'Fantastic Four' has more talk than action

Another big one was in the early 1960s when I discovered Marvel Comics.

That first Marvel comic I read (and reread) was “Fantastic Four” issue No. 26. In it, they had teamed with the Avengers to do battle with the Hulk. Hulk was a super hero who occasionally would freak out and become a villain.

Since that fateful day in 1963, I’ve been waiting for a Fantastic Four movie. After a mere 42 years, it has arrived!

Sadly, you can never go home again. While I enjoyed seeing the Four come to life on-screen, director Tim Story delivers a film than doesn’t live up to its adjective. The film seems like an overly long prologue to what might be a decent movie.

The characters spend too much time talking about themselves and what happened to them instead of getting down to the business of super heroes: Fighting super villains. Only in Act 3, when the Fantastic Four battle their nemesis, Dr. Doom, do we see them in all their glory and really performing as a team.

Dr. Reed Richards is a pre-eminent scientist with impeccable credentials but very poor business acumen. His sidekick is Benjamin Grimm, an ace rocket pilot.

Richards, short on financing yet again, is forced to go see an old college mate, Victor Von Doom. Von Doom is a billionaire businessman with his own space station. Reed and Victor were rivals in college, and Von Doom has in his employ, and as a would-be girlfriend, Reed’s old flame, Sue Storm.

Reed arranges a deal with Von Doom for financing and the use of his space station to study a cosmic storm on its way to Earth. Accompanying Richards on the mission are Grimm, Von Doom, Storm and her brash and flashy brother, Johnny.

Something goes awry, and the space station is bombarded with the full force of the storm. Grimm takes the brunt of the blow and is nearly lost in space. Upon returning to Earth, the group is quarantined for further study.

Strange things begin to happen, and little by little we see the transformation from ordinary people to the Fantastic Four. Richards finds he can stretch his body. Sue can become invisible and create force fields. Johnny can go up in supernova flames. And Grimm is transformed into a super-dense creature who looks as if he’s made of stone. After the team saves a fire engine from going over a bridge, the news media gives them their monicker. It’s here the real action should start; instead, we get more exposition and self discovery.

It’s too little too late to save the film, but it is a great scene.

There are other satisfying scenes, and the overall character development is good. Johnny Storm plays up his Human Torch persona as if he’s a rock star. And Grimm, as The Thing, desperately wants to return to human status and his wife, who is revolted by his new body. Michael Chikliss as Grimm/Thing gives the best, and closest to the original Marvel character, performance.

I’m waiting for the sequel where hopefully a more skilled director will give us more of the Four walking the walk instead of endlessly talking the talk.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.