fantastic four review

I went to see "Fantastic Four" tonight. I wasn't looking forward to it too much, because of some of the fan site reviews that I had read, but through the miracle of low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised so I give it a thumbs up.

Although the filmmakers made major changes to the origin story, it actually wasn't too bad and I could see why they did it. Having Dr. Doom along for the ride from the beginning simplifies things a great deal and doesn't really ruin anything important. On the plus side, a lot of the feel of the comic is preserved, especially the relationships, like the interplay between the Thing and the Human Torch. The latter character is played very well by actor Chris Evans, something I did not expect from the snippets I saw in trailers. On the downside are the poor special effects, especially those of Mr. Fantastic and the Thing. The latter's costume is just plain bad but if the computer effects used to create Mr. Fantastic are any indication, it's probably just as well that they didn't go CGI with the Thing, too. Jessica Alba also did a fine job in her part, another unexpected bonus. And am I the only one sick of seeing Stan Lee doing cameos in all the Marvel movies? Yikes, this guy is a bad actor! He sticks out like a sore thumb. Finally, there was a so-so climax, and some other poor characterizations as well.