like this.

The story follows the Fantastic Four, played by Ioan Gruffudd, Michael Chiklis, Jessica Alba, and Chris Evans, as they deal with the threat of the mysterious Silver Surfer, voiced by Laurence Fishburne, and the rise of old villain Doctor Doom, played once again by Julian McMahon. Where the first movie felt like a slog in which nothing much happened, there was a lot happening in this movie that I really enjoyed. The action was a lot better and there were less useless scenes, where everything felt it was building toward something. I specifically liked the Human Torch's character arc where he learns to be a team player, and I also liked learning the backstory and motivations of the Silver Surfer, which almost feels like a cosmic horror story at times.

The acting also felt a lot better, with the actors looking like they're more comfortable in their roles and clearly enjoying the movie a lot more. I wasn't the biggest fan of Doctor Doom, since his motivations were still kind of one note, but the final battle scene featuring him was nice and it was a lot better put together than the previous film's final battle.

Overall, while I still wouldn't call this film amazing, I definitely liked it a lot more than its predecessor and I would totally watch it again. Where I was confused as to how this one got made, I was more sad that this didn't get a sequel since they were clearly starting to find their footing with the characters.

Next time, I will be reviewing the first of many animated superhero films based on DC characters, and they don't start small, with a story featuring Superman actually getting killed. How will this story play out and will Superman return? Find out when I review Superman: Doomsday.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mario Marathon Part 6: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins

I have to say, Mario way back in the early days of gaming used to be so creative, and this game is no exception. I mean, just like its predecessor, it's very weird, but that's what makes it so charming and fun to play. As with the first Mario Land title, this game was released on the Game Boy, but for being a game on such a simple console, they did quite a lot with the visuals and world designs. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that this game makes the first Super Mario Land look like a tech demo by comparison. The story is the usual flavor of weird that the first game had as well. Mario's castle that he just...has for some reason, has been taken over by the evil Wario and the door to the castle can only be unlocked by going to six zones and finding the golden coins that reside in each. Yeah, this game has a weird story. The six zones are really where the game shines, in my opinion. There is the tree zone, which is a grassland type area that takes place in a giant ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 4: Super Mario Land

Well, this was certainly a game, or at least, a good demonstration of one. This is one of the more bizarre Mario games out there, so let's talk about why that is. Super Mario Land was the first portable mainline Mario game, released for Nintendo's black and white Game Boy. So how did Mario on the go end up doing? Well, quite weirdly as mentioned earlier. While it is a 2D platformer like the other games reviewed so far, this game definitely tried to stand out in ways no other Mario game really has done before. The story follows Mario as he tries to save the kingdom of Sarasaland and its princess, Daisy, from the evil alien Tatanga. Already a departure from the norm for sure, but even the enemies are weird. For example, Koopas now turn into bombs when you jump on them instead of just hiding in their shells so you can kick them later on. The game plays like the first Mario game, but in black and white, with more bizarre enemies like the aforementioned Bombshell Koopas, and actual ...
Read more

Mario Marathon Part 1: Super Mario Bros

I like Mario, that much is clear from the random beginning of this specific marathon, but regardless, there has been so much Mario content that has come out over the last few years that a review of all the Mario games I consider important sounds like a no-brainer. Well, after a couple weeks of thinking about this, that's exactly what I am doing, and what better place than the game that started it all? That, of course, is Super Mario Bros. Now, this game is hardly the most complex thing out there. It's a sidescrolling platformer where you play as a plumber named Mario who has to save the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom from the villainous turtle dragon thing known as Bowser. But even this simple plot was revolutionary for gaming. You see, prior to this game, video games didn't have any sort of story to them and really were just things made to rack up high scores. This was the first game to really give a more fleshed out story than "Get as much points and then, I don...
Read more