the late Julian McMahon<\/a> as Victor von Doom) have made it into space within the first 10 minutes and the cosmic cloud that alters their DNA has hit their space station by the 15 minute mark. You might think the movie is getting the origin story out of the way early on so it can get to some big action and adventure, but that\u2019s not the way it goes. The next hour of the film simply consists of Reed, Susan, Johnny, and Ben dealing with the powers the cloud has given them while Doom gradually reveals himself to be the villain of the film. He has also been affected by the cosmic cloud, developing a metal-like covering on his skin and the ability to produce electricity. Because, for some reason, the bigger budgeted takes on Fantastic Four were very resistant to the idea that he could just be a disfigured man who decides to wear a suit of armor.<\/p>\nThe best thing about the movie is the way it handles Ben Grimm, with Chiklis continuing to play the character inside the Thing costume and prosthetics. He is, understandably, disturbed by his new appearance \u2013 and so is his fianc\u00e9e Debbie (Laurie Holden), who dumps him when he comes back into her life. Going to a bar to drown his sorrows, Ben crosses paths with a blind woman named Alicia Masters (Kerry Washington), and the interactions between them are actually pretty sweet.<\/p>\n
Aside from a sequence where the heroes use their powers to deal with (and inadvertently cause) a series of mishaps on a bridge, there\u2019s nothing particularly exciting to be found during the middle stretch of the film. There\u2019s just some talking, experimenting, Johnny showboating, and Ben trying to find his way in the world. Sure, Victor kills somebody in a quick moment, but he doesn\u2019t fully emerge as the villain until late in the 105 minute running time. Just in time for the Fantastic Four to come together and defeat him in a few minutes. Yep, this movie has Dr. Doom, one of the most popular and powerful villains in Marvel Comics history, and he\u2019s punked out by the Fantastic Four in the course of just one short fight scene.<\/p>\n
Avi Arad got the big budget Fantastic Four movie that he wanted to put out into the world, but it certainly didn\u2019t take full advantage of the concept, nor did it do all of the characters justice. It\u2019s not terrible, but it feels a bit lazy and half-hearted.<\/p>\n
![\"Fantastic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/fantastic-four-rise-of-the-silver-surfer-1024x538.jpg\")
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FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER (2007)<\/p>\n
Satisfied with the box office of the 2005 Fantastic Four, Fox hired director Tim Story to return to the helm for a sequel, working from a screenplay crafted by Mark Frost, Don Payne, and John Turman, with Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Chris Evans reprising the roles of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Ben Grimm, and Johnny Storm. The result was another film that still feels smaller and less impactful than it should have, despite having a larger budget to work with. <\/p>\n
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer does have bigger and more plentiful action sequences than its predecessor, which makes it an enjoyable ride for a good stretch of the shockingly short 92 minute running time. With the origin story out of the way and the Fantastic Four established as a superhero team, Story was able to bring more excitement into this one, while also increasing the comedy element. The first movie hadn\u2019t been very serious, but Rise of the Silver Surfer boosts the comedy element even higher. There are some really goofy moments in this one, and some comedic moments derived from the fact that, after an encounter with the Silver Surfer, Johnny starts accidentally swapping powers with other members of the Fantastic Four. So we get Johnny turning invisible while Susan bursts into flame, or Johnny taking on Ben\u2019s stone-like Thing appearance while Ben gains his ability to create and control fire.<\/p>\n
Brought to the screen through the physical performance of Doug Jones and the voice of Laurence Fishburne, the Silver Surfer is the herald of
Galactus, Devourer of Worlds \u2013 and if you were disappointed by the way Doom was handled the first time around, you\u2019ll be appalled to see how the planet-eating Galactus is presented in this one. Doom (Julian McMahon) even returns and drops himself into the middle of the Silver Surfer situation, coming off slightly better in this movie than he did in the first one, but it doesn\u2019t count for a lot when the movie is making such a spectacular waste of Galactus.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s in the final third when things get really disappointing and off-putting, as it\u2019s revealed that this movie\u2019s version of Galactus is just a large, cosmic cloud. Not a cosmic entity with a human-like form who can change size, as Galactus is in the comic books. Just a cloud! And, even with Dr. Doom also in the picture and causing trouble, this Galactus turns out to be a fairly simple threat to thwart.<\/p>\n
In the end, I would still say that Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is somewhat more entertaining the first movie, largely because there\u2019s more action, but its treatment of Galactus is unforgivable.<\/p>\n
![\"Fantastic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/fantastic-four-1994-1024x538.jpg\")
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THE FANTASTIC FOUR (1994)<\/p>\n
The 1994 version of The Fantastic Four has a story behind it that\u2019s more interesting than anything that happens on screen. Producer Bernd Eichinger acquired the property\u2019s film rights from Marvel in the mid-1980s, but couldn\u2019t get any of the major studios to put up the 40 to 45 million dollar budget required to make a proper Fantastic Four movie. So he turned to legendary B-movie maker Roger Corman<\/a>, who gave him a budget of $1 million and a production schedule of around three weeks. Filming started just three days before Eichinger would have lost the rights at the end of \u201892. Marketing began in \u201893, and when Marvel executive Avi Arad heard that a Fantastic Four movie had been tossed together quickly and cheaply, he was concerned that it would harm the brand. So he paid Eichinger and Corman off to make sure they would never release it. But bootlegs quickly started circulating, and The Fantastic Four might be the most widely available \u201cunreleased\u201d movie to ever exist. And against all odds, given the low budget and short production schedule, it\u2019s actually not that bad. It\u2019s not great, but it\u2019s surprisingly good, despite being incredibly cheesy at times.<\/p>\nDirector Oley Sassone and the cast and crew did the best they could under the circumstances, with screenwriters Craig J. Nevius and Kevin Rock telling an origin story that involves a limited amount of expensive displays of power (but did require a lot of screen time for The Thing, who looks pretty good, considering the budget). The effects don\u2019t fall apart until Johnny goes full Human Torch in the climactic sequence.<\/p>\n
Alex Hyde-White makes for a fine Reed Richards, with Michael Bailey Smith and Carl Ciarfalio doing solid work as Ben Grimm. Rebecca Staab\u2019s Susan Storm is too milquetoast and Jay Underwood\u2019s Johnny a bit too over-the-top annoying at times (which is pretty much to be expected), but they get the job done. There are some awkward plot elements, the \u201cromance\u201d between Ben and sculptor Alicia Masters (Kat Green) comes off in a ridiculous way, and the tone of the scenes involving the villain The Jeweler (Ian Trigger) \u2013 a stand-in for Mole Man \u2013 can be cringe-inducing\u2026 but Joseph Culp\u2019s Victor Von Doom \/ Dr. Doom is a great presentation of the character. He\u2019s played almost perfectly and even has disposable \u201cDoombot\u201d lackeys.<\/p>\n
Given how short some of the big budget versions of Fantastic Four have fallen, it\u2019s impressive to see just how close this low budget movie came to getting it right. Somehow, the unreleased cheapie is the best Fantastic Four movie we\u2019ve gotten so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of being out of Marvel\u2019s grasp, the Fantastic Four will finally, officially and fully, be joining…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":52153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,31440,38946,7644,3391,53,24339,38947,38948,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-52152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-fantastic-four","10":"tag-fantastic-four-rise-of-the-silver-surfer","11":"tag-marvel","12":"tag-marvel-cinematic-universe","13":"tag-movies","14":"tag-retro","15":"tag-sci-fi","16":"tag-the-fantastic-four","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114824908087583037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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