I just got back from FF2 and I must say I enjoyed it alot more than I thought I would.
*SPOILERS AHEAD*
The special effects in particular are really amazing, Silver Surfer, the ominous looking Galactus, the 4's powers......really neat stuff. As for the character stuff, it's well juggled even if a character like Thing doesn't get as much focus in this one which is fine since he got alot of it in the first. He still does stuff and seems more comfortable within the group. Reed is a much better leader and science guru, plus he finally has all these cool gadgets at his disposal alongside the redesigned Baxter building which looked sleeker and more polished.
Johnny is really great, casting Chris Evans was a stroke of genius since he's SO much like the character. I even liked that they gave him a little character development between him and Sue and Frankie (to a small degree). Later in the movie he gets a kickass action sequence so watch out for that. Alba as Susan does a much better job than in the first, she's way less annoying yet still manages to look pretty hot with the blonder hair. She also gets to do some more cool force field stuff with her powers.
Dr. Doom as shown in the pics in his own thread is pretty much how he looks throughout various parts of the movie. He has his little involvement throughout the movie and I was surprisingly satisfied with how most of the suit looked for what it was. The mask, gloves and boots in particular looked badass, even after the phenomenal mask and cloak he had in the first. There are still problems with Doom though he still isn't portrayed as being as smart as Reed Richards and he basically steals the Surfer's board and does some inventive stuff with the cosmic power but he's more of a side villain for the bigger threat. He gets taken down by Johnny who uses all the powers of the FF in a Super Skrull'ish way towards the end of the movie which admittedly is a great scene but it leaves Doom discarded again. There are also a few other elements that I wished were expanded upon like his Latverian castle and nation, his technology, and have him don a full suit of full armor rather than the half rubber half armor hybrid but he may or may not return for a 3rd movie where I hope they get him right and fully go all out in scope.
Silver Surfer was probably the coolest thing in the entire movie, everytime I saw the character I was in awe since just looking at him in motion was awesome. Of course, they had to find some sort of weakness for him to lower his threat level but it was still done in a tasteful manner. Most of the action scenes revolved around him by having the FF work damage control from his leaving surface craters as well as the FF/Military pro actively trying to stop the Silver Surfer.
Now as far as Galactus goes, he's shown to be more than just a cloud. When you see him it goes juuuuust shy of showing his face and the tech from his ship, it's left rather vague but still really cool and cosmic.
I was hoping for something more resembling the comic Galactus but I was still satisfied with what we got here and I think it's handled better than some big dude in a purple suit for the time being. However my main problem between Silver Surfer and Galactus was that there was absolutely no interaction between him and the Surfer, not even a voice or anything. At least show them interacting or show Galactus saying "Surfer why have you defied me!?!". His relationship with Galactus as his herald needs to be shown in larger detail because there's almost nothing tieing them together aside from just setting up planets.
Even more disappointing was the lack of a direct fight between the FF and Galactus. The writer/director felt that it was better to leave Galactus as a nebulous yet unstoppable force of nature but it basically all came down to the Surfer who did some deus ex machina **** to Galactus at the end so it seems to silly to me that he could have destroyed Galactus.
Oh lastly the action sequence between Dr. Doom and the FF in the fantasticar was really good, there are good moments of comedy and action to be had throughout. Hopefully in sequels or spin off movies they'll:
- Expand on Silver Surfer's origins and relationship with Galactus on top of fully showing Galactus and...
- Give Dr. Doom a proper send off in full armor in FF3 and give the character the proper treatment he deserves as the fully realized villain from the comics.
After all is said and done, despite my complaints I'd still give the movie a 7.5-8/10. Well worth a look especially before Die Hard and Transformers, it's probably even better than Spider-Man 3 in certain ways.
jeez why do doesn't a guy like that get handed the Fantastic Four? 
ALSO, WAS IT MY THEATER...damn caps...anyway, did anyone else see the die hard trailer AND TWO tv spots before the film began? I was like wth?!
