When we last left the Fantastic Four, Ben had come to terms with his new powers,
Susan and Reed had admitted they were head over heals in love with one another,
and Johnny... well, was just being Johnny. So at the beginning of Silver
Surfer, we are anxious to find out what has since happened to our foursome
of super heroes.
With the stress of becoming overnight media megastars and trying to plan
her dream wedding after previously disastrous attempts, Susan (Jessica
Alba) is weary of dodging the press and wants to have a quiet ceremony.
Attempting to share her feelings with Reed (Ioan Gruffudd), Susan finds
him much the same as he always is, buried in his scientific work. After
Susan's cad of a brother Johnny (Chris Evens) convinces Reed to attend a
bachelor party, things get a little sticky when Susan shows up along
with a high ranking General; our heroes are about to find out their
newest mission. Giving Reed and his comrades the sensitive information
about something that has been slowly destroying the planets, leaving
havoc in its wake, the General hopes the foursome will come to his
rescue. Knowing Susan is nearly at the end of her emotional rope, Reed
publicly turns them down saying he must concentrate on his wedding and
fiancé, while secretly planning to be of assistance behind her back.
Just as Johnny escorts Susan down the aisle, New York loses power and a
mysterious new threat is spotted. Once contact has been made with the
enemy simply dubbed "The Silver Surfer," strange things begin to happen
to Johnny. Its a battle against time for our fearless heroes as they try
and decipher the mystery surrounding The Silver Surfer's intentions, and
his past.
Having just seen Fantastic Four
this past summer, the sequel went on my to-see-on-DVD list. The first
managed to be both adventuresome and humorous all at once, something I
found surprising but for the good. All in all, the sequel holds its own,
but still the screenwriters could have come up with a fresher plot than
they did. Despite the fact that this a super hero flick and not my
normal genre, the Fantastic Four are very likable characters and make
you want to know what will happen in the next chapter of their life.
Reed and Susan are madly in love and therefore you want them to have
their happily ever after. Ben, broken over the betrayal of his beloved
wife, has rallied and found someone who he can be himself with. With
Johnny, we slowly see his armor crack when things aren't going so well
and he's faced with death. My favorite part of this series is the humor;
its hilarious. Johnny is constantly cracking some kind of joke, often
annoying the dickens out of Ben.
The plot is a little old in the sense that it will be pretty easy for
you to guess who the real perpetrator is. We have an old rival and a new
enemy in this, and although I'm not certain, I feel our old enemy was
essentially responsible for most of the mayhem. While this certainly
didn't ruin the story for me, how many standoffs can you have with the
same adversary? Even by the end of this tale, we still are left thinking
one rivals alive and another we aren't certain about, leaving it open
for yet another installment. Then there are the subtle and negative
religious parallels. The Silver Surfer references the one he serves and
is even seen kneeling in his presence. When we do eventually learn what
this ultimate force is, I found it particularly ridiculous. It goes
greatly against Christian beliefs and principles in the sense of serving
something apart from God. Even knowing that these movies are very
fantasy minded, I still think they could have created something
different to be the master and the stratagem. If you can get past the
notions that are portrayed in both movies, they are really quite cute
with the more important things as previously stated; characters and
comedy.
I really only saw the film for Ian Gruffudd, and wasn't
disappointed in his performance. He and Jessica are decent enough
together, but sadly there isn't much chemistry. Despite having a lesser
rating, there is about the same level of content as in the first film.
Violence consists of helicopters losing power and breaking up; a man
dies by being frozen, and we see him sitting upright looking as if part
of his body disintegrated. A man falls after losing his power and lands
on the street in front of a cab. Missiles and guns are launched and
fired without injury. An arrow goes into a woman's heart. Various tense
situations call for the Fantastic Fours help and involve life and death
instances; we briefly see a man being tortured. During the final battle,
various things happen and can be best described as confusion. Johnny is
still a ladies man and on occasion this is talked about. Johnny
asks Ben how he and his girlfriend do it. Sue ends up naked lying on the
street, quickly turning herself invisible when she realizes it. A few
other innuendos are heard. Language is used frequently enough to deserve
mentioning.
If you let your thirteen-year-old watch the previous, you should be okay
with this second installment, but still should view it with caution. By
the conclusion, I was happy to have seen this and while it will never be
at the top of my favorites, it was still an enjoyable getaway for an
hour and a half. Plus we get to see some major changes in the
characters' lives, along with a happily ever after and even one final
laugh from ... Johnny, who else?
