movie review

I saw Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer last night. I wrote it about on my facebook, but here are some further thoughts.
I mentioned that I thought the voice of Lawrence Fishburne was totally misplaced for the Silver Surfer. Not only was the lip-synching a major flaw, but the voice just sounded odd. Doug Jones as the Silver Surfer was marvelous...lithe, sinewy, graceful. His movements were poetic and fitting to the character. The juxtaposition of slender elegance and deep, resonant voice just did not convince me of the authenticity of an alien being.
Though I enjoyed the interplay between the characters, particularly Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm, their banter seemed a bit forced at times. I was more interested in watching Dr.Doom, Thing, and the Human Torch than Sue Storm or Reed Richards. Though Ioan Griffudd is a good choice for Richards, I've never liked the character much. I was not convinced that there was any chemistry between Sue and Reed - they seemed more like brother and sister than passionately in love with each other. Note to costume designers: since you did such a great job improving the Thing's costume, could you work on Jessica Alba's contact lenses? At least, make the colour consistent! Watching her eyes go from dark blue to grey to light blue, then back to dark blue, is just annoying.
The movie is silly, which I don't mind. It is entertaining to watch a purely silly, comic-book movie at times. The special effects team really did their job well; the chase sequences between the Surfer and Johnny, then again with Doom and the Four were awesome and delightful. It was fun to watch the jets and Doom spinning around the world. It was unfortunate, however,that the story was entirely predictable...I got very frustrated waiting for the inevitable to happen. There were some truly humourous moments that I enjoyed: Stan Lee getting turned away at the wedding, and Ben Grimm's reactions to various situations were highlights for me.
Overall, I would give this movie a 3 out of 5.