Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) Spoiler-Filled Review/Rant: Fall Of A Franchise...

 

The 2005 "Fantastic Four" film was mediocre at best with small bursts of entertainment value and good/bad casting decisions. So, it surprises me that many critics and fans debate about if the sequel is either better or worse. Not only because it was the film that stopped the franchise in its tracks, but also because it's quite clearly worse than the average blockbuster that was the first film.

Positives: 

• Again, the three male leads of Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm are still played well by Ioan Gruffard, Chris Evens, and Micheal Chiklis. While the first film had Chiklis steal the show as the Thing, I actually think Evens manages to overtake him as Johnny considering his increased screen-time and role.
• The Silver Surfer is done and visualized extremely well, both thanks to the special effects by Weta Digital and the dual performance of Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne as the physical and vocal portrayals. 
• The comedy is stronger than the first film with quite a few chuckles. I will still complain about the tone, but the banter between Johnny and Ben as well as the physical humour with Reed manage to offer more comedic potential than ever before.
• The action set-pieces. Unlike the first film where there was only two action sequences along with a few small fights, the sequel doubles it up by four, ironically. From the chase between Johnny and the Surfer, the ferris wheel rescue moment in London, the military ambush of the Surfer, and the climax between the team and Doom in China with the Fantasticar and Johnny being able to absorb the powers of the other team members to act like the Super Skrull with the combined power set.

Negatives:

• The overstuffed story. The first film had a simple premise with the origin of the team and the fight with Doom. The sequel cranks it up to eleven with how much things are happening in the movie. The general plot is about the team encountering the Silver Surfer, who is planning the world's destruction for his master, Galactus. Because of the short deadline they have along with their plans constantly screwing up, the military has decided to team up with the sudden return of Doom, much to the team's dismay. That alone would be too much for the standard sequel, but throw in the wedding between Reed and Susan, Johnny hitting on a random military captain, Ben's new relationship with Alicia, and the globe-trotting nature of the story, it becomes pretty big to set down easily. If the film were more than two hours or so, it might be possible to have everything flow naturally and coherently. However, the movie is just short of an hour and a half, which makes things go at an unnaturally fast pace. The first film had a far simple premise and pace that works with the short run-time. The sequel has too many storylines that are extremely rushed because the film is simply too short.
• The tone. If you thought the first film was goofy, the sequel is almost reaching parody levels. Even though I do like some comedic moments, the film just has this cartoony feel to it that even dire moments such as the losing battles and the death of Susan feel either too lighthearted or too edgy for the stakes of the film. The first film, despite its comical nature, tends to feel more grounded thanks to the Thing's arc and the story of the team trying to get rid of their powers. The sequel feels like a WB cartoon for babies.
• Jessica Alba as Susan Storm. Alba was simply the hot ex Reed needed to get back in the first film. The sequel not only continues to not have the intelligence or personality of the character, but makes her so moody and selfish on just wanting her wedding to go perfectly well and hating how Reed wants to keep saving the world. It makes her extremely unlikeable, especially since she's a freaking superhero who has the duties to save others, not getting the perfect wedding.
• Julien McMahon as Victor Von Doom. Not only is his performance still not capturing the threat and menace of the character, but his role in the sequel is extremely forced. Basically, after the Surfer's presence frees him from his prison and fixes his deformity, he becomes fixated on having the vehicle for its immense power and reality capabilities. The military hires him offscreen just so Doom can tell them and the team one thing to stop the Surfer. Once the Surfer is captured, Doom steals the board for the climax despite knowing how it's crucial to stop Galactus and gets thrown into the ocean to seemingly die yet again. Not only does Doom feel forced-in given his lack of importance or role in the overall story, but the climax just reduces him to a maniacal villain once again. If Doom was removed from the film and more attention was put onto the Surfer, I think it would have been more effective story-wise.
• The side cast. They really don't add anything to the movie at all and just keep the story bloated for the sake of it. While Kerry Washington as Alicia is great as the blind girlfriend to Ben, the character really doesn't do anything in both the story or Ben's arc. Andre Braugher as General Hager chews up the scenery as the typical army general who is extremely judgemental, but his sudden death by Doom is so comical, despite how brutal it should be. Beau Garrett as Captain Frankie is by far the most pointless character in the film as she's meant to be the love interest to Johnny, but the two have zero chemistry, too little time, too much time taking up the runt-time, and she suddenly appears in the wedding at the end. It's ridiculous how pointless of a character she is. And then there's Galactus. According to the director and writer, they wanted to introduce the comic-accurate design in either a future sequel or spin-off as it would be too quick, random or silly to have the character as he is for only one scene in the film. While I understand their reasonings and the fact that Galactus is supposed to look like whatever people view him as, his appearance as a giant purple cloud with tentacles is beyond disappointing. There's not even a voice or character to him, which makes his onscreen debut even worse as it would be many years before we will get the chance to see him again. 
• The production design and direction by Tim Story. I really hate giving flack to Story and the action is actually his best to date, but this might be his worst film to date after "Tom & Jerry". The problem is that the film looks extremely cheap despite the budget being increased from before. Everything feels like a set or constructed in an artificial matter. From the various international locations, the interiors, to even the streets of NYC, Story has an issue of making the film feel like a TV movie. At times, it feels like he's shooting a commercial rather than a big-budget superhero film.
• The cinematography by Larry Blanford.  It's a downgrade from Oliver Wood and aside from the action sequences, the film has no character visually because Blanford has no creativity with the camerawork.
• The music by John Ottman. Just as forgettable as before.
• The visual effects. While the make-up and physical props are still good, the CGI is both really noticeable and poorly rendered. Aside from the Thing and Silver Surfer, the effects for the powers are still just as unpolished as before, despite more budget put into the sequel. The worst offender has got to be the compositing and green-screen. General Hager's death is so poorly executed from the weird effects, the encounter between the Surfer and Doom have them both inserted in Greenland artificially, and the use of green-screen can be so awkward at times. You can always debate about the quality of effects of the first film given the budget and experimentation of various abilities and set-pieces. The sequel has no excuse whatsoever. 

"Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer" is both a bad sequel and bad superhero film at the same time, despite not even being the worst film based on the titular team. While the male leads are still enjoyable, the comedy is kind of decent, the Silver Surfer is done as perfectly as you can, the physical effects and make-up are just as decent, and the action sequences are both more relevant and exhilarating, that's all the credit I can give out to it. The story is too bloated for such a small run-time, the tone is even more silly and comical than ever before, Alba as Susan is now unlikeable as well as simple eye candy, McMahon's Doom is both forced and insulting to both the character and the film as a whole, the side cast never stand out, Galactus is a cloud, Blanford's camerawork is bland, Ottman's score is nonexistent, the visual effects are still dated and weak with the compositing being one of the worst I've seen in a big-budget blockbuster, and Story's directing suffers by how cheap he makes every scene and location feel. Even though there's more entertainment overall action and comedy-wise, I actually prefer the first film tenfold due to having at least more balance both in the story and tonal shifts. I have seen far more boring or uninteresting films from the genre, but this sequel is so bad in how it wastes its potential to fix the problems of the first or make a grand, coherent adventure.

Verdict: 4/10. Bad, but still watchable. I will rather watch this than "Fant4stic"...