Fantastic 4

Went to watch fantastic 4, on a weekend. quite suicidal as the price was $9.50.

But managed to repay all my debts! $10 to edwin and $20 to leo. Damn broke now. Still got pharm camp of $35.

Anyway the movie wasn't too much of an impression, to this non-f4 fan such as myself. No previous readings of comic books for me. Here's how it goes: warning spoilers.

The crew

1) Mr fantastic: some guy (and a loser) with a ph.D in physics and chem, he designed some craft to go to outer space to investigate some "cosmic wave". After the transformation, he has an extremely malleable and ductile body, like rubber. On the space mission, he is accompanied by:

2) The Thing: some guy called Ben in real life, he is the sai-kang warrior for mr. fantastic ("he uses his head, i use my legs"). During the space mission, he is the one most directly and greatly affected by the cosmic radiation, probably thats why he changed so much. In the movie, his wife left him, he became a social misfit, that's why he hates his new form so much. He possesses great strength (of course!) and has bullet-proof hardened skin.

3) The Invisible Woman: playing Mr. fantastic's (previous and rekindled) love interest. Apparently the invisible woman (Sue) had a thing for Fantastic, but found him too much of a "dork". So she left him for the much influential Victor (who was to be Dr. Doom). This recent project provided a chance for their old love to rekindle. She has the power to be invisible (duh) and has the power to manipulate air, such that she can create waves of air like a sonic boom, or conjure up force-fields.

4) The Human torch: Sue's brother is a mischeivious fellow who was somehow on the outer space mission as well. He's like any hot-blooded young teenager-adult who uses his new-founded powers to... impress girls and perform biking stunts. Loves irritating The Thing, who doesn't appreciate his pranks very much. He has the ability to create fire (duh), simply by snapping his fingers viz a lighter, and to increase the temperature of the fire, up to the maximum 4000K of supernova status. Oh yes, he can fly as well, something like a rocket.

The bad guy in this movie is called

Dr Doom: What is left of Victor after the entire transformation. Having grown silvery bodily scales/armour, he looks like the bad form of Terminator. Discovered that he could act as a capacitor (i.e. store electricity), therefore his habit of draining energy from many of the city's sources to himself; flashing lights that "the electricity bill is not paid" are a trademark of his presence. Of course, he uses this electricity to kill people.

F4 is basically a typical comic book story, all finished in one big comic book - how the heroes get their powers, some conflict, twist and turn, somehow they get back together for the final fight scene vs the big bad villian (which was quite weak). The romance btw Mr. fantastic and the invisible woman was not there, if at all. Humourous parts of the show were quite weak, with one good joke in between long pauses and weak jokes, didn't get me laughing at all, nor my adrenaline rushing as it would be. Sound effects are so-so. What i can applaud is probably the CG effects that the show was rendered upon, for the whole movie it didn't seem like a CG movie, esp during the times when they showed off their powers. The invisible woman became invisible very naturally, one thing.



Verdict: 2.5/5 stars, 3/5 stars if u seen the comic book