Fantastic Four

The biggest and most famous Marvel superheroes have finally gotten to the big screen. Fantastic Four has had a very troubled time, from preproduction problems, to weird casting (Ioan Gruffudd and Chris Evans? Who are they?) and then when the script came out and then the first teasers and everybody was hating everything they were seeing and reading.
Well, the movie is out now and I'm happy to announce that it's not bad at all, it's kind of really good actually, and I'm really excited about a sequel.

Despite being little known, I loved the casting of Chris Evans, who was previously seen only in Not Another Teen Movie (and then Cellular but that was after he was cast). Chris makes the perfect Johnny Storm aka The Human Torch, capturing the playfulness of the character with his powers and his winning attitude. I also love how he loves the public and be seen.
And this is a big difference between the Fantastic Four and most (if not all other) superheroes, they don't hide their identities, everybody knows who they are and where to find them, and Johnny loves to be on the spotlight.

Then we have Ben Grimm aka The Thing, played by Michael Chiklis from the TV series The Shield. Another great casting here, as Chiklis plays the sad Thing who can't get the love he wants because of his appearance. Ben was engaged, and so when he becomes The Thing her fiancee leaves him in the (pretty much) only really lame couple of scenes of the movie, as his bride to be first gets scared and disgusted by him, and then she appears out of nowhere to throw the engagement ring to the floor in front of him and hundreds of people right after he saved the day early in the movie. Really disastrous moments there featuring Laurie Holden as Ben's girl.
Then he receives the affection of the blind Alicia Masters, played by Kerry Washington, who is a black girl unlike the white Alicia from the comics and the animated series. Apparently (just like making the Kingpin black in DareDevil), the producers probably thought they had to get someone black in their movies so people wouldn't realize how racist creator Stan Lee is.
People are divided about The Thing and how he was made with Chiklis in a suit instead of CGI like The Hulk, and I'm glad he was done this way. It looks very real, and there's no problem of big special effects or anything like that. Plus you can really tell that is Chiklis in there and it makes The Thing more human. Great work by whoever stood up for costume and make up and decided to not use CGI on him.

Ioan Gruffudd is Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, the big brain of the family. He can't stop thinking about creating stuff and discovering new things, reason why he's had trouble with the ladies before. If he'd only put more attention on them than in his inventions. I knew Gruffudd from the Horatio Hornblower TV series and from last year's King Arthur (where his Lancelot was one of the very few things I liked about that movie) but he was not in my radar for any movie. And I had always pictured George Clooney as the man with elastic powers so it was a disappointment for me when he was not cast (though it was a possibility at first). Still, Gruffudd delivered, and even though he doesn't have a big screen presence yet, he did get what Richards is all about and the little comedic bits when he totally forgets about Sue because of some scientific discovery are great.
If there's a weak point in the special effects then it's all here. Richards' elasticity is not used a lot, and while at times it works when they use camera angles and stuff like that, the times they use CGI you can really tell. And it looks very fake.

The four is complete with Jessica Alba who plays Sue Storm aka The Invisible Girl. If there's one weak casting is here. I'm sorry but like I've said before I fail to see how great Alba is. I mean, I know she's hot, and she's also funny and very likeable but I found myself liking her as the actress Jessica Alba when she's herself in series like Entourage or when she goes to Leno or Conan. I love her there, but on the big screen I'm not convinced she's that great. Her Sue Storm is played ok, but Alba is way too young to play her, and so I didn't buy her. And again, why cast a girl with Latin roots instead of an American white woman like the Sue from the comics? I mean, I know Alba has a huge following but someone a little bit more experienced looking at least would have been better I think.

And finally the villain, Victor Von Doom played by Julian McMahon also from a TV series, in his case Nip/Tuck where he also plays a doctor (a plastic surgeon though).
McMahon is very good here though his character, while being the bad guy he's supposed to be, it's all for the wrong reasons. Doom's hate towards Reed Richards comes from who has more knowledge. It's about him hating Richards because Richards is smarter, not because of Sue Storm. Here Sue and Reed used to date, but then their relationship ended (I guess Sue ended it) because Reed was more into science than into her. Now Sue works for Victor, who thinks she's into him, but in fact she's still in love with Reed. And this is what causes the whole big fight instead of the doctor's competition for scientific discovery.

Still, I forgive the story not being a hundred percent true to the comics, because everything else is really good. And there's also the future of the franchise.
I compare this Fantastic Four movie to the first Xmen movie, when they introduced everybody, but the big plot of the movie was not really important. Yes, Magneto wanted to destroy the leaders of the world but it wasn't managed in a big way, and those leaders barely knew they were in danger because it all happened between the mutants. The second movie added and added mutants, but it also put the world in real danger and the people of the world were even hurt. It's the same here, and that's why I'm awaiting the second Fantastic Four (which has already been announced). I think it will be great, specially if they keep the cast and bring in the Silver Surfer (who Chris Evans would be perfect to play if he wasn't playing Johnny already) and Galactus. Oh yes, I really can't believe director Tim Story made a good movie. I'm really surprised with him, good for him.