Comic Book Journal

So Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer soared to the top of the box office this past weekend. Its a hip, funny and entertaining flick, but how does it stack up to its comic counterpart? Find out below.

The Fantastic Four - All of the Foursome’s comic book personalities are intact, perhaps even more so than the first movie. Seeing as how Reed Richard’s bumbling scientific curoristy interrupts his own wedding, its no stretch (no pun intended) to see him driving his own relationship with Sue through ground during Civil War. Sue and Johnny’s relationship is very strong in this episode, particularly as Johnny starts swapping powers left and right like the Super-Skrull. When one of these power-swaps causes Sue to get hurt, Johnny realizes he’s a danger to everyone around him. Its actually his frequent tormentor Ben Grimm who sticks with him, adding to the family feel. Of course, the squabbling isn’t completely lost in the script, and during a military operation, the general at one point exclaims “What the hell is wrong with you people?” during a family feud.

Grade: A

The Silver Surfer: Perfectly rendered in both CGI and plain costume, the guy looks great. Laurence Fishburne nails the voice, but I have a feeling the unsung hero here is Doug Jones, who plays the Surfer is body but not voice (he also played Abe Sapien in a similar capacity on Hellboy). Jones gives the Surfer a powerful yet interesting body vocabulary. Its all here - we learn the Silver Surfer’s former identity - Norrin Rad - and why he does what he does - sacraficing himself for the love of his live. Even when he’s down charged with the Power Cosmic, he’s a wonder to behold.

Grade: A

Dr. Doom: Julian McMahon is as bad-ass as ever as the chrome-domed adversary of the Fantastic Four. Freed from his icy prison, Doom starts investigating the Silver Surfer, eventually teaming up with the Four to bring down this otherwordly menace, though he has - not surprisingly - an ulterior motive. I could have used more details on Latveria - a place only hinted at in the first firm. Also, once Dr. Doom finally obtains the Surfer’s board, he really doesn’t do anything with it save gliding around the city. Dr. Doom was greaty portrayed by McMahon, but not quite up to the devious manipulation of his counterpart.

Grade: B

Galactus: Granted, the big guy is really hard to do, but the filmmakers took the easy way out far too much here. While the intergalactic storm cloud is intimidating, it just isn’t Galactus. There’s no real character to it - it doesn’t talk, and we only think we see the familiar head piece behind a wall of flames. Yes, this is a character to do, but there needed to be more here. The way things are going now, there’s no character, not even an ominous figure. The sense of sinister forbodding is present though, just no attached presence.

Grade: C

Frankie Raye: Played by hottie Beau Garrett, there’s little hint of this character’s future as a herald of Galactus. She does end up with Johnny Storm in the end - just like the comics - but there’s little chemistry between their love-hate relationship. The character exists as a sidenote, and I have a feeling there might be a couple deleted scenes on the cutting room floor expanding both her character and her relation with Johnny Storm.

Grade: C+

Overall: A solid entry into fantastic film, one of the surprising saving graces of the series lies in the fact that the stories are spread out so much. This isn’t like Spider-Man (Oh, we have to do the new Goblin now) or X-Men (Oh, we have to do Dark Phoenix now). As a result, I have a feelin the Fantastic franchise will know a surprising amount of freedom - coupled with its action comedy core - than the other Marvel movies.

Grade: B