Fantastic Four (Blu-ray)

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Could the plot and action have been more exciting, more over-the-top, more breathtaking, more comic-book in tone and craziness? Sure, and that's one of the things I'm guessing Story will attend to in the sequel. He needs to learn that understatement and restraint aren't qualities appreciated by comic-book fans. They want Stan Lee and comic-book creators to throw the kitchen sink at their favorite heroes, and we don't get quite enough of that in the first installment. What's here is a decent-enough plot with decent-enough special effects, but give the fans more and I think they'll be happy.

Story won't be able to do as much about the film's other weakness, which is that, with the exception of Chiklis as Ben, the actors and their characters just don't seem charismatic enough or larger-than-life. Alba is perhaps the most bland, with her "Beverly Hills 90210" training. These people need to loosen up and have some fun, and remember that they're not live-action characters, they're comic-book characters. As with the plot, the level of their performances is average. With a different cast, I could see this film taking on a different feel, one which would elevate it from "entertaining enough" to a film you talk about afterwards. Who knows? Maybe the actors will have learned a few things too, and give us a livelier foursome the second time around.

Video:
While HD-DVD fans have been gleefully contentious over Blu-ray's allegedly inevitable doom, the fact remains that studios like Fox keep putting out products, and both formats deliver pictures that are considerably superior to standard discs. "Fantastic Four" has a fantastic picture, with great color saturation and black levels that make the action scenes and pyrotechnical stunts look real as can be. The 1080p HD resolution picture (2.35:1 aspect ratio) was transferred using MPEG 2 technology at 18 MBPS onto a 25GB single-layer disc.

Audio:
The audio is also fantastic, with English DTS HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio and a Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 option, with subtitles in English (CC) and Spanish. I especially enjoyed the natural-sounding movement across the rear speakers and from the front-to-rear, and vice versa. Some of the mixes separate sounds just for the sake of involving all 5-6 speakers, but this soundtrack had Foley effects that moved with a sense of inevitability.

Extras:
The only extra is a commentary track by Gruffudd, Alba, Evans, Chiklis, and McMahon. But, big surprise, just as Chiklis was the most interesting actor/character in the film, he's the most engaging on this commentary. During the commentary it comes out that Alba wasn't a big fan of the comic books. Hopefully she became one before filming started on the Silver Surfer sequel, which stars comic-book film veteran Doug Jones (Abe Sapien, on "Hellbody") as the precious metal dude.

Bottom Line:
John has his "wife-o-meter," and I respect my wife's instincts too. She enjoyed "Fantastic Four" better than "Superman Returns," and I liked it better than "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." Neither one of us thought it was anywhere near as bad as the press it's gotten. Like John, I felt this one could have been better--but as a parting thought, can I just say how impressed I was with the look of the Thing?

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