Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

The second instalment in the Fantastic Four film franchise introduces the Silver Silver, one of the FF’s most successful super-powered guest stars, whose appearance on Earth reanimates FF baddie Dr. Doom (Julian McMahon) and plays havoc with the powers of the Human Torch (Chris Evans), thus setting up the climatic battle of the third act. But Rise of the Silver Surfer isn’t just a series of conflicts leading to that final fight. The Fantastic Four have always been portrayed as a super-powered family, so this time around we get to see more of the family dynamic in action as Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) prepare to tie the knot, and the Human Torch and surrogate brother the Thing (Michael Chiklis) continue their infamous bouts of squabbling. The humanity is nice but it’s the world saving that brings out the crowds. The special FX have improved, making for better battles, and the effects are especially important for the realism of the Silver Surfer (sparingly voiced by Laurence Fishburne). They also use this opportunity to bring the costumes of both the Thing and Dr. Doom more in line with the comic. Unfortunately, this much-improved sequel is also ripe with inconsistencies, like when the Silver Surfer loses his powers but he’s still somehow able to use them to create visuals for his origin story, or when the Human Torch imitates the Super Skrull with all the powers of the Fantastic Four. It also sucks that certain things had to be sidelined (Galactus, Nick Fury) in order to accommodate future Marvel movie marketing. The two-disc Power Cosmic Edition features an exhaustive "making of” doc, two informative commentaries, and featurettes that include the creation of the Silver Surfer, the costuming of the Thing and the building of the Fantasticar, and a lot more, including a hint that FF3 could see the inevitable appearance of the Puppet Master.