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Fantastic Four AKA Fantastic 4
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Nicholl/Pat Pilon (30th October 2007). |
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The Film
 Somewhere in the distant mists of Fantastic Four's development there may have been a good script. Occasionally something good slips in that can't have been written by the people who wrote the bulk of it. I didn't mind that they went for a comedy approach. But having Johnny Storm doing dirt bike tricks isn't comedy, it's tragedy. However, I wasn't bored, and at places I was even entertained. The only problem was that the movie was fairly unimpressive. As movie studios are in franchise building mode at the moment we get the origin of the Fantastic Four and the set up of their main villain, Doctor Doom. And while they do fight a bit, I would have liked to not have to wait until a sequel for something to actually happen. Sure, Ben Grimm can whine about looking like a monster. But let him throw more than a couple of punches somewhere in the two hour running time as well. Our heroes are sort-of led by nerdy scientist Reed Richards, played by Ioan Gruffudd. Gruffudd isn't even remotely close to being convincing as a nerdy scientist (just putting a signed photo of Devo on his dresser isn't enough). The guy was at one time considered for the role of James Bond, and I don't think anyone is suited to both (he isn't suited to either). Reed Richards wants to use rich industrialist, and ex-MIT classmate, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon)'s space station to study a cosmic storm for DNA research. Von Doom's Chief of Genetic Research is Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Reed's ex-girlfriend, and Victor's current one. Also going on the mission are Reed's bodyguard (at least I think that's what his job is) Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), and Sue's brother, cocky fly boy, and extreme sports bozo, Johnny Flame (Chris Evans). Tragedy strikes when the cosmic storm arrives at the space station faster than Reed expected, they don't have the shields up, and they get hit by it. They return to earth and find they have superpowers. Reed can stretch, Sue can become invisible, Ben is a big monster, and Johnny can catch fire and fly around. Von Doom also gets the power to produce electricity and the not so super-power of going bankrupt. Reed wants to study the Fantastic Four's DNA, so they all sit around his apartment while he does it. Then some of them get bored and wander off. And Reed and Sue rekindle their romance. And Ben finds that his wife, who we're lead to believe was a nice woman earlier on, isn't cool with him being a giant rock. Johnny goes to an X-Games event and does dirt bike tricks and scores trashy women. Ben mopes. Von doom decides to kill them all, ostensibly because they took everything away from him. People talk, silly things happen, and Jessica Alba's cleavage gets filmed. All of this takes way too long, the Fantastic Four don't really fight any crime or do anything major. It's not boring, luckily, but it's not good. This film does have one of the plain dumbest scenes I've seen in a movie in a long time. It's the first time the Fantastic Four use their powers in public. It doesn't start off well when, while Ben is sitting on a bridge, a pigeon lands on his shoulder and poos on him. Then a guy comes along to jump off and Ben scares him. They guy falls back into traffic and causes a big pile up. But somehow, the rest of the Fantastic Four are in a taxi stuck in the traffic jam caused by the pile up. They decide they need to get past the police to see what's happening, because somehow they know Ben is down there. Of course we have an invisible girl, so she turns invisible and starts taking her clothes off. But, she does this in the middle of a circle of people who are watching her, including police. Then to sneak by, she just goes running along smacking people out of the way. Then, when she gets to the front of the pile up, Reed and Johnny are standing beside her anyway. Did she have them inside some sort of invisibility sphere? It's so unclear I don't know. What I do know is that it came across as stupid. Oh, that's not the end. As everyone is celebrating Ben having saved a fire truck from plunging into the river off the bridge, his wife comes along. How are all these people conveniently on this bridge? The friends I watched this with all started laughing at the film at this point. Then his wife takes off her wedding ring and puts it on the ground and simple walks away. People shook their heads in disbelief. Ben Grimm's wife is a BITCH! But like the film, the bitch isn't boring. This is a case where you think a sequel may be better, because something might actually happen in it (You'd think this, however in actuality the sequel was even worse than the first). I wasn't bored during this movie, I was more incredulous. I have noted that Michael France's name now appears on three bad Marvel adaptations, Hulk, The Punisher, and this. Maybe he's the guy who wrote the good stuff that managed to survive, maybe not. It's not a great strike rate either, but at least this time his name's not attached to a film that's deadiningly dull.
Video
2.35:1 widescreen. As is to be expected, the picture is very nice and very strong. The colours are quite vibrant, popping out the screen. The picture is actually so clean that the effects look fake. The slightly shiny look computer effects have is clearly visible and the movie's look suffers a bit because of the resolution. There are no problems whatsoever with compression. Shadow detail is very good and the darker areas don't give way to any noise. In one shot : the one with plenty of sparks at the climatic battle : there might some small instances of pixelation when the sparks spray out, but it might also be the cinematography. The picture also isn't as detailed as it could be. As clear and clean as the picture is, I've seen better on hi-def. For a superhero movie, though, the film looks great.
Audio
As expected, the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track sounds amazing, even in its 'core' form (my player isn't capable of decode DTS HD MA). The full force of the full track must just disintegrate your walls. As it is, the sound is just spectacular. The exposure scene, for example, shows extremely dynamic movement, deep bass and great range. The climax just blows your system out. The sounds are very accurate and the bass is quite tight, making the sound environment very natural and engaging. The quieter moments do show some restraint, with dialogue being very clear and crisp. The volume levels are very well mixed, with nice use of the rears for ambiance. Overall it's an impressive track, but it's a superhero movie track, and it doesn't hold back much. English and Spanish subtitles are supplied by Fox.
Extras
There's a fairly nice audio commentary by actors Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis and Ioan Gruffud. Fans of the movie, or at least of the actors will definitely get a kick out of this track. It's very light and breezy, giving you few real facts, but a lot of enjoyable anecdotes and comments. They constantly fawn over the effects, and tell you how great Vancouver was to be in. They also talk a lot about the director and the other actors, mostly how much fun Chris Evans had on set. The actors talk about specific scenes and what they hoped the main impression was supposed to be. For example, on the bridge Jessica Alba didn't like stripping down to her skivvies (the scenes was written a few days before the scene was to be shot, after Miss Alba accepted the role), and she really, really hoped the scene would be comical more than anything else. The track is a lot of fun, as I've said, and if you enjoyed the movie, this will pass the time very well. There are also some trailers: 'Fantastic Four' (2:23), 'Behind Enemy Lines' (2:32), 'Ice Age' (2:30), 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (1:13), 'Planet of the Apes' (0:56) and 'Speed' (2:46).
Overall
Film reviewed by Roger Nicholl and extras by Pat Pilon.
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