Review: Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

'You know, don't look completely ridiculous in that dress.'

★★½

Ever since I saw the first film, I didn't have high hopes for this one. People say it's a bit better than the first film, which got me curious. Like the first one, I did go in with my hopes high.

In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007), the Fantastic Four—Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), Susan Storm (Jessica Alba), Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis)—face a new threat in the form of the Silver Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne and portrayed by Doug Jones), a mysterious cosmic being who arrives on Earth to prepare it for destruction by his master, Galactus. As the team tries to understand the Surfer's motives, they also have to deal with the return of their nemesis, Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon), who seeks to exploit the Silver Surfer’s powers for his own gain. The Fantastic Four must join forces with the Surfer to prevent Galactus from destroying the planet, leading to unexpected alliances and sacrifices.

This film is better than the first one, but it still isn't considered 'good' like other Marvel films. It tells a more stable story, but that's about it. There isn't much character development, no proper villain arc, and the comedy feels pointless. Films like X-Men and X2 told a stable and contained story with a clear direction, unlike these two Fantastic Four films that seemed unsure of the kind of film they wanted to be. And for those who are wondering, "why I compared these films to the X-Men films?" Well, I'll tell you. I compared those films because both are superhero films that are teams. Teams that have to learn to work with each other despite their differences, teams that have a common enemy, but have to work with each other to get rid of an enemy, but later have to the defeat the common enemy.

In this film, nobody gets character development. The Thing was the only character who got character development in the first film. The sequel, nobody got character development. What's buffling is that when Johnny's powers get switched if he touched someone, and switches with The Thing, Ben gets all excited that he's back. What happened to his development from the first film? In that film, he learned to accept himself. Like it was nice to see Michael Chiklis without The Thing suit, because he's my favorite casting choice and character, but it served no point other than for a laugh for two. But towards the end, when Johnny Storm takes all The Fantastic Four's powers to help Silver Surfer, it made sense.

The Silver Surfer, who was played by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne, which was a great choice, by the way, but the villain was another wasted material. He serves little to no purpose in this film, and is overshadowed by Dr. Doom. As written, The Silver Surfer can be considered the central antagonist of the movie, as the Fantastic Four believed him to be the main threat before it's revealed that the Surfer was just a pawn used by Galactus, the true main antagonist of the movie. But like, he hardly does anything, and we don't know much about him.

Jessica Alba, who had an ongoing conflict with director Tim Story, as didn't give a good performance. Again, it's not enterily her fault. Her character was poorly written. All she does was whin, and compain how Reed wasn't with her. When she catches Reed dancing with girls at a club thanks to Johnny and his mind of a bachelor party, she gets a little annoyed at first, then forgives and says that it was nothing comparied to what she did at her bachelorette party. That just felt weird and unesscary. Like the last movie, she gets yet another scene for to show her off. When Johnny accidently touches her, when his powers are going through some malfunction, she appeared nude after her clothes burnt off. The idea of showing Johnny's powers malfucntioning was fine, but I felt like it was yet another excuse to show Jessica Alba at her worst, either in her underwear, in the shower, or nude on the street. Man, it's like Tim Story hated this woman or something. I also get the feeling she was only casat for fanservice, but that was just mean.

These films would've worked, if the there was a better director, better story, better screenplay, and maybe a better cast. But keep Michael Chiklis as The Thing. He's was the best thing to come out of those movies. And finally, don't let Avi Arad get too involved as might muck everything up. It's an overall shame that these films didn't do well, when you have Sam Raimi's Spider-Man Trilogy and Bryan Singer's X-Men films that were considered the best "Pre-MCU" films. These films could've been so much more, but alas, things were probably never meant to be.