FANTASTIC FOUR

THE RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

REVIEWED BY RISSI C.

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: action/adventure violence, innuendo

Rated:

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 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. It’s 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; it’s 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 rival’s 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 Four’s 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?