Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer [PG]

The Fantastic Four’s publicity is proving to be more than they bargained for as Reed and Sue attempt to have a fourth wedding without a global emergency interrupting it. But this time it’s gotten ridiculous, as a strange universal outsider begins creating these great craters in the Earth and threatens to destroy the entire planet. 

Even though it’s twice as action-packed and the special effects are more of a knockout than the first one, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is just not as good as the first one, in fact the disappointment is not dissimilar to that of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest: its not bad, but it’s just not as good as its predecessor. 

The Fantastic Four’s publicity is proving to be more than they bargained for as Reed and Sue attempt to have a fourth wedding without a global emergency or the general media interrupting it. This time, it has gotten irritatingly serious as a strange universal outsider begins creating these large craters in the Earth and threatens to destroy the entire planet. That, combined with the unwelcome reappearance of an old nemesis, causes more problems than the Four seem to be able to handle. 

As tends to happen with most sequels, Rise of the Silver Surfer tried to outshine its predecessor, which, in turn, became obvious to the audience and caused the film to not be as good. The funny dysfunction and light-hearted banter that was a dominant feature in the original Fantastic Four was lost to the four winds in this film and replaced with a more dramatic and complicated vibe that was just not as effective. We see internal struggles, particularly in the character of Johnny, who provided most of the comic relief in the first movie and his character just becomes a little more dramatic and loses that original hot-head attitude that made us fall in with him in the first one. 

Having said this though, the special effects were a real knockout, particularly the effects that were used to create the Silver Surfer. I tell you, these effects created the same feeling in me as the effects in Terminator 2: Judgement Day did. Awesome. Just awesome. 

Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Kerry Washington, Doug Jones (who provided us with two memorable characters in Pan's Labyrinth), Andre Braugher, Julian McMahon and featuring the voice talents of Lawrence Fishburne, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was a good film, but just not as good as the first one. Filled with action, gadgets, great special effects, comedy, and romance, it’s still a great film to watch, but just doesn’t give off the same vibe that the first one did.