Well, I am a bit late with this because I went to a little gathering Friday evening but I am going to check in with my thoughts and I did not read through all the others yet so here goes...
I have to start by saying that this was a far more enjoyable an outing for me than the first film, which is sort of a guilty pleasure for me. Not perfect but still made for a good old styled adventure flick. Friday, I went to a matinee of FF: ROTSS and it wasnt too crowded with a general mix of male/female and some kids sprinkled in here and here. There was much wailing and gnashing out teeth about the films run time and to an extent I agree with that. I think the pacing was just right until the end, and then things get wrapped up rather quickly. I wanted more of Cosmic Doom.
The movie starts off with a rather effective prologue showing a planet turned into a barren husk as a silvery figure streaks off into the void. At the same time, we are re-introduced the FF as Reed and Sue prepare for their wedding. I have to say that at times Jessicas wig looks a too fake and it does become a bit distracting. Nevertheless she makes a beautiful bride and Kerry Washington also has some very nice scene as Sues Maid of Honor. Even though she and Ben are not married she is a part of their extended family and she seems at home at the Baxter building. Speaking of which, good move to have Reed shaking off the financial woes that plagued him the last time out. The Baxter Building looks very high tech and state of the art now, not the somewhat eccentrically shabby HQ we saw the first time out.
I liked the wedding scene that kicks things off. While we don't have every Marvel villain under the sun show up due to Doom's mind manipulation gizmo, it's still a pretty chaotic scene when the helicopter goes out of control (for some reason, my thoughts went back to how actor Vic Morrow got decapitated in a copter stunt gone wrong on the set of the "Twilight Zone" movie). This is one of my two favorite Ben scenes.... in this one he take a hold of the tail of the helicopter and takes the blades right in his face. The second one that really shows off his strength is the London Eye scene. Now we get a better demonstration of just how strong he is...far better than that deleted scene of him showing some effort in just picking up a truck.
The middle portion of the film cross cuts between various scenes of Dooms revival, the Surfer prepping the planet for the Devourer of Worlds and the FF being pressed into service by military. Reeds powers by the way were a bit of a hit and miss. It looked less effective on the dance floor scene but I really liked the way he stretched himself to help support the London Eye, or to whiz through his PDA. But when you come down to it, Reeds main power over the years never really needed cosmic intervention (unless you subscribe to Grant Morrisons theory in Fantastic Four 1234) and that is his ability to wrap his brain around a problem and come up with the solution.
Now to get to Doom
a vast improvement for me over the first film. The screenwriters have taken the best way out IMO
and that is that they have pretty much ignored the Victor Von Doom of the first film. They also disposed of the romantic triangle in a little confrontation when Sue comes across Victor secretly working on a device of his own. She threatens to place a force field bubble inside his body and cause it to explode, which is pretty much what she threatened to do and the end of Chris Claremonts FF vs the X-Men BTW. I have to confess the Doomophile in me was very jazzed to see that street scene labeled in Hassenstadt, Latveria, even though it was all too brief. It looked just like one would imagine it to be, a country that still looks Old World European. Victor always liked to keep Latveria in a pristine state and he would never allow a giant Ferris wheel within its borders.
t: As for Julians performance, I think he did convey the arrogance quite well and I really think the weakness once again lies with the dialogue
. a few too many colloquialisms crept in again during the final battle but at least no Marco Poloisms. I wish they had left one line in from the book though. After his meeting with the Surfer ends up badly, he had a line Aliens!, in a manner suggesting that he felt they were a nuisance. But perhaps it got dropped in light of the current political football in Congress. Or when he was initially monitoring the Surfers progress over the planet, he could have said something like What manner of being are you??
As for the Surfer himself, all three components worked for me
Laurence Fishburnes voice (and I think they accelerated the cadence of his speech a bit from the TV spots), the special effects enhancements and Doug Jones providing the embodiment underneath it all. Hellmistress was certainly correct about the tarnished Surfer
it conveyed the sense that his power was (temporarily) stripped from him. Much like Doom kicks him when he down in the FF comic, Victor couldnt resist getting a little vengeance when the Surfer was taken down by the jamming device they came up with to separate him from his board.
Ben and Johnny were still the best of the foursome but there was improvement in Reed, particularly when he makes his geek speech to the general. Hes a bit mild mannered in the films as compared to a more Doc Savage kind of guy in the comics but he is most decidedly he leader of the group.
Finally, I have to say Galactus in this incarnation made for an impressive display for me. I like that we really didn't see classic Galactus here and as a poster named Cyber Coyote pointed out on another FF MB, each culture perceives him in a different manifestation in any case. This was shown back in John Byrne's FF #262, The Trial of Galactus Was this THE Galactus trilogy from the comics? No but I think it would have never made it to the screen in its original form anyway. The Lee/Kirby version may have to wait for a another day. What we do get is a little of the arc of the Surfer from the year that Image did the FF with Jim Lee. In that story, Doom does capture the Silver Surfer and we first see him being tortured by Doom in HR FF #4. And later, when Galactus does show up, he has his Heralds (four of them this time) place capicators all over the globe, only these look more volcanic in appearance. I'm sure there will be some that won't care for this version at all but I thought this manifestation of Galactus was more ominous than a human form would be.
Overall rating: 7 out of 10
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