By David Server

This week, fans will flock to theaters to meet the Fantastic Four, the latest Marvel Comic to undergo the Hollywood treatment. Complete with origin story, sinister arch-villain, nonstop special effects, and rousing musical score, Marvel Studios is clearly eager to set in motion yet another lucrative film franchise, in the footsteps of the hugely successful X-Men and Spider-Man films. However, of the many things that could be said about Marvel's latest effort, 'fantastic' is ironically not one of them. The Adequate Four is more like it. But then, of course, you'd lose the alliteration.

The film tells the story of four astronauts (and their clandestine benefactor) who travel into space to research the effects of a 'cosmic storm' on organic life. They are all-too successful, however, and get doused with more radioactivity than they planned; granting them strange superpowers (is there any other kind?). Benevolent egghead Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) gains the ability stretch and bend his body without limitations; and takes on the moniker of Mr. Fantastic. Reed's ex-girlfriend Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) takes on the power to turn invisible and create force-fields as The Invisible Woman. Her cocky younger brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans) can ignite his whole body in flames and take flight, calling himself The Human Torch. Reed's best friend Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis) is mutated into a creature of solid rock, dubbed The Thing. And the experiment's financier (and Reed's longtime nemesis) Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) begins to manifest his own set of unique new abilities, which he plots to use against Reed and his friends. The film follows the first mission of our heroes as The Fantastic Four, reluctant superheroes and instant media darlings, as they battle the evil plans of the newly dubbed Dr. Doom.

What's interesting about Fantastic Four is that in a lot of ways they got most of the basic steps of adapting a comic book to film right... in theory. They covered the origin story in a condensed but understandable way. They mostly stayed true to the source material. They even took classic moments from the comic and dropped them directly into the screenplay. What the film lacks, however, is anything beyond bare minimum. The movie seems to consistently go right up to the point of being good or memorable, and then quickly retreats back into mediocrity, or occasionally, true stupidity (increasingly towards the end). Much of this can likely be blamed on director Tim Story (Barbershop). While other Marvel directors such as Bryan Singer (X-Men), Sam Raimi (Spider-Man), or even the oft-debated Ang Lee (Hulk) are true film auteurs, integrating their own unique style and perspective into their respective franchises, Story apparently has no such personal input to contribute. The visual style is minimal and flat, and in a comic book movie, that's a big misstep. The film works to straddle the line between action and comedy, and most of the comedy works pretty well - as a comedic director, that's probably the only thing Story added to the pot. But the rest is paint-by-numbers, and it shows. The action half of things is unmemorable (there is not one outstanding set-piece in the film, merely a series of passable ones), and the pacing is uneven.

The cast is a true mixed bag, ranging from great to ghastly. Let's start out with the high points. Chris Evans takes to The Human Torch like fire to gasoline. He's the one thing in this film that is note-perfect. As the arrogant yet lovable hot-head, Evans spews charisma at every turn, and every scene he's in benefits from his presence greatly. He's funny, his dialogue is delivered with spunk and enthusiasm, and he's as cool (er... hot?) as the film intends him to be. Next on the roster of positives is Michael Chiklis' performance as The Thing. While I have some minor reservations about the special effects used for his rocky exterior (we'll get to that in a moment), Chikils' performance is very solid as the frustrated Ben Grimm. His gruff bruiser with a heart of gold rings true to The Thing from the comics, and his antagonistic interplay with Evans' Torch make up some of the film's better moments. Unfortunately, Thing suffers through a series of lame plot points (involving his ex-wife, blind new girlfriend, and a machine that... well... don't want to ruin it, but it's lame), but Chiklis' performance is strong enough that he still comes out a positive.

Faring less well is Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards. Gruffudd isn't so much bad as he is incredibly mundane. While some may argue that Reed was also boring in the comics, I would say that he wasn't meant to be boring, but driven and obsessive, almost darkly so. His never-ending devotion to science over a personal life is covered in the film, but without any dramatic weight, treating Reed more like a science goofball than a brilliant and driven genius. I still hold out hope that a better script (or, God-willing, director... ) might allow Gruffudd to play an excellent Reed, but right now, it's still just a dream. Then there's Julian McMahon as Victor/Dr. Doom. Oddly enough, for the first half of the film, Victor isn't half bad. He's actually a pretty decent villain. It's worth noting that they stole almost exactly the Green Goblin plot out of the first Spider-Man (sinister business magnate gets altered by dangerous experiment which taps into his latent megalomaniacal tendencies, prompting him to get revenge on the business associates who fired him before donning a green costume and evil metallic mask to menace our heroes), but I was willing to let that slide cause McMahon plays sleazy like a pro. However, his final turn into supervillainy is so underwritten and unsupported that you just laugh and tune out. They basically don't explain it at all - he just happens to have the mask lying around (I kid you not), and figures, 'hey - if I'm gonna be evil, might as well do it right!' His sinister plan in general is extremely vague (if he even had one, it's hard to tell), and it all culminates nonsensically in a final fight that's just flat-out not involving. Despite McMahon's somewhat admirable attempt, ultimately Doom's poor character arc is so preposterous that he ends up being a letdown.

Last and least is Jessica Alba as Sue Storm. Many fans bristled at this bit of casting when it was first announced, not seeing how Alba could play the sensitive role of Sue, a strong female character who is tirelessly devoted to keeping the team's emotional bond strong, while simultaneously being as powerful as The Thing and as smart as Mr. Fantastic. Susan Storm in this film is so objectified that it's painful. Gone is the confident, intelligent, headstrong Sue I remember from the comics. Here, Sue is a meek waif, with almost no agency whatsoever. She drifts aimlessly until a man (and it feels like it doesn't matter particularly who) can tell her what to do. It's an unfortunate loss, as she was one of Marvel's better female role-models, but other than looking attractive in her uniform, Alba brings nothing to an already barren role.

While a flat visual style, flawed plot, and so-so cast are enough to cement the film as a mixed bag, with any outing like this, the special effects are at least worth mentioning. As with the cast, there's good and bad here. For example, The Invisible Woman effects are pretty neat - the force-field looks cool, and they pulled off the invisibility rather nicely. Additionally, The Thing suit is much better than it looked in early photos. Chikils' ability to emote through the make-up confirms in my mind that prosthetics are a stronger approach than CG, as a computer-generated Thing would have lost so much of Chiklis' acting ability. However, the suit does sometimes move like rubber, which can ruin the illusion. The Human Torch effect is somewhere in the middle - in long shots, he looks great, but in close-ups, it looks cheap. And what can I say about the Mr. Fantastic stretch effect... yikes! This is something any self-respecting filmmaker or effects company would be ashamed of. The fact that they left those visuals in as a finished product is nothing short of shameful. I've seen better work on my friends' laptops.

All that being said, it's worth re-iterating that the movie isn't all bad by any means. There's a light, breezy tone to the film that seems to be lacking in almost every other superhero franchise out there these days. Part of what made the Fantastic Four such a great comic was that it was a little sunnier than most. While the angst and darkness of X-Men or Batman works for them, sometimes it's nice to have an alternative with a touch more fun and comedy than doom and gloom, and this movie happily manages to keep that element in place. Also, despite some missteps, the film more or less maintains the dysfunctional family dynamic of the team, an element unique to this series.

Overall, Fantastic Four is a problematic piece of harmless summer fluff. While it isn't a cinematic disaster of Catwoman proportions, it's also far from the high standards of Marvel's other leading franchises, and will be forgotten shortly after leaving the theater. However, there's potential hiding just under the surface of the film, and with that potential comes a glint of hope. It appears that this film will probably launch a franchise in spite of its problems, which are, needless to say, myriad. With characters of this level of recognition, Marvel can't afford to can the first family of comics without at least trying to spark a series. However, we can only hope (and, I'd venture, expect) that an overall negative response from viewers will prompt some changes for the inevitable Fantastic Four follow-up. And that means a shot at seeing these characters and their universe the way we were supposed to see them, which would be (say it with me) fantastic. For now... they're just ok.