Kevin's Watch

Give it s "c". It was fun, but the problems in the movie a very fundamental and compelling.

Spoiler

1) Again Doom lacks the broad visionary and (in some ways) noble evil that defines him. He is a petty selfish jerk...not a ruthless world-class dictator.

2) Galactus: while his humanoid/giant shape was suggested twice...you never see him..and he is far too easily dispatched by the Surfer. Damn...give me the ultimate nullifier...let;s see Reed go mano y mano!!

3) Not enough Alba....is ther ever ?

Yeah I thought it was pretty decent. I'd give it a B-. I also thought Doom, while well acted, was not at all faithful to the comic book character, for pretty much all the reasons you stated. Galactus I think will be back in a future film. Alba is so miscast in this movie I almost feel bad for her. She just looks ridiculous in those pseudo-intellectual glasses.

Alba is miscast..... but she is a draw. Probably the biggest "star" in the movies.

The movie would have better without DOOM. I'd have liked more Galactus and Reed.

Saw this today, I agree with the above comments but I will say it's better than the first FF.

dlbpharmd wrote:Saw this today, I agree with the above comments but I will say it's better than the first FF.

Agreed! That ain't sayin' TOO MUCH though! I had fun.

You're right, that ain't saying much. I thought the Surfer was not utilized to full potential, there was no need to bring back Dr. Doom, and I really wanted to see Galactus at the end!

Definitely better than the first movie.

I really appreciated the family friendliness of it, I thought it was great 'clean' fun for the kids, and dad liked it too.

100% spoiler free -- with all natural flavors

I enjoyed FF2, and thought it was better than the first. I disagree with the MSNBC film critique on enough points that it makes me feel like I'm turning into a fanboy:
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19213105/
This critic does not appear to be a fan of comic books, especially the FF comics, because some of the things he dings FF and FF2 for (like the public identity of the heroes, the foursomes casual in-fighting banter, the larger-than-life egomaniacal presentation of VvD) are central features of the comics.

I didn't think I was being too easy on these movies. I liked them, even though they weren't at the same level of entertainment as, say, Spiderman I or II, or Batman Begins. I don't automatically like comic book movies, either -- though I almost always automatically watch them. Daredevil and Elektra were bad comic book movies, but I didn't mind, as I never liked their comic books.

The Hulk was not a bad comic book - on the contrary, I think Ang Lee captured the heart of the story, perhaps almost too well, since it proved that most people probably would not like the Hulk comics.

The Spiderman movies (even III) resonate better with the public than Daredevil, Hulk, and F4 -- just like the comics did.

I guess the various points I'm very poorly trying to make are
a) it is very difficult to make a superb movie from an average comic book,
b) it is much easier to make a terrible movie from an average comic book,
c) it is a true shame when somebody makes OK movies from a great comic book (Punisher, the old Superman sequels, Batman II, III, IV -- the list goes on, I'm sure)

But I'd rather watch a mediocre comic book movie than none at all.

dw [who will die ang go to a happy place the day that either Books of Magic or TCTC are set to film]

It almost felt like there wasn't enough time to fully explore the characters. Not NEARLY enough Surfer or more Doom.

I just watched it, i enjoyed it.

I thought the Surfer was cool, and the special effects were great. Having never read the comics, i dont have any complaints about the characters or powers.

A fun few hours.

I haven't seen FF2 but after hearing so much about it, watching the trailers and having watched FF 1 I believe the problem lies in the casting choices and the director which is partly the directors responsibility. I like Tim Story but his resume prior to FF doesn't include films anything like this. He has a command of relationships and I'm guessing that is why he was selected because the FF are a family and that interaction needs to be captured but the epic saga is mishandled. Outside of Chris Evans the rest of the cast is hopeless. How each character is developed seems clumsy. I have FF and I'll buy FF2 and enjoy them to a certain point but I suspect that Marvel will have to retool like they're trying to do with the HULK in order to really find this story in earnest on the big screen. IMHO of course.

dAN mentioned to me that he felt FF was about the same to him as X-men. I can't help but think about the differences. In FF where's the Ian McKellen's? The Patrick Stewarts? The Hugh Jackmans? My point is that the FF films are so badly miscast that there isn't anyone that really rises to carry the movie. No larger than life performances that really get you excited. FF is devoid of the charisma that the X-men films contain. It also helps that Bryan Singer has a great sense of the superhero idea and manages to translate that onto film in an acceptable way. Sam Raimi seems to have that same gift with Spiderman.

I like the film. I do think it's better then FF 1, and Doom improved in my opinion, but sometimes I think Story never read an issue of FF in his life.

Spoiler

The 'quarterback' discussion is definite proof of that; in the comic, I know Ben Grimm was a football player, and I'm sure Reed was the QB! The one thing they did get dead on was not allowing Stan Lee in at the wedding.

The Stan Lee part was great!

I finally saw this flick.
I too thought it was better than the first.

I groaned though when I saw that they were making Doom a pretty boy though.
It was like that stupid RoboCop3 all over again.
They need to cast someone that has no ego and wears the mask 24/7 like Doom does.

I really liked the family like interaction between the FF.

The Thing was well done too.
He was the happy Thing not a brooding self hating Thing.

I do wish that Johnny gave Ben his powers so Ben could have a "normal" day with Alicia though.
I thought that was what was going to happen near the end as those two were talking in the diner.
Oh well.

I just saw this on DVD last week or so.

One thing that absolutely drives me crazy is how 'Rubber Man' or whatever his name is...it's about his clothing. When he stretches, all of his clothing does, too.

I have never read the comic books...has this ever been explained before?

It just drove me crazy every time that he streched out and his clothing went with him.

(Call it nitpicking if you will...)

jelerak wrote:I just saw this on DVD last week or so.

One thing that absolutely drives me crazy is how 'Rubber Man' or whatever his name is...it's about his clothing. When he stretches, all of his clothing does, too.

I have never read the comic books...has this ever been explained before?

It just drove me crazy every time that he streched out and his clothing went with him.

(Call it nitpicking if you will...)

Unstable molecules:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unstable_molecules

Thanks for the answer...

I knew that there had to be something there that I was missing!!!

An improvement over the original, but a man eating cereal for two hours is better than watching the first Fantastic Four.

Since my last comment I've purchased and watched FF 2. Better than the first FF film? Certainly. Breathtakingly below it's potential? Definitely. Both FF films seem to suffer from a fundamental misunderstanding of the source material by the creative team. That and the casting choices make both outings disappointing. I assumed FF would be treated to the same caliber director / cast / budget as Spiderman but everything about the films seem like a swing and a miss. Thanks to the dismal box office numbers it is very likely that we've seen the last of the Tim Story directed FF films.
What is with Dr. Doom? What is so dad burn hard to understand what makes that character so appealing in the comics? Please stop worrying about comparisons to Darth Vader. Doom's added gravitas comes from being the monarch of an fictitious eastern European country. He needs to act that way. It needs to be fundamental. He needs to deliver his lines with power and matchless authority. What we got was frankly a joke. Oh well.

I'm guessing when enough time has gone by Marvel films will re visit the FF idea with a fresh team and hopefully much more appropriate cast. The Silver Surfer movie may be the best example of the stark difference between the FF films and how they were presented and an example of how they might have been, or may be in the future.

I thought I liked FF2, but I can't help but notice I haven't bought the dvd, while I ran out to get Spiderman 3 the day it was released.