July 13, 2005
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly...And Jessica AlbaPosted by Bryan
Light on plot, The Fantastic Four hits a comfortable vibe by not taking itself too seriously. Unfortunately, a few of the CGI scenes look like they were made with software left over from the original Toy Story. Evans as the Human Torch was enjoyably good; Gruffud, as the ironically stiff Reed Richards was bad to the point of "Sorry, dude, I just don't care if you don't make it." Chiklis is well done ugly as the conflicted Thing (never "spongy," as described elsewhere). His relationship struggles nearly reduced my son to tears. Jessica Alba, while wavering between "universally maternal" and "universally unbelievable as an MIT grad," proved there is just no cool way to act like you're getting your force field on. F4 was more family-friendly than Marvel-ous predecessors; just keep your expectations low.