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Finally saw this...
The first 20 minutes had me cringing. Boy, that Ioan Gruffaud is a BAD ACTOR. BAD. ACTOR! And his accent was all over the place. I hear he's Scottish, but man, sometimes he sounded like an Australian trying to cover up his accent, sometimes he sounded like he was from Brooklyn, sometimes he sounded passably American... and he's pretty bad acting-wise throughout. He does *look* like Reed, though.
However, once they got their powers and we had the whole bridge sequence with Ben flipping out, the movie started to improve a bit. I actually enjoyed the bridge sequence with everyone using their powers, and for a few moments I felt like I was watching a halfway decent FF movie.
Chris Evans stole the movie as Johnny Storm. Every single thing he did was either funny or just plain charismatic, good solid acting. So likeable as a character, and even his "stop bugging me, sis, they love me" hinted at the insecurities of Johnny Storm in a way that the comics rarely do.
Alba did surprisingly well, she's miscast but she wasn't the train wreck I expected. She's not a good actress but she's adequate enough not to ruin it horribly. Every time she was on the screen, most males in the theater whispered a hushed 'oh, man...' Very interesting affect, must have been what it was like to view a movie when Marilyn Monroe was around (not that I'm comparing the two in any significant way, but it was notable how every time she was on the screen everyone pretty much drooled).
Doom....meh. But he fit the movie's slightly campy cartoony made for 10 year olds tone fine, I guess.
The Human Torch special effects were pretty great, the best of the film. I liked how they showed the invisibilty power, and Reed's stretching was actually quite good. I never thought about how creepy, disconcerting and freakish Reed's stretching power would look in real life til I saw the trailers and the movie itself.
>> 'the Baxter Building is wrong,' etc,
I did find it a bit odd that Baxter Building looked so weird, but I see what the art directors were going for - a building where the top floors looked like a kooky-patchwork-mad-scientist playground, almost as if Reed kept adding sections on in a mad rush of ideas, having on concept as to architectural design.
The sequence where they were 'given' their superhero names by Johnny actually kind of worked too.
>> it has Stan Lee as mailman Willy Lumpkin and the Thing drinking coffee in a cafe. How cool is that?
Ditto on both fronts. People cheered for Stan Lee when he showed up - and he was born to play Willy Lumpkin. He looks pretty much exactly like the character! Great Lee cameo.
The Thing in his trenchcoat and hat actually had me visualizing Kirby scenes several times...and the Thing looking depressed in the coffee shop/diner, trying to drink his coffee...spot on. (I can't believe I'm saying that this movie got some things spot on, but it kind of did) And the Thing's arc actually worked - it was a nice progression. His choice to return to being the Thing to save the day worked, esp. with the interesting irony that he used to be the tough guy/protector when he was human but now that the group is in the superhero powers-world, his human toughness can't help them anymore against superpowered baddies.
>> The Thing telling kids to not do drugs floored me.
YES! And they got the Johnny/Ben bickering totally right -- you could even see Johnny's friendship and attempt at kindess for Ben in trying to get Ben to lighten up about his new 'condition' in the 'Smile, Ben -- they want to like you" bit.
Chiklis struck me as very boring and almost a bad actor in his early scenes as Ben Grimm, but once he became The Thing he rocked the house. The Thing costume/suit didn't bother me nearly as much as it did when I saw the trailers or photos from the film: once I was in the film watching it, it really worked for me. In fact, it allowed Chiklis to really come alive - the face moved with his face, everything seemed pretty fluid somehow. His eyes spoke volumes and actually looked appropriately tragic at times. Sure, it doesn't look like the traditional Thing we all know, but it does look more like the early mushy-globby Thing from the early FF comics...and it really comes off more as a man deformed than a cool rocky guy. And Chiklis nailed the voice...the slight effect they put on it worked beautifully.
Dooms' voice, though, once he was in the armor, was pretty weak. Where he got the mask was ok -- it is nice that they worked in the whole 'can't bear to be seen with scars on his face' vanity thing. The ending moments where he's tucked away in a tanker to Latveria were very ripoff/homage to the Ark getting shut away among many many boxes at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The FF costumes actually looked very cool, I thought. Even Ben's pants with FF belt buckle.
I'd rather not have Doom be the villian in a sequel, they used him up for this movie and he wasn't all that great anyway. What do they HAVE to have in the sequel? The Fantasticar. 
Sure the movie is dumbed down for kids, but given reports that 90% of the attendees at the big San Diego ComicCon were ages 20-30 (ish), maybe that's not such a bad thing to have 10-year olds get psyched for the FF. The only time I really believe all the 'comics are doomed' stuff is when I realize that it's primarily people ages 25-40 (ish) that are buying comics with any regularity right now. |
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), but I think tSue being naked was the whole point. It was a laugh poorly executed. That's 99% of the film, a laugh.