Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer | |
| Rated: | None |
| Director: | Tim Story |
| Cast: | Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis |
| Release Date: | 2007 |
| Genre: | Action |
To ask whether Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is “good” is to miss the point entirely. To begin, there’s the arrow-straight plot: the Silver Surfer, an intergalactic herald, arrives at Earth and announces its demise, and evil Dr. Doom decides to take advantage. The dialogue is ridiculous, and the closest thing to a round character is a molten blob of CGI silver that surfs around the galaxy. But if director Tim Story did anything right, it was setting the bar so low with the 2005 original that the sequel had nowhere to go but up. Many inanimate objects (and some animate ones) go bang, which certainly helps matters, and the pin-up actors don’t hurt either. Sure, the writing, directing, and acting are a disaster, and yeah, Dr. Doom looks like a leprous Emperor Palpatine. But then the nerd quotient kicks in, and you start thinking “Hey, Laurence Fishburne is the voice of the Silver Surfer, cool,” and “Damn, the London Ferris wheel just fell off its hinges.” Is it “good?” Of course not. It’s campy and profoundly stupid—but hey, if you’re willing to sacrifice a few brain cells, it’s also kinda fun.