This isn’t a review of this weekend’s summer blockbuster, FANTASTIC FOUR. Just click on the title and you’ll see that. As I read review after review about editing, plot and character development and very little about how much fun the film is, it suddenly struck me. Most critics are reviewing FANTASTIC FOUR as a movie, while I am reviewing it as a summer blockbuster.
I am an avowed movie snob who rarely shows his face in a multiplex. It takes a comic book adaptation, or going to a movie with Scot’s Mom to do it usually. I am so immersed in independent, quasi-independent or foreign-language films that I have very little time to get to the Hollywood blockbusters. Even films like SPIDER-MAN and its sequel, despite being comic book adaptations, are on my Netflix queue because I didn’t want to devote the time to a big summer blockbuster, no matter how good it was.
When I do go to a Hollywood summer smash, you can be sure I have supremely low expectations. Add to that, the story of FANTASTIC FOUR seems impossible to me to make into a serious film that grown-ups are going to enjoy unless they have already been immersed into the comic mythos. The filmmakers of FANTASTIC FOUR went the only way they could given these challenges: a big, slightly silly and fun-filled action film that your kids can enjoy. What’s wrong with that? FANTASTIC FOUR isn’t a dark comic like BATMAN. Giving it a serious, dark undertone would have been completely laughable. It worked for SPIDER-MAN 2, and it could work for FANTASTIC FOUR 2 if there is one, because the backstory is out of the way and there can be a focus on character development and the darker side of life. For a film that has to introduce us to these characters and get them through the motions of gaining their powers, enjoying some superheroic action and fighting their nemesis, it does a damn good job.
Was I expecting a great film, well-written, elegantly made? Absolutely not. The fact that X2: X-MEN UNITED was that as well is pretty amazing, but it does happen. Did the fact that it wasn’t lessen the enjoyment for me? Nope? And if you want to know why, check out my review.