Can’t a supergirl get hitched in peace?|
“Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer” finds the lovers in the quartet trying to tie the knot. Only duty keeps tugging at Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s superhero personas Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman.
Power surges and climate shifts are vexing the planet: Lakes freeze solid beneath trawlers; the Great Sphinx gets a dusting of snow; massive power outages put the West Coast on lockdown.
The U.S. military in the gruff-enough guise of Gen. Hager (Andre Braugher, racing through pap) is on the case.
Each of these events is preceded by a streaking light that resembles a comet. It’s not.
As disconcerting as these goings-on are, TV newscasters can’t help breathlessly following them with frothing coverage of the “Fantastic Wedding.”
Written by Don Payne and Mark Frost,
and directed by Tim Story, “Fantastic Four” wrestles ever so gently with an off-kilter world in which global threats are treated as lead-ins to the more important news of the day: a celebrity jailing … ahem … wedding.
Our poor superheroes. They can’t seem to escape the kryptonite of our cultural obsessions. If it’s not the problems (and spoils) of unsought fame, it’s the familiar fretting about bringing children into an already complicated relationship.
Still, who really cares that Reed finally loosens up on the dance floor with a couple of hotties at a bachelor party? The visual joke might have been funnier had the sight of the uptight researcher going all rubbery not been so fake.
Should we really take comfort in the fact that Susan has pre-wedding jitters and the requisite prenup pimple? Are superpowers an appropriate substitute for Clearasil?
For the target audience of this PG-rated flick, the answers may be “yes.”
Only at some point, don’t we want our superheroes to be a little less like us and a little more, well, super? Enough with their human dimension already.
“Rise” exhibits more storytelling balance than this spring’s other superhero soap opera, “Spider-Man 3,” where the courtship of Peter and Mary Jane bored in the way that only overly sincere adolescent love stories can.
Which brings us to the Silver Surfer. A muscular silent type (Laurence Fishburne provides the voice), he’s not your typical chattering baddie.
Catching waves of air on his platinum board, he’s the harbinger who comes before planets are annihilated.
Is he evil or merely destructive? His ambiguity is the one nice surprise in an otherwise familiar outing.
Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) returns to provide the hubris and bitter wisecracks of a comic-book arch-villain.
“Rise of the Silver Surfer” is better than its juvenile predecessor. Though saying so recalls something Julia Roberts once quipped in connection to “Ocean’s Eleven”: In revisiting mediocre films, you can’t do too bad by them.
Michael Chilkis’ man of stone, The Thing, is less shy about his appearance this time round. Kerry Washington continues to intrigue as his love. If you’re just tuning in for this episode: Love isn’t blind, she is.
An initial tussle with the Silver Surfer makes the Human Torch (Chris Evans) contagious. Whenever one of his colleagues touches him, they temporarily pick up his fiery trait and he theirs. After the Torch and the Invisible Woman touch, she eventually winds up on the street in the buff. It’s a gag from the first movie.
“Why does this always happen to me?” she asks.
Because you’re Jessica Alba, silly.
Ioan Gruffudd has learned to relax into the larky fun this type of gig affords actors. Granted, Reed’s a serious scientist with a workaholic’s attachment to his PDA, but Gruffudd now flips the switch between a severe grimace – the world is ending, I’ve got to do some calculations – and an “I’m with Alba” grin.
Much the way their characters have gained some dimension since last they saved Earth, the actors are finding their chemistry.
Is it fantastic? No.
But it is summer-serviceable.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
“The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer”
PG for sci-fi action|1 hour, 31 minutes|COMIC-BOOK SEQUEL|Directed by Tim Story; written by Don Payne and Mark Frost, based on Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s comic; photography by Larry Blanford; starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington, Andre Braugher, and Laurence Fishburne as the voice of the Silver Surfer|Opens today at area theaters.
A long row to hoe for “Fantastic Four”
Comic book adaptations have turned out to be a great source for movies, and so the “Fantastic Four” faces stiff competition when it comes to scoring at the box office. Here’s a look at the top five movies in the category (first figure is total domestic gross, second is opening weekend, in millions unless indicated):
1. Spider-Man $403.7 ($114.8, 2002)
2. Spider-Man 2 $373.6 ($88.2, 2004)
3. Spider-Man 3 $321.3 ($151.1, 2007)
4. Batman $251.2 ($40.5, 1989)
5. Men in Black $250.7 ($51.1, 1997)
BOXOFFICEMOJO.COM
This article has been corrected in this online archive. Originally, due to a reporting error, it misidentified Reed Richards as Reed Richardson.
