Fantastic Film

For the record, most sequels don’t surpass the original. Expectations are too high. But I was pleasantly surprised with seeing Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. How can I put this? It was pretty, well, fantastic.

I wasn’t head over heels over the first film which came about two years ago which was meant as a summer hit. It turned out to be a slight disappointment. Probably because film spent much of its time establishing who the characters were.

The payoff was Rise of the Silver Surfer.

I wouldn’t call it the Citizen Kane of science-fiction. Others hold that rank throughout the movie hall of fame. Rise of the Silver Surfer doesn’t capture the awe and mystery of outer space or the kingdom of extraterrestrials that host the deeper portions of the universe outside of man’s knowledge. It doesn’t have the intensity of super exploration of the cosmos.

But what it does is capture the family feel of the four main characters. Beautifully.

For the first time, I believed they were a family. With the bickering and banter of brotherly rivals in the Thing and the Human Torch. With the domestic dispute between an up-and-coming husband and wife. Those conflicts seem real. And that is what makes the human story for this film.

I’ve noticed other critics have panned this film before it was released throughout the country, mostly due to their lack of knowledge of comic books. The original source in which the film is based. One critic called comics “Pretentious.” That rubs me off the wrong way. Especially when the comic book was invented here in the United States.

It's called ignorance.

One doesn’t have to read comic books to like these kinds of movies. You don’t even have to pick one up and become six-years-old again by being transported into different, imaginative worlds created from art and words. You don’t have to relive childlike nostalgia once more. But you should be able to respect the comic book as another literary medium just like novels or magazines.

Fantastic Four was the first family superhero team created Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as real characters who have internal problems that many families could face. Might it be financial or whatever. The husband and wife talks about having kids and living a normal life.

But they struggle to defeat the unknown while they try to work around their differences as a family. Like any family would. Reed Richards is one of the greatest scientific geniuses in the world. Sue Richards is his wife and back-up support. Johnny Storm is the hotshot kid on the block. And the Thing is the lovable big rocky guy. The nice thing is the science-fiction element that is invested in their adventures.

Chris Evans played the Human Torch to perfection in the last outing. So much that he overshadowed the other team members. But this time, all four members stood out very nicely. They have their roles to play. All of them captured the spotlight well. No one was left out.

But the hook of the film really is the Silver Surfer. A mysterious entity of cosmic power who is the precursor to something far more dangerous and unimaginative. The presence of the Surfer means danger. And it is unavoidable.

The effects are wonderfully realized in regarding the Surfer. His powers are abstract, remarkable. The voice of Lawrence Fishburne in the part brings a mood that might send shivers down your spine. His appearance is very simple. And it is this simplicity that captures the character very well. He remains an enigma.

And it makes the film a million times better than the previous outing.

The Fantastic-Car is really cool in here. Though it didn’t appear for very long in the film, it remains an important part of the Fantastic Four history.

And I loved the speech Reed Richards gives to the manipulative, destructive general who wanted to use military might against the cosmic Surfer. Here, Richards reminds the general of the bookworm who was never popular and the quarterback football player who always got the girl. Then he goes on to say that there’s nothing wrong with being the smartest guy in the world and adds he’s marrying the most beautiful woman Susan Richards.

Suddenly it’s cool to be nerdy. And that speech was a backhanded slap to the overbearing player types who were always the bully on the school grounds. Call it an intellectual jostling.

I also like how the name of the Silver Surfer slips into a conversation. It made sense for Reed to come up with the name like he did.

The film does a nice job of taking the best source material from the first ten or fifteen issues of the Fantastic Four and turning it into an enjoyable feature that doesn’t forget to embellish its character. In fact, the film relies on the family atmosphere. The addition of the second, minor villain of Doctor Doom stealing the Surfer’s power doesn’t do anything to distract from the story. Instead, it’s straight out of the original comic books.

It was a good, this film. And it shows that beneath the special effects extravaganza there’s a true story of human courage to behold. And entertaining two hours that finally manages to portray the superheroes in a way they’re supposed to. As a family.