Rating: 3.5 Pulses
Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis
Directed by Tim Story
Rated PG
Sometime after 1992’s dark Batman Returns, comic book movies took a decisively different approach. The style veered from lightweight to sinister. Superheroes were pitted against their inner demons as well as their nemesis. The apple-pie sentimentality of Superman was seemingly gone.
Apparently, director Tim Story and the creators of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer didn’t get the memo. This franchise is clearly aimed at a younger generation. You won’t find any dreary rain here. There’s nary a shot of a weeping superhero. The frothy tone is refreshing, but the stakes are so intentionally low, it underscores the film’s impressive scope. ##M[read more]##
The story picks up with Dr. Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic (Gruffudd) preparing for the “Wedding of the Century” with Sue Storm (Alba), a.k.a. The Invisible Woman. Their nuptials are interrupted by the mysterious Silver Surfer ripping through the city.
Along with Ben “The Thing” Grimm (Chiklis) and “The Human Torch” Johnny Storm (Evans), the team discovers Silver Surfer is following orders from an omnipotent planet-eating cloud of dust named Galactus.
The Fantastic Four, with assistance from the U.S. military, set out to save Earth. A resurrected Dr. Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), who’s been given a stamp of credibility from government intelligence reports coming from Paul Wolfowitz, soon intervenes and an uneasy alliance is formed against the Silver Surfer.
Director Story and screenwriters Don Payne and Mark Frost expand upon 2005’s origin film. The sequel chronicles Reed and Sue’s desire for normalcy, Ben and Johnny’s isolation within their dysfunctional family and, gasp, a brush with death.
Pretty heady stuff, right? End of the world, disillusioned superheroes, mortality? In the hands of Sam Raimi or Tim Burton, we’d get brooding melodrama intertwined with epic battles. However, Rise of the Silver Surfer is unabashedly frivolous.
Because of the film’s carefree ambivalence, it fails to sustain any sense of gravitas.
If a third film is warranted, may I offer a suggestion: strike a balance between giddy and gloomy. The foursome does not need to be updated as Christ figures, but their plight merits more than this purely aesthetic tale.
