Nutshell Reviews: Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Ok, so I've always said I wanted to write more reviews or similar stuff on this site. I say it time and again, but I rarely get a chance to sit down and follow through with my promises. This is the compromise, nutshell reviews! Due to the late hour most of these get written, there may be grammatical errors present. Also, these nutshell reviews are open to editing and alteration at a later date, possibly even extension, if I feel I forgot something.

First up, Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.

I loved the first movie that was made for this franchise, so going in the door, I knew I was going to be pleased. I'm a sucker for big flashy super hero movies, and this one filled all those categories!

The characters as as fun as the first time, with Ben and Johnny once more stealing the show! The writers obviously spotted this in the first one too, because they gave the two of them far more screen time in the sequel, and upped the crazy antics they get up to. There are a few nice nods for fans of the comics, and even Stan Lee gets an extra special cameo for this one. The Silver Surfer is incredible, looking, moving and even sounding perfect! The reflections on his body are incredibly well done. Every action seems throughout and meaningful, and he truly comes across looking as though he has the power of a comic god inside him, and every movement he does is affected by that. That, and his voice resonates with strength and determination. And Doom! I loved Julian McMahon in the first and he's even better here! He pulls of the screaming, plotting, sneering Doom with joy, clearly relishing the part. I loved seeing things begin to work out for him during the movie. He just seemed so happy, I wanted to hug him and tell him "Keep enjoying it! Cause in the third act, they're gonna kick your ass!"

The script is strong, and the dialogue is lively and fast paced. Johnny's banter in particular is well written, and executed wonderfully by Chris Evans. The action gets going early, and once it does, the movie is well paced, with nice moments of quietness between the action scenes, lending themselves to great character development. The action is top notch, and visually spectacular. And there is loads of it, another lesson learned from the rather action-light first outing. While we're on the lessons here, they certainly get around the world in the new movie. In the first, all we had was the lab and New York. Sure, we had the space station and the mountain hospital, but nothing much happened there... well... nothing actiony! I realise they got their powers on the station! London, Russia, New York and China all turn up as places to have a good fight in the sequel. As well as that we see Japan, Egypt and more as the Surfer circles the globe a few times!

Finally, Galactus. I'm not gonna ruin it. I loved what they did, others didn't. Lots of neat references, lots of subtle hints. At least this version looked like he really could consume a planet, without the need for nanomachines!

So is it a good movie? If you liked the first one, you'll probably love this. Even if you weren't all that impressed with the first movie, this still has hope. It is faster, there is more action, and the Surfer is cool, but I can't really recommend it to you.

I loved it. It'll be in my DVD collection on release!