Point To Point

It’s hard to forget the fairly abysmal origin story that was the original Fantastic Four film. Despite being a good summer film and fairly entertaining at times, it didn’t quite deliver and struggled to retain the audience’s interest during the origin of this famous foursome.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the sequel- Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer- last week and was quite impressed by it. I decided to see the film to decuce if Tim Story, the director of both films, could make a better film the second time around. In an age of darker, more ‘adult’ comic book flicks such Spider Man and Superman, Story wasn’t afraid to change his formula for the second installment of this franchise. The film is really fun, without compromising the fact that it is, in essence, about the end of the world. Let me explain; (LARGE SPOILERS) the Silver Surfer, or Norrin Radd (as he was known on his homeland Zenn-La) is a herald for a greater being, Galactus (who you do see a bit, but in a weird form). As a servant of Galactus, the surfer scopes out planets that Galactus can suck the energy from (as a “planet-eater”) and prepares them for his arrival.

In film terms, this sets up the basis for the action of the movie; the surfer arrives on Earth during the nuptials of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, causing weird climatic changes (a sea freezes!) and huge holes from which Galactus can suck energy from. The set pieces in this film, in particular the one in London, are excellent, and the CGI is of course flawless. But the thing that holds this film together is the surfer; in the Silver Surfer Tim Story has found someone who can revitalise the franchise- he’s not your token villain… There is a lot beneath his shiny surface, and Jessica Alba in particular tries to appeal to his more sensitive side. The key behind his success though is Doug Jones: Jones is to the Silver Surfer as Andy Serkis is to King Kong, and the way he moves is like nothing on Earth. I’m not going to talk about Dr. Doom; I think he has been wasted, and Julian McMahon’s acting is shocking in this film, just as it was in the first.

I don’t want to spoil the story for you guys too much, but all in all I was fairly shocked by how decent the sequel was. There are a few surprises in store for you: make sure you watch out for Galactus’ cool design…