director: Tim Story
starring: Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd, Julian McMahon
Not nearly as bad as I thought it’d be, but still a clunker nonetheless. Horrible casting outside of Michael Chiklis, a failure to remain faithful to the source material, and direction straight from MTV leads to a waste of money but also inevitable sequels. FF is the story of four “scientists” and a billionaire industrialist who use said industrialist’s space laboratory to conduct an experiment analyzing the sun’s cosmic rays. The cosmic rays arrive ahead of schedule; chaos ensues, resulting in each of the five being imbued with “fantastic” powers. Mr. Fantastic becomes elastic. The Invisible Woman becomes, well, invisible. The Thing is pure, solid rock. The Human Torch is a huge flamer. Victor Von Doom becomes Dr. Doom or, as I like to call him, the Human Taser. Meh, there’s not much more to say. It’s worth a “it’s 3am and I can’t get to sleep because of all the peanut M&M’s I ate so let’s see what’s on cable” watch. It’s less than “fantastic,” one might say. Am I right? Am I right? I’ll be here all week. Thank you, good night!
I thought Mr. Fantastics Ioan Gruffudd (Pronounced YO-an GRIFF-ith) again puts in a solid performance. He has appeared most notably in Titantic, Black Hawke Down, and the critically panned King Arthur (2004) in which he plays Lancelot.
On that note, if you haven’t seen it yet, go rent King Arthur. My high hopes for the movie, King Arthur, were dashed before the film even opened in theaters, by critics who were panning the movie from advanced screenings.
So, I stayed away while it was in theaters and most definitely passed on special discounts on the week it was released to DVD.
After finally getting around to renting a copy, I am left with just one burning question –
Why in the hell do I listen to movie critics?
The movie King Arthur has it all – a tight, well written story, believable characters, gritty realism, a great musical score by Hans Zimmer, epic battles, and more blood and splatter (unrated version) than you probably really wanted to see.
The bottom line is that King Arthur is a very good film. No, it’s not the mythical Camelot, but it does not try to be. Nor, does it trample all over the name of King Arthur by making him a shallow or less than heroic character.
This is not Braveheart or Gladiator , but it is a film worth seeing and appreciating.
So you liked King Arthur, eh?