Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Review by Steven D. Greydanus | posted 6/15/2007
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In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, when we first catch up with the Fantastic Four—Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd); Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl (Jessica Alba); Johnny Storm, the Human Torch (Chris Evans); and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis)—they're trying to catch a flight. "I'm sorry, Mr. Richards, we're overbooked," the counter agent tells him. "You'll have to fly coach."
Uh huh. That's a little like Stephen Hawking, Paris Hilton, Brad Pitt and The Rock all getting bumped from first class. The Fantastic Four, having no secret identities, are global celebrities and media darlings. Reed and Sue's marriage plans have sparked the same sort of media frenzy as Tom and Katie's nuptials, or Brad and Angelina's dalliance. Johnny is a glory hound, living for the spotlight. Bumped to coach? Cosmic ray–induced super powers, outer-space surfboards, world-consuming celestial vortices I can accept, but suspension of disbelief only goes so far.
Johnny Storm, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Ben Grimm
It's the first false note in a film that doesn't strike a whole lot of right ones. Of course, I felt the same way—and then some—about the first Fantastic Four film (though Christianity Today Movies' Russ Breimeier gave it a generally positive review). With more ambitious action sequences, cooler special effects, and a slightly lower level of obnoxious and trashy behavior from the Torch, I suppose the sequel is the better film, as well as the more family-friendly one. This should be welcome news to the family audiences who helped make Fantastic Four a hit—though I personally wouldn't recommend either film to family audiences, or anyone else.
Although the subtitle refers to his "rise," the Silver Surfer in fact descends to earth in the film's opening scenes, a gleaming metallic figure looking a lot like the liquid metal Terminator from T2 on a flying surfboard. (The CGI Surfer is voiced by Laurence Fishburne, with a motion-capture physical performance from Doug Jones of Pan's Labyrinth. I'm not sure it made much difference; the character could have been entirely animated for all I could tell.)
Though his passing wreaks havoc everywhere he goes, the Silver Surfer is not the true enemy. He is only the herald of a far greater threat, the world-devouring force of nature known as Galactus (in the comics a giant humanoid alien, here a planet-sized vortex in outer space). Bound to serve Galactus in exchange for the sparing of his own homeworld, the Surfer has no choice but to lead Galactus to other living worlds in order that his own world might live. Rise of the Silver Surfer also features returning villain Dr. Doom (Julian MacMahon), every bit as unimpressive as in the first film.
Silver Surfer comes to Earth to prepare it for destruction
Alarmed by the destruction caused by the Surfer's passing, the government, in the person of one General Hagar (Andre Braugher), turns for help to Reed Richards. Reed, however, has other fish to fry. He's getting married, and Sue doesn't want him getting all caught up in techno-nerdy stuff when he should be preparing for the wedding. Reed assures her he's off the science beat, even going so far as to turn down General Hagar's request for help. However, Reed isn't being honest—his scientific work continues behind Sue's back, and, after winning her approval for passing on Hagar's project, Reed proceeds to work on the general's request anyway.
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