"It's Clobberin' Time!"

Those are the words I should've said when I saw The Fantastic Four.

For some, it's a nightmare to get a movie together based on superheroes. Fewer have managed to become mainstream hits.

Many fail to rise above the norm. An example of this? "The Fantastic Four."

Planned in the development stages for years, the heavyweight Marvel Comics film brought its own problems. A weak script. Not-so-good acting. A dumbing down of science-fiction. Not even the brilliant special effects can help lift the story. There’s a disrespect to the F.F. canon. That’s too bad. There was potential. It’s all been wasted away.

The problem? Respect for comic books. There’s none. Most people just don’t see them as a work-of-art. They see it as just something to fill closet space. No, it’s considered fodder by most folks.

It depends on the directors. Joe Schumacher, who brought us the awful “Batman and Robin,” didn’t care about comics. He never gave it any thought. His attitude?

Schumacher once said about his film: “It wasn’t funny enough.”

That’s enough to make me cringe. No respect for the canon. You can see also it in the F.F. movie. I’ve always dug the F.F. when I was a kid. I still do. It’s like a fun science lesson. They were explorers. They were the first Marvel Comics superhero team. They were family.

Then the film ignores most of this. The story is uninteresting. It’s unsettling to see a film turn a goldmine like the F.F. into an abysmal loss. No respect for the history prior to the film. It’s a mistake.

Not all of it’s bad. Chris Evans as the wise-cracking Johnny Storm is probably the most interesting. Jessica Alba's sure got pretty curves as the Invisible Woman. I shouldn’t complain much there.

I always thought they should’ve waited twenty more years to do something monumental like the F.F. It’s like wrestling with Mount Rushmore. It's too big. Now, I’m thinking they should just get a good script. Something that brings in credibility to the story.

Not surprisingly, a trilogy is set with a second film expected to hit the screens in 2007. It's made enough money. If it gets a decent script, it’ll work. Otherwise, they should forget it. The F.F. remains an icon too powerful to portray on the big screen. Read the comics instead by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Even John Byrne. You’ll get more out of it.

A feeling of déjà vu hits me when seeing this film. It feels like my favorite characters are ripped away from my childhood. Commercialism takes over. They’re fakes instead. And I’m seeing my heroes fading away. It’s nothing any fan should have to see.