Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: June 15, 2007
6.6
USER SCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 568 Ratings
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295
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169
Negative:
104
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7
AndreT.Jun 16, 2007
Surely, much better then the first one by far. Silver Surfer is a cool and mysterious character...they did a good job with him. I still dislike how they depict Doom. I like that they follow up on him, but to make him a full story Surely, much better then the first one by far. Silver Surfer is a cool and mysterious character...they did a good job with him. I still dislike how they depict Doom. I like that they follow up on him, but to make him a full story line...wasn't neccessary at this point. We could have seen Galactus instead. The film is very funny and entertaining. It's evident there will be a Silver Surfer movie...… Expand
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3
TomM.Jun 15, 2007
Acting highlights: Thing has weight, Torch has a little fire, and the Surfer is the best of the bunch. Unfortunately, he's CG. Dr. Doom is there, but I'm not sure why. The sure-fire gimmick that will pack the target audience of Acting highlights: Thing has weight, Torch has a little fire, and the Surfer is the best of the bunch. Unfortunately, he's CG. Dr. Doom is there, but I'm not sure why. The sure-fire gimmick that will pack the target audience of young males into the theatre: the story revolves around a wedding!… Expand
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6
RobertH.Jun 15, 2007
If you love the Silver Sufrer, you will love this movie! At the end, I wanted more--more damn, you.
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8
DougW.Jun 15, 2007
Sure it's a comic book summer escape, with some unintentionally stupid stuff, but there's more than enough intentionally stupid -- and fun -- stuff. Overall, it's fast, it's funny (very funny), it's a wonderful world Sure it's a comic book summer escape, with some unintentionally stupid stuff, but there's more than enough intentionally stupid -- and fun -- stuff. Overall, it's fast, it's funny (very funny), it's a wonderful world traveler's travelogue (if not a galactic traveler's travelogue), and best of all, it introduces the Silver Surfer, one of the cosmically grooviest of the Marvel comics superheroes ever -- and that's great!… Expand
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8
PaulK.Jun 15, 2007
A little better than the first. Clunky at times(in ways you expect)but if you're a fan of comic book adaptations, this is worth seeing at some point. I had fun.
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7
MichaelS.Jun 15, 2007
Despite having a few problems, it was an enjoyable movie & was better than the first. They improved upon the Thing's costume & the Silver Surfer was great to look at. My biggest beef with the film is that they excluded Galactus. They Despite having a few problems, it was an enjoyable movie & was better than the first. They improved upon the Thing's costume & the Silver Surfer was great to look at. My biggest beef with the film is that they excluded Galactus. They turned him from a Demi-God into a storm cloud. Very disappointing, indeed. If you liked the first, then you shouldn't have a problem enjoying the second.… Expand
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8
SpenJ.Jun 15, 2007
Simple fun movie.
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6
DanL.Jun 15, 2007
Hey, turn your brain off and you'll enjoy it.
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9
JonH.Jun 15, 2007
JUST got back from the midnight showing. Now, I'm biased because the FF are my favorite superheroes, period. But even I have to admit the first one was pretty hum drum. I went into this with a mixture of dread and hope. I have to say, I JUST got back from the midnight showing. Now, I'm biased because the FF are my favorite superheroes, period. But even I have to admit the first one was pretty hum drum. I went into this with a mixture of dread and hope. I have to say, I really, really liked it. To me, this was a proper Fantastic Four movie. About 20 times better than Spider-man 3 for sure. The Silver Surfer, the Fantasticar, Doctor Doom... everything felt so right. It's not nearly as brainless as some critics make it out be. There's genuine warmth between the characters, and there is some growth. In the FF's world, there's no cloud of death hanging over them ala Spider-man that drives their sense of responsibility. Their scientists who go on fun adventures, enjoying their powers and trying not to kill eachother when their familial bonds get to be too much. Their not being hunted and spurned by a world who hates them ala X-men. There's not a lot of pathos, so maybe that makes them seem shallow. But it's not that simple. There are a lot of inter-relationship issues that stem from being a family. It's this, set against the backdrop of all these crazy adventures, that makes the team what they are. The first movie felt sort of forced in places, and didn't have nearly the scale an FF movie should. This movie was much better. I'd like to see more exploring, more strange worlds, etc in a future movie, but this was a step in the right direction. It had more of a global feel. Also, Julian McMahon totally redeemed himself as Doom. He was really cool. If anything, I want to see more adventures of this team now. It was very short. A perfectly paced 90 minutes (which was refreshing after the over-long, sometimes boring Spider-man.) Oh, and the thing that most people are in a tizzy about? Didn't bother me a bit.… Expand
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0
JayG.Jun 14, 2007
I took my brother to see this film since I worked at this movie theater. We both hated it! Worst comic book film ever!!!
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0
MoeJ.Jun 14, 2007
* star (out of four) (WARNING: The following review is basically one, big ***SPOILER****. If you intend to see this film, and nothing I can say will change your mind, I highly advise that you stop reading now, as I basically plan to give * star (out of four) (WARNING: The following review is basically one, big ***SPOILER****. If you intend to see this film, and nothing I can say will change your mind, I highly advise that you stop reading now, as I basically plan to give away the entire plot of the movie. If, however, you do not plan to see this film and/or would like to hear a compelling, articulate and, dare I say, extremely humorous take on why you should not, please read on. Batten down the hatches, folks, we got "Aeon Flux" coming here.) It is human to make mistakes. Admitting them and doing your best to atone for them is what helps us to rise above our frailties and become a better person. As a critic, then, I must admit that I enjoyed the first "Fantastic Four" movie the first time I saw it. Yes, I said it, and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm not sure what came over me. At the time, I guess it seemed like a nice dose of dumb summer fun, and on that level I liked it. I would ascribe this reaction to something in my popcorn except I didn't have any. Further viewings, alas, made plain my mistake for the dreadful error in judgment that it was. Shallow as the kiddie end of the pool, with characters as thin as a strand of cotton candy, the first "Fantastic Four" movie simply cannot hold weight when compared with other examples of its genre: "Spider-Man." "X-Men." "Batman Begins." "Superman." There is more sophistication and story in any installment of "Batman: The Animated Series" than the original "Fantastic Four" film could ever hope to attain, with the possible exception of the "Critters" episode of "Batman." But I confess to holding out hope for the sequel, subtitled "Rise of the Silver Surfer." That first trailer looked REALLY cool. Comprised entirely of a chase scene between the Surfer (Doug Jones) and the Human Torch (Chris Evans), it had a sense of awe and wonder that was entirely lacking from the first film. Perhaps, even though the same director and writer and cast were being reunited for this sequel, they found some of the magic they were missing the first time around and had crafted something better, something deeper, something grand. Then, in the same scene in the movie, the Torch catches up to the Surfer and says, "Can we talk?" And the hope gets flushed down the toilet. Trust me folks, all the grand possibilities in the world mean nothing when confronted by the overwhelming power of the cr*ppy dialogue in this movie. Not to mention the plot. And characters. And...but, wait, let us take this in order, shall we? The film begins with a shot of a planet being destroyed, followed by credits that fly toward us in space, and if we had tried any harder to make it plain that we were ripping off the Superman title sequence, we'd have actually included the "S" logo. A silver streak flies from the destruction towards Earth, bringing about odd climate changes and water that freezes in place and electricity going out. A news anchor makes it abundantly clear that this is NOT the result of global warming, and since she is a Fox News broadcaster, you can practically hear the glee in her voice. But, of course, the BIG story they report is the impending wedding of Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), as the nuptials of the heroes have become a world-class media circus. Even though weird events are paralyzing and threatening people all over the globe, Reed makes it clear to Sue that the wedding is the most important thing to him. Reed: "I'm not letting anything get in the way of that, not even the mysterious transformation of matter at the sub-atomic level." Gets you right there, don't it? Then some military guys show up at the Four's headquarters, accompanied by suitable rum-tummy-tum music, led by General Hager (Andre Braugher), who will certainly go down as one of the least competent military characters ever in motion picture history. He wants the Four to figure out just what the heck is going on with this silver flash, but first they have to fetch Reed from a bachelor party thrown by Johnny and the Thing (Michael Chiklis), in a scene which demonstrates two things: One, that apparently Mr. Fantastic's civilian clothing is as elastic as he is (in which case I wanna meet his tailor), and two, that among Sue's superpowers is the ability to switch between jealous and understanding at lightning speed. Anyway, Reed is asked to build some kind of tracking device to follow the mysterious figure all over the globe, where, for no apparent reason, it is leaving these huge craters which tunnel down a really long way. Reed says no, because he's getting married, and by gum, his wedding is more important than the world ending. General Hager: (scornfully) "I expected more from you, Richards." Well, I expected more from you, too, Andre, and it looks like we're both gonna be disappointed. But, oh, never mind, Reed builds the tracking device anyway, without Sue's permission, somehow keeping the giant metal gizmo in plain view in his lab without letting Sue know that he's building it. Wedding day arrives (with suitable jitters from the bride and groom, and a nice cameo by Stan Lee included), but it gets ruined when the Surfer shows up and Johnny has to chase after...but, you've seen the trailer, so you know this. After saving all the wedding guests, Sue slumps down on the stairs in despair, because never mind that a mysterious force is somehow ripping apart the fabric of our civilization and threatening life on Earth as we know it, SHE WANTED TO GET MARRIED, DAMMIT. Anyway, Johnny survives his encounter with the Surfer, and it turns out that somehow this has left him with the ability to swap powers with his teammates. This leads to a series of "fun" scenes where the characters suddenly find themselves doing each other's shtick, but this is about as significant as if the Ninja Turtles swapped weapons. Meantime, the evil Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) somehow gets freed by the Surfer's power, and, wearing a hood and looking remarkably like the Emperor from "Star Wars," he goes to meet the Surfer by heading for one of the craters. Okay, so, no one else thought of that? Doom's been on the case five minutes and he knows right where to go. Meantime, the Four are busy building tracking devices and swapping powers. Point for Doom. Meantime, Reed does some research by punching a few buttons on a computer and determines that every planet the Surfer has ever gone to has been destroyed within eight days (um, is that Earth days or Other-Planet days?). He shows the destruction of each using an extremely high-powered microscope that can give amazingly detailed views of the planets in question, as well as, apparently, the ability to see back in time when the destruction happened. Yeah, f*ck you, Hubble, you been FACED by a gizmo the Fantastic Four apparently have just lying around their workshop. This telescope can also determine that all the life on these other planets was destroyed, as well. So, not only does Reed have a time-traveling super microscope, but he's proven that there is life on other planets. Shouldn't he have, like, 40 Nobel Prizes by this point? But the military, unimpressed by their amazing gizmos and superpowers, can only see failure in how the Four have handled the situation, so they do the logical thing: Recruit Dr. Doom. Yes, the super villain who tried to destroy the Four and half of New York in the last film, and who by this point has magically stopped needing an elaborate makeup job. Doom and the Four agree to work together to stop the threat. Johnny: "Think Reed's right about this end-of-the-world stuff?" Thing: "He's never been wrong about this kind of thing before." So we decide that the Surfer's board is the source of all his power, and if you separate him from the board, he is then, uh, powerless. They prove this by using some other gizmo they invent (which General Hager scoffs at when he's told it will take three hours to complete) to dislodge the Surfer from the board, but not until after the Surfer dodges a whole missile array, and not until after he's had a heart-to-heart with Sue, who suddenly finds him sympathetic. Well, can you blame her? The Surfer speaks in the voice of Lawrence Fishburne. How can anyone who sounds like Lawrence Fishburne be evil, I ask you? Well, okay, Ike Turner. Anyway, the military captures the Surfer, and come to the only logical conclusion one can come to when you've captured an other-worldly creature that has amazing powers and knowledge of the cosmos at his command: TORTURE HIM MERCILESSLY. Well, this is a Fox film, maybe Jack Bauer is rubbing off on the rest of the company. Sue sneaks in to hear some more of that sweet, sweet Fishburne voice, and is told that the Surfer is merely the harbinger - the REAL planet-destroying bad-*ss, Galactus, is on his way. The Surfer just does his bidding because he doesn't want his own planet to get destroyed, too. Why a planet-eating entity needs a guy on a surfboard to wreak havoc ahead of him is left unexplained. I guess those huge craters make the planet more devour-able, or easier to grab, like bowling ball holes. Meantime, even though Doom really didn't DO anything, per se, General Hager keeps his end of the bargain by allowing Doom to test the Surfer's board. Yes, we're LETTING THE SUPERVILLAIN IN THE SAME ROOM WITH THE SINGLE MOST POWERFUL WEAPON IN THE UNIVERSE. In the grand annals of dumb ideas, this has to rank in the top five or so. And, hey, go figure, within a minute Doom has taken control of the board and killed Hager. The Four spring the Surfer and chase after Doom in the new Fantasticar, which, for no explicable reason outside of product placement dollars, has a Dodge logo on the front. Johnny: "Hemi?" Reed: "Of course." Me: (incredulous laughter) The final battle takes the heroes to a street in Japan, which looks uncannily like a studio backlot, where Sue gets mortally wounded when she tries to save the Surfer, and then Johnny somehow takes the powers of ALL FOUR members of the group at once to stop Doom. How we got from "Power Swapping" to "I Can Hold All of Your Powers at Once" is a mystery that's best left unsolved, methinks. The Four successfully get the Surfer back on his board, and after magically healing Sue (Post-Resurrection Dialogue - Sue: "Hi." Reed: "Hi." Sue: "What'd I miss?"), the Surfer, who has learned the value of life or something, heads off to stop Galactus, who looks uncannily in form and action like a giant anus made out of clouds. The Surfer blows himself up to kill Galactus and end the threat to both Earth and his own world. Apparently it had never occurred to the Surfer that if he'd done that, say, 10 planets ago, it would have accomplished the same thing. Reed and Sue then successfully complete their marriage and head off to save Venice from sinking into the sea, but not before stopping to make the "4" logo in the clouds with their wicked cool Fantasticar, which I actually think got destroyed during the final battle just a scene ago, but we're just picking nits now, aren't we? A quick glance at the movie listings reveal that the following films are still playing in theatres this weekend: "Spider-Man 3." "Waitress." "Ocean's 13." "Knocked Up." "28 Weeks Later." Heck, some are still showing "Bridge to Terabithia" and "300," if you missed those. There are plenty of good films to see. You have a lot of options. If, however, after reading this far and digesting all my best efforts to dissuade you from doing so, you still feel the need to see "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer," that is, of course, entirely your choice. Leaves more good movies for the rest of us.… Expand
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0
[Anonymous]Jun 13, 2007
After a terrible first film, a disgrace that not only goes against comic book history, but a movie that manages to be much worse than the movie that begun this series.
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0
KrisKrossJun 13, 2007
[***SPOILERS***] As difficult as it was, I decided to view 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' as a film, not as a chance for redeeming a franchise. I thought this method might take away any fan boy predilections I had, in [***SPOILERS***] As difficult as it was, I decided to view 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' as a film, not as a chance for redeeming a franchise. I thought this method might take away any fan boy predilections I had, in anticipation of this second installment to 'The Fantastic Four' universe. So, for a moment let's forget that the first film was without artistic merit. Let's forget that the story about a family of superheroes is arguably the most adored of all comic book properties. 'Rise of the Silver Surfer', opens with a planet light-years away, being obliterated. After the opening credits, we are on Earth getting ready for Sue Storm and Reed Richards to tie the knot. During the preparation, the scientist instead of concentrating on the details of his impending nuptials is busy studying a cosmic anomaly. We soon find out that this cosmic energy is in fact an alien on a surfboard zooming down to Earth to prepare it for destruction. These two story lines are the principle actions guiding the story. There are two other subplots. One is in regards to Dr. Doom being 'resurrected,' while the other involves Johnny Storm's selfish nature endangering his family. Four plots that should make an epic film span a terribly short running time of 1 hour and 30 minutes. Did it work? Did they abandon the goofy nature of the first film and reinvigorate the franchise with an epic story about the fate of the entire planet. No on both counts. The humor is entirely aimed at children (which goes along with its PG rating.) 'Thing' is played for laughs without any degree of intensity. Johnny Storm's crisis of conscience robs all of the charisma established in the first (even if it wasn't much.) Sue Storm is more of a nag than an asset to the team. In addition, there is nothing to signify Reed Richards as the leader to a powerful team of superheroes. He comes off as a self-esteem deprived, blow hard jackass. There isn't one iota of chemistry between any of the characters. The wretched family dynamics are trumped only by Dr. Doom, who can only be described as the worst villain to ever grace the screen. Julian McMahon's portrayal of Victor Von Doom seems barely suited for a Sci-Fi cable channel movie, let alone a mega-budget studio film (not that they always choose the best talent, but come on!). For a story such as this, the amount of claustrophobia throughout, borders on pure agony. It lacks anything even resembling 'scope of vision.' The only audience 'Rise of the Silver Surfer' is suited for is children between the ages of 5 & 10. Anyone over that age looking for an entertaining piece of escapism will run into a wall of condescension. Now, let's look at it with comic-book eyes. As most may know, The Silver Surfer works for a planet-devouring villain, Galactus. The Surfer scouts out planets, using his board as a cosmic beacon for Galactus to follow. There is no definition, no rules; they just make them up as they go along. There is no Watcher, so we are told about Galactus through an unbearably cheesy heart-to-heart with Sue and The Surfer. There isn't a shred of genuine impending doom because they never establish what Galactus really is (in the press kit, under character description, it should just read-big damn tornado). The director Tim Story and his band of screenwriters have once again broken the hearts of FF fans all over. They have no respect. They have no understanding on what makes the 'Fantastic Four' story work, or any story for that matter. I gave Tim Story a break the first time around, but not this time. He should'V looked back at the first one, compared it to the comic book films that work and just said, "Damn! I gotta sit this one out before I do it all over again!" However, he didn't do that. He looked at the numbers from the first one and assumed that money always equals success. Now as for the screenwriters; give them a Cartoon Network show and let them have at it. If they have any talent, it could be realized there. However, FF2 wasn't a total failure. The Surfer is phenomenal (with the exception being Lawrence Fishburne's distracting voice). His entire body seemed to be in constant motion. I was mesmerized for every moment he was on screen. The special effects team did an outstanding job. However, what is perplexing about the look of the Surfer is what it did to the other special effects. Reed's ability to stretch looked even more unnatural than in the first. Sue's shield, Johnny's fire, everything else was sidelined. It was as if the team only concentrated on The Surfer. I have been teetering on the edge of spoiling the end. I won't, but damn I want to. Any self-respecting Silver Surfer fan would scream! It is horrible. It makes no sense and it will enrage fans even more than Alba being cast as Sue Storm. I will only say this-Hollywood Cop Out. No doubt, this movie will make money. I was shocked by the public's positive reaction to the first film. Audiences will be so dazzled by the effects that they will forget that they are watching a terrible movie. I knew in my heart it would happen, but I had hoped our optimistic nature would pay off. I was wrong. I won't make that mistake again, no matter what the 'Fantastic Four' future may hold. 'Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer' is a disrespectful, sleight of hand circus show devoid of any elements that make a movie a movie.… Expand
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