{"id":3930,"date":"2007-11-18T08:04:03","date_gmt":"2007-11-18T13:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinemacrazed.wordpress.com\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2015-12-29T06:51:37","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T11:51:37","slug":"fantastic-4-rise-of-the-silver-surfer-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/11\/18\/fantastic-4-rise-of-the-silver-surfer-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Some comic books just aren\u2019t meant to be made into movies. There are just some concepts that look great on a page with a great artist that completely fails to translate on screen. \u201cFantastic Four\u201d will forever be one of the prime examples of this argument. Tim Story and co. have failed to prove many people wrong in the assertion that this story can be turned into a serious action packed movie. On its surface it\u2019s artificial fluff, a complete piece of colorful junk like cotton candy that\u2019s there for nothing more than to look pretty and provide you with an instant bit of pleasure, and yet really has no long lasting effects or nutritional value.<\/p>\n

Some comics just can\u2019t be made into movies. \u201cGhost Rider<\/a>\u201d proved that, \u201cSwamp Thing<\/a>\u201d proved that, and now \u201cFantastic Four\u201d has proven that. \u201cRise of the Silver Surfer\u201d has also helped to fuel this argument by neutering itself further down into a bonafide PG rating, and pretty much ignoring all of the dark themes from the comics. With this sequel it\u2019s more of a glorified \u201cPower Rangers\u201d episode with bright imagery, endless almost sickening camp abound, and a plot so thin you could pick the meat from your teeth with it. This is a light show, first and foremost, and while kids will love it, I just couldn\u2019t enjoy myself at all. Not even the presence of the Silver Surfer saved an otherwise horrid sequel that Story simply can\u2019t save.<\/p>\n

Galactus never looked attractive to begin with; I mean how can you make a gigantic god with a purple costume and a tuning fork helmet look great on the screen? So Story and co. are at odds and turn him into a\u2026 storm cloud? Where is the transition there? What could have and should have been one of the best moments in the comic book film sub-genre, is turned into a hokey spiritual manifesto of a follower choosing to basically decide what he believes in and giving of himself. It’s hokum like that that will completely fly over the target audience’s heads in the end. Regardless, \u201cRise of the Silver Surfer\u201d isn\u2019t so much bad as it is cowardly. It hides behind the appearance of the Silver Surfer to motivate us into watching a lame brained sequel that can\u2019t even stand on the strength of its own characters.<\/p>\n

Much like the pre-Nolan Batman series, and \u201cSmallville,\u201d Sony simply pushes aside their central characters and introduces more supporting players losing focus on the real title character. I couldn\u2019t deny it; The Silver Surfer looks absolutely fantastic here and is probably the only truly faithful variation of the character. His name, his origin, and even his look are all completely identical to the comic book character, and lo and behold, he translates wonderfully on the literal screen. The special effects matched with Doug Jones top notch stunt work makes the Silver Surfer a wonderful highlight to this film, with some of the best character effects I\u2019ve seen implemented in a long time. The Silver Surfer looks beautiful and when he loses his powers he looks realistic and of substance. I was simply astonished.<\/p>\n

Jones performs with his usual skill, and Laurence Fishburne\u2019s downplayed performance is the icing on the cake. I was thrilled watching the Silver Surfer do battle and observe humanity. It\u2019s true to the creation, and the Silver Surfer is a sheer delight. When are we going to see a spin-off? Instead while Storm is kept faithful, The Thing has now become a lovable goofy oaf who is the prime punch line with Chiklis dialed down in personality and charisma, and there\u2019s Reed Richards who all but becomes a Danny Tanner meets Clark Kent hybrid with Ioan Gruffud made to look like a fool. Alba is once again the flat wooden actress who adds zero presence to Sue, even when the writing begs that she be over the top and comedic. \u201cRise of the Silver Surfer\u201d suffers from an arc that can never stay focused on one plot point.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re pulled in all under-developed directions as Johnny learns to appreciate The Thing, Reed gains a new sense of courage, Sue forms a bond of with Silver Surfer, the Silver Surfer learns about humanity, we’re forced to endure clich\u00e9 military antagonists, and it goes on and on. If \u201cRise of The Silver Surfer\u201d managed to gain a better sense of direction, it wouldn\u2019t have been so chaotic to watch, in the end. Camp and convolution never manage to form a great movie, even if this sequel is much more superior to the former. Nothing is and shall ever be worse than \u201cBatman and Robin<\/a>,\u201d or \u201cSpider-Man 3<\/a>,\u201d but Story does seem to attempt to contend with those titles bringing us another sub-par entry into the \u201cFantastic Four\u201d mythos. While the Silver Surfer cushions the blow, this is a sequel I can ultimately throw away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some comic books just aren\u2019t meant to be made into movies. There are just some concepts that look great on a page with a great artist that completely fails to translate on screen. \u201cFantastic Four\u201d will forever be one of the prime examples of this argument. Tim Story and co. have failed to prove many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,71,219,338,340,349,580,633,874,906,922],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-comedy","tag-f","tag-family","tag-fantasy","tag-kids","tag-marvel","tag-romance","tag-science-fiction","tag-sequel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18201,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/18201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}