Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington
Written By:
Directed By: Tim Story
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Buy on Amazon.com link

Marvel Comics’ most celebrated comic book is finally on the big screen and right into your homes on DVD with Fantastic Four, starring Jessica Alba, Ioan Gruffudd and Michael Chiklis. Not as serious as most comic book films, Fantastic Four is an adventure film filled with humor, action, and a great cast.

Reed Richards, AKA Mr. Fantastic (Gruffudd) is a struggling scientist, who was hard pressed for financial support and a platform to do experiments. With his best friend, Ben Grimm AKA The Thing (Chiklis), Reed’s former lover Sue Storm (Alba,) and her show-off pilot brother Johnny Storm (Chris Evans,) they would go on to become a group of people with extraordinary powers, and by accident. When Reed and Ben Grimm go to Reed’s former classmate, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) for financial support to do research in outer space, the crew gets more than they bargained for. The research was regarding altering DNA, and when a cosmic cloud comes near the space station with Victor, Reed and crew onboard, it changes their molecular structure. They obtain these unique powers of elasticity, excessive strength, invisibility, force fields, and becoming a giant torch that can fly. While Ben Grimm was the only one who may have been affected the most since he was outside the station when this cosmic cloud came, the others don’t feel the effects of the accident until they go back to earth. The same goes for Victor Von Doom, who has side effects unlike the others. Ben Grimm has the hardest time with the alteration since he has become a rock man, so to speak. Not to mention strength that enables him to crush a 14-wheel truck. Johnny Storm was already arrogant and his transformation to becoming “The Human Torch,” made him become even more conceded. Acting like a rock star, Johnny is all over the news, and tries his powers at a Motorbike Event. Reed and Sue, as scientists do, try to figure out how the hell these “superpowers” could have happened. When Victor, now Dr. Doom, goes off the deep end, the Fantastic Four must try and stop this maddening, wealthy Doctor from trying to destroy and take over the world. The finale is very entertaining and fun to watch, and really brings the whole story together.

With plenty of extras, I first checked out the exclusive look at X-men 3, hosted by Avi Arad. Only a few minutes long and no new footage to show, the inside look wasn’t that impressive. Arad explains each of the characters and how they are dealing with the events that occurred in the second film. Next, I checked out the deleted scenes. Not too many to see on here, and nothing too spectacular or “worthy” of being included in the original release. What I enjoyed the most was the Fantastic Four Video Diary, hosted by the gorgeous Jessica Alba. In the 20 minute diary, fans get an inside look to how the cast deals with all the press junkets and premieres. Also, as the cast is whirled around the world, you get a glimpse of the itineraries for the cast as they go from press event to the next, and then onto all the premieres. It was fun to see how the cast got along outside the movie, and even though constant questions that are similar, the actors still had a great time doing it. For instance, Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic) arrives in Mexico and hurls on his breakfast, but he’s a trooper and continues on with all the day’s activities. I could have watched the diary even longer than what they showed. Next, you can also check out a couple of featurettes that dealing with the production of the film like “Making of FF,” or “Casting sessions and Making a Scene.” Short, but still insightful regarding the film. There were also a few more items to check out like audio commentary from the cast, music videos and trailers.

I really enjoyed Fantastic Four, and while it was not a very serious movie, it was a lot of fun to watch and I’m sure it was even more fun to film. You get great action, interesting story with relatable human behaviors, and some humor in the film. I could also tell they didn’t take themselves too seriously as far as a straight forward movie like X-men or Batman Begins. They had a good time with it, and so did I.

Features:
-Exclusive inside Look at X-Men 3 – Hosted by Producer Avi Arad
-Cast Commentary
-3 Deleted Scenes
-The Fantastic Tour: Exclusive behind the scenes home video hosted by the entire cast
-Making of Fantastic Four
-Fox Movie Channel Presents Casting Session & Making A Scene
-Music Videos: Everything Burns, Come On Come In
-Soundtrack Spot

Audio:
-ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1
-ENGLISH: DTS 5.1
-SPANISH: Dolby Digital Surround

Video:
-Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Favorite Scenes: Transformations, Johnny snowboarding, Brooklyn Bridge, Showdown with Doom
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 105 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: