I got tricked by the trailer of this movie into expecting more than I got. I should've known better. The first movie was mediocre. So is this one. Mainly because it didn't make any sense. I'm too lazy to explain why in detail, but let's just say that the whole thing about swapping powers, which isn't even explained, isn't handled with any kind of logic. And (huge spoiler) if the Silver Surfer could destroy the Eater of Worlds, why didn't he just do it long ago, making the noble sacrifice and saving his own world in the bargain? (End of huge spoiler.)And what is up with Mr. Fantastic's hair? I couldn't tell from one scene to the next where the gray was going to be. Sometimes it just went away altogether.
There were a few funny lines, some of the action was okay, but a lot of the special effects were right out of the cheese factory. I can't really recommend this one, but it has one thing going for it: It's short, only about 90 minutes long. There's something to be said for that.
6 comments:
I agree on both counts. 0-for-2. Maybe they should just stop. I found the cheaply made Roger Corman FF movie that was never released last year on a web site. As bad as it was, I think it held it's own with the more expensive versions.
"It's short, only about 90 minutes long. There's something to be said for that."
Like, "That's an hour and a half of my life I'll never get back!"?
As I recall the FF stories were kind of cartoonish in the comic books. My take on the movies (1 better than 2, not saying much) is that the producers decided to buy into the idea that comic books can't be viewed as literature--in essence they're really a joke (not art nor lit.)--so "let's make a movie (or 2 or 3) that's a joke as well." The result, two efforts that are neither art nor lit. nor entertainment. What was the point of the perfectly round holes anyway?
Randy: I haven't seen the Corman version, but it couldn't have been too much worse.
Jim: Right! But better than "Two hours of my life . . . ."
Benjie: Thanks for mentioning those holes. I never did figure out the point of those.
I haven't seen the movies. I got the vibe that they were cut-rate. I was the right age for the first couple of years of the FF comics (11 and 12), and I especially liked the funkier early villains like the Mole Man, the Mad Thinker, and the Red Ghost. (Funkiest and best of all was one whom the Torch fought solo, Paste Pot Pete.) When Stan and Jack introduced the Silver Surfer mythos, I pretty much started to lose interest.
Definitely agree that movies have gotten too long. Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES was one of the few others in recent memory that came in at a trim 90 minutes.
That's one I need to see, Fred.
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