Film #195 - Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
I get a lot of flack from certain quarters for my fandom of the Fantastic Four film series (on display in my review of the first film). Perhaps I’m more forgiving because I love the original comics so much. But whatever the reason, I also really enjoyed the sequel, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, a continuation of the story that improves on some areas, while not solving all the problems of the first film.
The biggest problem for the new film is the same as the old one: Doctor Doom. Fantastic Four changed the nature of Doom and this sequel does little to remedy the problems. It’s not entirely the fault of Julian McMahon, who plays Doom, but it is the overall portrayal of the character that fails. Just like in the first film, McMahon fails to convey the menace that Doom requires. He’s fine playing “Victor”, the sleazy businessman, but, even when he’s in full armor, he lacks any kind of real impact. Doom needs to rival Darth Vader for visual presence and McMahon just doesn’t have it. (He’s still not helped by a voice that sounds ridiculous coming out from behind Doom’s mask.)
But, thankfully, Doom is not in the new film nearly as much as the first. He plays second fiddle to the major perceived threat: the Silver Surfer (voice of Laurence Fishburne). The Surfer is portrayed about as well as I could have hoped. He is very much the enigma he was presented as in the original comics and provides the glue that holds the film together. The resolution is less satisfying than the original, but still works.
As for the four themselves, they have obviously become comfortable in their roles. The chemistry on view in the original film is even stronger, particularly between Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). Their relationship troubles in Surfer are more emotionally true than their somewhat stilted romance in the first film. But they both come across as real leaders of the group, though in different ways. Gruffudd is able to show Reed’s single-minded intelligence, while Alba does surprisingly well with Sue’s more empathic views of the situation. Even more than the first time, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) serve as the comic relief. The unfortunate side-effect of Johnny’s interaction with the Surfer (causing him to switch powers with any team member he touches) is used to good effect, not only comedically, but also to highlight the differences in the team members skills. (For instance, ehwn Sue accidentally gets Johnny’s powers, she flies out of control. Reed gets them in the middle of the heat of a dangerous situation, yet instantly knows how to properly harness them. A nice touch.)
Visually, the film is on par with the first, which is to say it is a bit less than other sci-fi fare of the day. But if you are going to see a Fantastic Four movie for cutting edge visuals, you’re on a fool’s errand. The only real highlight is the Surfer, himself, who is rendered on screen with atypical realism. Some may scoff at the visualization of Galactus, but I think using his original form would have looked really odd onscreen.
So am I, the self-proclaimed hardliner when it comes to adapting comic book material, giving this film an overall pass? Well, no. I have serious problems with the way they have portrayed Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington). Not because they made her black, that hardly matters. But they have made her just a background character, there to provide support for the main cast, but she gets nothing to really do. It’s just such a waste of a character as important to the FF’s history to sideline her like that. Heck, the 1994 unreleased version did her more justice. And they did practically the same thing with Johnny’s love interest Frankie Raye. If you have any knowledge of writer/artist John Byrne’s historic run on the FF comic, you will know that Frankie and Johnny’s romance (yes, I get the reference) was one of the best in his run and that it tied directly into Galactus. Why they ignored this much more potent storyline is beyond me. It would have given the film some greater emotional weight (without getting too much in the way of the fun) and a better resolution than the ambiguous one on display.
One of the things I like about the FF films (and that reviewers and hardcore comics fans dislike) is that they are lighthearted and fun, with little of the serious undetones that mark so many of the current crop of comic-to-film productions. Rise of the Silver Surfer is, at its heart, a comedy. Sure, there’s action and romance and even a touch of social commentary, but most of the film is played for laughs and that’s okay. There’s a point somewhere around the release of Batman in 1989 where the thinking emerged that all comic-to-film adaptations had to be “serious”. Why is this the case? We don’t hold these kinds of preconceptions about any other type of film, so why the super-heroes? For whatever reason, they have chosen their path with the Fantastic Four series and I, for one, appreciate that they are treading the road less travelled.