Rise of the Silver Sequel

I went to the midnight showing (first ever!) of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Thursday night. Well, I guess it was Friday morning, because the movie started at 12:01, but you know what I mean. I went there expecting something like the first movie... and that is pretty much what I got, only slightly better.

ROTSS is a fun movie, packed with action and humor. However, the action is not all that spectacular, and the humor is not that funny. I laughed, cause it was certainly funnier than Pirates 3, but some of the jokes were kind of silly. Then again, this is a movie for the whole family, and that shows. It's not dark, there's no gravitas, nothing questionable or objectionable. It's a lighthearted romp that you watch with a smile in your face, and then you move on to do other things.

The effects were good, except for the club scene: there they looked really, really awful. But the Most Awful Thing in the Film award goes to Jessica Alba's unspeakably fake-looking blonde hair (and fake blue eyes). You would think that the moviemakers would be able to either find a believable wig, or dye Jessica's hair with some level of skill. But no, my friends: this is like Halle Berry's hair playing Storm in the first X-Men. Not the color, but the laughability factor. And it's a shame, because she finally has a lot of screen time, but she just doesn't look real. A friend was also pointing out she's gotten thinner and her cheekbones are too noticeable while the rest of her face looks too small. I don't know if this is the case, but she does look weird. (Except when she's wearing glasses: then she looks damn sexy.)

Good ole Norrin Radd looks great, though: much better than I thought he would. I've never been into the character, because I always thought he looked kind of silly (not as ludicrous as Galactus, though), but they did a good job in the movie, even if Laurence Fishburne might not have been the best choice to voice him. And the Human Torch is very cool, both when he's all lit up and when he's just being a smartass. I think my favorite thing in the first movie was him, and that may very well be the case in this sequel too.

To sum it up, the movie is okay, but don't go see it with high expectations, or you'll be disappointed.