Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer...

[fajrdrako]

Last night I went to see Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer.

I've explained before how reading Fantastic Four #18, "The Return of the Super-Skrull", was a pivotal experience in my young life. I loved that series with a passion - along with X-Men, Daredevil, Sgt. Fury, Spider-Man and Journey into Mystery. I was particularly in love with Reed Richards, who to my ten-year-old eyes was the perfect man and hero.

For decades there was talk of making a Silver Surfer movie. I guess this was it.

Silver Surfer was an interesting character. Gorgeous, angst-ridden, one of Jack Kirby's finest moments, though the premise always struck me as absurd and I never really understood the Surfer's cult status. There was an element of self-pity to him that kept me at arm's length. But there was an interesting paradox to the concept: an embodiment of power and powerlessness at the same time.

Well, this movie made the most of him. The Silver Surfer himself was stunning: I loved the special effects, I loved his manner and his voice, and I loved his situation. I liked it that they didn't embellish on the original story, or change its details. I was waiting for him to say his name, and when he did at last say "Norrin Radd" quietly in the Fantasticar, it put shivers up my back.

Aaah, nostalgia. This all dates back to Fantastic Four #48 and a time in my life when I could probably name every issue by title and tell you what happened in it. I remember once going to a comic con in London, England, where someone had a terrific Galactus costume - just boots, huge boots, that disappeared up behind the stage curtains above. Works for me.

So Galactus here really was a force of nature, just suggested by the shadow of his Kirbyesque headgear. Looks like this, for the uninitiated. Works for me.

On the other hand, Doctor Doom seemed sort of irrelevant to the story - a gadfly, a complication, but not significant to the main themes. And the FF themselves....

I love Ioan Gruffudd from Horatio Hornblower and Century City, and he makes a fine Reed Richards, but... that childhood passion I used to have for the man is gone. Jessica Alba is sweet and has many of the characteristics I used to so love in Sue Storm, but at the same time... she isn't real, she isn't my Sue Storm, I find it hard to take her seriously. Johnny Storm is good - and his character development here was probably the best of the bunch - but he lacks the youthful spark of innocence I once loved in the comic book character. And Ben Grimm... ah, bashful Benjy. I don't think they could ruin that wonderful character. But there wasn't a lot of focus on him.

I liked it that there was a theme of the abortive attempts of Reed and Sue to have a real wedding - a bit of a comic book in-joke maybe, but effective and fun. And in the end I liked the theme that Reed and Sue wanted a 'normal' life but Sue eventually realized they had higher duties - and I particularly liked it that it was Sue who said so, when she'd seemed the one most likely to want a house in the suburbs. Now, as comic books, TV and movies go, I've never really understood or sympathized with the 'wanting a normal life' business, but it was handled as well here as I've ever seen it. Me, I'd rather be extraordinary, given the chance.

Stan Lee got to play himself - just as in the original wedding comic!

So: I enjoyed myself watching this movie. I smiled a lot - out of nostalgia, recognition, pleasure, all sorts of things - and truly felt for the Surfer. At the same time, it all seemed much more shallow and simple than it once did in the comic books I loved so much. Not magical, not meaningful, but pleasant entertainment.

Makes me want to go and reread my old Fantastic Four comics, now.