Saw it today,just gonna paste my review from the pother thread in here
I don't want to vote in the poll b/c a choice the represents my view really isn't there
Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer
Rating:-B+
When reviewing these movies i always find it hard to just break it down into categories b/c i feel movies rather than just watch them.
FF2 starts out really well,the prep for the wedding is nicely handled with a mix of humour and warmth as the 4 deal with being celebs and a family,
This was perhaps my favourite portion of the film showing Reed's conflict over his love of science and need to help out and his love for Sue and wanting to make her happy.
On the reverse of this Sue is understanding but worried about what the future holds,if they can juggle the normal joys of life with the duty and microscope that being the F4 brings
All of this is really nicely played by Jessica and Ioan with some good light moments from Ben and Johnny.I particularly liked the part with the back and forth chair sliding chat between Johnny and Reed that ends with Johnny convincing Reed to let him give him a bachelor party
All the while this is happening the menace of the Surfer lurks and the story is kicked into high gear with the arrival of General Hager played with great authority by Andre Braugher.
His introduction is well done and when Sue takes him to the club to meet Reed and they catch him dancing with 2 hotties it only reinforces his low opinion of him,that dance scene is another great little touch of levity and Sue's reaction when she spots him is classic,another well played scene follows between Reed and Sue and Reed is faced again with the dilemma of duty vs love as Hager wants him to build a device to track the Surfer.....he chooses love which creates a nice moment of reaction from all the 4.
Of course this being Reed he also decides to make the device Hager wants to track the Surfer behind Sue's back and tries to juggle both things at once...this leads to the wedding and the movies first action sequence
The wedding itself has some fun build with a nice scene of Sue and Alicia and some humour with Ben and Johnny collecting Reed who's kinda shaky lol..this is all what makes this film so much better than the first,it feels like there is time given to just enjoy these characters interacting before the big plot kicks in.
The Wedding is lavishly set up and this is another area of improvement,set design and production values have been ramped up.there is a really nice little scene here between Sue and Johnny where little brother stops being an ass for a moment to tell big sis how beautiful she looks and how much their dad would be proud of her before walking her down the isle.
The Surfer arrives to crash the wedding and we get an extended version of the chase from the first teaser mixed with Reed/Sue and Ben stopping the chopper from killing the wedding guests with some teamwork.......just before we cut to the Torch/SS chase there is a great shot of a heartbroken Sue sitting sobbing on the steps.
The Torch/SS chase is the films best action sequence featuring some great camera moves on the SS himself,really showcasing the character to his fullest potential,the FX are at their strongest here.
From here the film puts the pedal down as Reed deems to catch the Surfer and Johnny has to cope with his new power changing abilities that provides some fun moments,in particular the one where he switches with Sue but there is still time for Sue and Reed to question getting out of the business as Reed tries to work out how to stop the Surfer
The sequence that follows at the London eye is pretty decent in a STM kind of way with FF again displaying teamwork to save the day and Johnny screwing up due to his power switching problem which along with Reed and Sue deciding to get out of being the Fantastic 4 is the beginning of Johnny realising how much he needs the others.
Now in this period we get flashes to Latveria which are executed with great flair and atmosphere,glimpses of Doom being removed from his casing and tracking the Surfer in his command room are as menacing as any comic book movie so far and carry a dread with them.
He tracks Surfer to the snowy mountains and has a showdown with him that gave me Vader on Hoth vibes,Surfer zaps him with a cosmic blast the seems to cure his scarred up organic metal problems from the first movie..........that was a bit lame
Next up is the re introduction of Doom back into the FF's lives as Hager basically tells Reed his is inept and needs help....so here arrives....Julian McMahon in his Christian Troy mould....Now while he certainly conveys more presence in this one,a guy in a leather jacket just isn't Doom to me,it would be like a character merely cracking jokes in a film and being psychotic with no white face or purple suit claiming to to be The Joker,i'm not a stickler over costume changes but no costume at all makes him rather bland BUT at least he makes sneering work of his dialogue and his disdain for the 4 and Reed in particular is evident.
Doom shows that he has found the source of the Surfer's powers by taping their showdown and it reveals his board is where his power lies so Reed devises a gadget to separate him from his board.
There is one of my fav scenes between Johnny and Ben before they go after the SS again,the 2 of them sitting in a bar chatting and we see another side to Johnny where despite his playboy ways he is actually envious of the fact that Ben in his rocky state has someone to love and share his life with in Alicia...this side of Johnny is hinted at earlier in a line from Alicia to him prior to the wedding
So it's off to the Surfers next crater digging location to trap him but not Before Ioan has his best moment of the movie,after the arrogant Hager talks down to him about staying out of the way and doing what he as the Quarterback tells him,Reed fires back and reminds him who has the hottest woman on the planet on his arm and who it is that makes Hagers operation possible.....ass verbally served...1-0 Reed

t:
The woodland sequence where they finally catch up with the SS starts well with a good scene between him Sue but Doom goads Hager into firing at the stationary Surfer and what results is a cool but way to short encounter between SS and the Military which ends up with Surfer being pulsed off his board and losing his shine.
The next part of the movie is up there with the opening 20 minutes for me,the military set up in Siberia where they question the surfer is cool as hell(No pun intended..i think)the Military have cordoned him off to be zapped for info ala Han in ESB and The FF are relegated to sitting in a room and waiting...of course they aren't gonna do that and With a little guard distraction from Johnny Sue is off in invisible mode to chat with the SS.
Hager and his interrogator are busy when Sue arrives but are called away by another guy that tells Hager Doom wants to talk to him.....Sue enters and has the best scene of the movie with the Surfer who explains to her that he is merely the provider for the Devouer of worlds Galactus
As this is taking place Doom is making his play which is collecting on the promise that he would be allowed to examine the board if he helped capture the Surfer..of course Doom double crosses Hager and fries him before getting his proper Doom suit on and stealing the board that he can control via some gadget on his wrist,a bit more explanation would have been nice here but at least Doom looked great in all his glory..He blasts off on the board as the FF arrive to late..the Ben squashing Reed from the blast scene is pulled off well amidst Doom's wreckage creating escape.
Time to get the Fantasticar and give chase,it looks magnificent as it arrives at the base on remote piloting and Ben and Johnny do their thing arguing over who is flying it
When they catch up with Doom on the board the movie goes limp for me,the chase is edited way to quickly and is so dark you don't get one decent shot of Doom on the board or the Fantasticar,they crash land in shanghai and Sue takes a spear from Doom to save the Surfer,it results in her death which was unnecessary IMO.injiuring her would have been enough
The FF are on the back foot and Johnny gets his chance to shine,taking all their powers up in one go and willing to sacrifice his own life to stop Doom,the effects have been polished since the trailer but the fight between Johnny and Doom is again way to short and poorly edited with a seemingly pointless Ben in crane scene assisting him.....doom is beaten and the SS gets his board back
This leads to Surfer bringing Sue back to life ala Superman turning the Earth backwards,it really didn't work for me..it also looked lame as all he did was wave his hand over her face.
Surfer now decides to take Galactus out by flying into the big storm....Johnny goes so far with him but i'm not sure why.....this for me was really weak,the storm looked menacing looming over the Earth but for a finale action sequence it was tepid,SS flies to the centre of the storm and the strom explodes.....why ? how ? i am again unsure.
The 4 share a nice reunion moment and then end the movie off with a fun quicky wedding in Shanghai with Sue looking hot before dashing off to save the day again.
Final thoughts
The movie was a massive improvement over the first with so many great character moments between the 4,a much better story,improved production values,a kickass Silver Surfer and some excellent SFX......Doom was still mediocre to me,plus the action was to short and in places poorly edited.
It's a shame they didn't give the movie another 20 minutes and finish off with the Surfer stopping the storm and the real Big G hitting earth for a massive battle showdown with him and the FF but i still enjoyed the hell out of it and look forward to FF3
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