Fantastic Four was, uh…Fantastic!

This movie is based on the comic book characters created by Stan Lee many decades ago. Five scientists/astronauts try to perform a revolutionary experiment aboard a space station. A cosmic storm bomards the station, and everyone aboard is changed forever. Their DNA is altered in such a way that they each are given different super powers.

-Reed Richards, played by Ioan Gruffudd, becomes Mr. Fantastic; he is able to stretch and contort his body like super-elastic rubber. He is an uber-nerd with strong feelings for Susan, but he has trouble expressing his feelings without letting his intellect get in the way.

-Ben Grimm, played by Michael Chiklis, is transformed into The Thing; he is made of virtually indestructable rock and has super-strength. His transformation left him looking very disfigured, and he has trouble adjusting to the change.

-Susan Storm, played by Jessica Alba, becomes The Invisible Girl; apart from turning invisible, she can create force-fields. She has feelings for Reed, but she can’t get him to express it.

-Johnny Storm, Susan’s brother, played by Chris Evans, becomes The Human Torch; he can throw fire, turn his body into flame, and fly. He seeks fame and girls with his new found powers, which alienates him from the others.

-Victor Von Doom (what a name), the sponsor of their experiment who also went on the expedition became Dr. Doom; he obtained the ability to suck electricity from power sources and channel that energy into powerful electric blasts…oh, and he also got an indestructable metallic body and superhuman strength. He was a power hungry businessman who went a little off the deep end after being transformed into the evil Dr., so he becomes the arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four.

The story is excellent. Like the X-Men they have to find out how to cope living with powers in a normal world. They also have to cope with the difficulties they have in their own relationships. The characters are very well played, and the movie is extremely entertaining. I did not enjoy the movie quite as much as the X-Men movies, but I would highly recommend it to anybody who likes good action movies (especially comic book fanatics, which I used to be). It was refreshing to see several relatively unknown actors make such an entertaining film, well done!