Reviewed by Sam Hatch

Poor Spidey. You rest on your laurels too long, and some underdog is bound to come along to steal your thunder.

I knew something was up when the most hardened of fanboys were bursting with joy while asking if I had seen the trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie. These were the same guys who hated the first film as if it had perpetrated some sort of crime upon them and/or their family. So I had to take a peek at the trailer, and darned if it didn't look great. Most of the buzz was generated from the smart choice to focus on The Silver Surfer in this film, as he's a relatively popular character from the Marvel pantheon. (See the Tarantino-penned Kirby-versus-Moebius fist fight among submarine sailors in Crimson Tide for a taste of geek passion over the chromed feller.)

It seems that Fox knew the right way to channel the interest in this new film, by downplaying the connection to the Fantastic Four and essentially giving the title of the film to the Surfer. The Fantastic Four would tend to intersect with the other Marvel characters, but their own collection of villains bordered on the more grandiose scale. While all of this played out well within the confines of the original comics, it's hard to imagine a modern day movie adaptation that could successfully translate the original Jack Kirby drawings of interstellar villain Galactus without the audience erupting into titters of laughter. Even the Surfer himself can tread that line between cool and goofy. (Would a character called The Sable Skateboarder play this well? Not likely.) I am happy to report that he is completely cool here.

For those who were 'too cool' or 'too young' or 'not born' enough to remember the original four-color storyline, The Silver Surfer was an alien creature/fallen angel (Norrin Radd) who became a herald for the planet-devouring Godlike entity known as Galactus in order to save his own planet (Zenn-La) from devastation. He would hang ten through space on his nifty ride and scope out new prospects for the big G to soak up and destroy. Eventually, planet Earth became a hot commodity, and over time the threat of Galactus would reemerge until Reed Richards could concoct a new way to shoo him away. Galactus had no known 'real' form, but appeared to earthlings as a gigantic tunic-wearing humanoid with a big, funky purple helmet with boomerang-esque antlers on either side. Wisely, the effects team behind Rise of the Silver Surfer has come up with a new visual interpretation that almost feels like something out of H.P. Lovecraft stories or the Final Fantasy games.

For the record, I didn't hate the first Fantastic Four film (I'm still saving my derision for when I finally see the unreleased Roger Corman version from the 90s), but felt that it suffered from a leaden script and a lack of a real, driving story. There was also the egregious advertising present in that film, but more on that later. Unfortunately Reed Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic, as portrayed in both films by Titanic actor Ioan Gruffudd) and his main squeeze Susan Storm (aka The Invisible Woman/ Jessica Alba) were on the receiving end of much of the dull script. What was so much fun about the first film was the wisecracking rapport between walking boulder The Thing (Michael Chiklis' Ben Grimm) and Susan's hotshot extreme sports enthusiast brother Johnny (aka The Human Torch).

Aside from the intriguing element of the Surfer, I would have been happy with two more hours of banter between The Thing and The Human Torch. I wasn't let down in the least, as they do have some great dialogue. Johnny even goes so far as to suggest that if Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington) and her boyfriend The Thing were to consummate their relationship it could end in her ‘death by rockslide'. Johhny's a character we really should hate, since he's a cocky mook looking for tail and extreme kicks. But Chris Evans plays him just right, charming even the iciest of foes (including Beau Garrett's no-nonsense Army captain who somehow refuses to immediately sleep with him) with a simple raise of the eyebrow.

In a welcome twist (literally at times), Reed and Susan are also much more interesting in this outing, and Mr. Fantastic even gets to strut his stuff on the dance floor during his bachelor party (comically filled guests he doesn't even know, as his best man Johnny is quick to point out that he “has no friends”). Sue and Reed are planning on getting married, and are having a hard time dealing with the prospect of raising a family under the scrutinous camera eye of the media.

If planning a wedding wasn't hard enough, the sudden appearance of the streaking, comet-like Surfer has Earth encountering a series of climatic anomalies, as well as randomly appearing holes that seem to stretch all the way to the planet's core. Andre Braugher's General Hager reluctantly contacts the private sector scientist Richards to ask him to find a way to track the visitor. Reed turns down the offer to instead focus on his wedding, but surreptitiously spends all of his spare time crafting the device that could possibly save all of mankind.

His relationship with Sue is much more fun this time around, for although he is still the browbeaten geek dying to work on his experiments, he's not as boring and cold as before. It plays more as a commentary on the traditional male preoccupation with gadgets and toys over romance and quality time. There's also a great riff on the current 'Crackberry addiction', with Reed creating an extra pair of thumbs to type faster on his PDA. He ends up being right in the long run, for while Susan pines for cuddle time and sensitivity, the Sphinx is covered in snow and the seas of Japan have been turned into solid matter.

Their celebrity wedding (with comedian Brian Posehn as the minister!) is cut short by the arrival of the Surfer, whose appearance wreaks havoc with electricity almost like an EMP from a nuclear bomb. There's a brief but entertaining flirt with danger from a malfunctioning helicopter before Johnny ‘flames on' and rushes off to catch up with the speedy alien. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen just about every segment of this chase scene. Still, it's pretty cool when the Surfer melts through buildings and subway cars. There's also a brief nod to Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers when his slingshot navigation around the Washington monument causes it to crack in the middle.

The Surfer tends to leave oodles of cosmic radiation in his wake (the same kind that gave the Four their powers in the first film), and when Johnny comes into close personal contact with the creature it sends his own molecules haywire. Throughout the remainder of the film, he swaps powers with anyone he touches – inciting the hilarious scene where The Thing gleefully rushes him for a hug in order to regain human form.

Also effected by the appearance of the Surfer is Victor Von Doom (aka Doctor Doom), who was ‘destroyed' at the end of the first film only to be sent back in a crate to his fictional homeland of Latveria. A close flyover from the alien brings him back to consciousness, and further contact elicits a healing response that returns his pretty boy features. Unfortunately, he doffs the traditional Doom look to appear as a normal guy throughout most of the film, and while Julian McMahan's inhuman looking eyebrows are remarkably frightening, he's just not that interesting a character out of his costume.

The sudden reappearance of this other world-class brain has Braugher's General opting to invite Von Doom into the researching fold, much to the amazement and chagrin of the Four. But they aren't calling the shots after they bollixed up an encounter with the Surfer in London, which left the Thames River a crispy bed of rock in the aftermath. With their arch-enemy once again in the same laboratory as them, they focus on concocting a scheme to sever the Surfer from his board and study his power. Obviously, Doom has more interest in this power than he lets on to the Army brass, but he plays the cooperative scientist role in the meantime.

The assault on the Surfer goes down in the Black Forest (or the Forest Moon of Endor, I wasn't exactly sure), and a brief battle with the military is stunningly realized. (The tired Godzilla notion of army trucks shooting missiles at a foreign invader suddenly became awesome!) Sue also gets some face to face time with the alien, and discovers that he might not be as bad as everyone suspected. Not that it matters, now that he's called for the mighty planet eater who has designs on usurping every last drop of goodness from Earth. Or does it?

Perhaps it helps going into something like this with lowered expectations, but Rise really delivers. It's infinitely better than the first film in the series, and also has the audacity to knock Spider-Man 3 out of the park. It's a fun film, and the action set pieces are actually visually inventive. The CG work in the film is great overall, apart from a few fakey-looking helicopters. But there are some stunning, vividly realistic shots in space (including an almost stereoscopic looking pass of the moon), and beautiful set pieces over the forests of Germany. And this time, the showdown with Doom in Shanghai is wholly satisfying (I can barely remember what happened to him at the end of the first film). With the introduction of interstellar characters, the film rightfully balances the more interpersonal human battles with grander, cosmic spectacles that literally threaten to eradicate all life on Earth.

The advertising is still present, though less annoying for the bulk of the film. Johnny even chastises the rest of the group for not taking corporate money to build themselves a private jet. He later appears with a new motocross-inspired FF outfit covered in sponsorship patches. “What's wrong with capitalism?” he cries. The only bit that really niggled at me was the Dodge Fantasticar. I spotted the red ‘rams head' logo on the seats immediately (due to a lifetime of advertisement conditioning), and felt that was as far as the gag needed to go. But that was followed by a close-up of the craft's embossed 'Dodge' emblem on the nose, and Johnny's joke about it having a 'Hemi'. It was a horrible moment, and the film stopped being a film for a moment and became a full on commercial. Not cool.

That should tell you how good the rest of the film is, for even that odious moment couldn't besmirch the entire product. The Surfer was a great way for director Tim Story (Barbershop, Taxi) and writers Don Payne (The Simpsons) and Mark Frost (Twin Peaks, The Greatest Game Ever Played) to resuscitate their franchise that had artistically flailed out of the starting gate. And not only does the Surfer look cool (and credit should go to Pan's Labyrinth/Hellboy physical actor Doug Jones and the smooth vocal work of Laurence Fishburne) in the opening segments, but he looks even better (and even more like an alien) when he's separated from his board.

Part of the problem with the first film was the onus of having to illuminate a five-way origin story, and Rise proves that in the case of the Fantastic Four it's much more fun to be able to get into the story with a running start. We comics fans are a spoiled bunch nowadays, for even though one series has faltered (Spider-Man 3), another has swooped in to pick up the slack. Us geeks rule, as evidenced by Reed's great counter to Braugher's ex-jock Army man that because of his being ‘lame' and studying hard during school, he's now a famous man with “the hottest girl on the planet” and the ability to save the world. Like an altruistic version of Bill Gates.

Surfer co-creator and Grand Geek Stan Lee also makes his usual cameo appearance, though not as kindly mailman Willie Lumpkin this time (he's Galactus! Just kidding.) This was a breath of fresh summer air, and it's nice to have writing that actually produces belly laughs instead of cringing shoulders. I have no idea where they can take the series next (or how much more of Kirby's spacey acid-visuals they can plunder successfully), but you've gotta hand it to Fox for not giving up on the Four. It's just too bad the Marvel film franchise is split up among so many different studios, ‘cause it might have been a blast to have Reed Richards and his dysfunctional family of superhero mutants come save another franchise in the inevitable Spider-Man 4.

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