Sunday, June 04, 2006

Stardate 60424.35 - Marvel Reviews

Fantastic 4 was pretty bad. I don't know Alba, but I couldn't buy her as a scientist. I have never known a scientist who looks like her. The whole set-up in the start felt rushed, and I just couldn't buy it. Couldn't believe the storm went from being hours away to minutes away, couldn't buy the effect one failed endeavor had on the stock price, couldn't buy a lot of the set up. Couldn't buy a lot of the relationship dynamics, either. I was not a reader of this comic, so they might have been very true to the actual comic, but I just couldn't buy what the actors were selling, and way too long was spent on the set-up of getting their powers and figuring out their powers and then looking for a cure.

And that, ultimately, was my issue with this movie. It was all setup for I presume future movies, but because it was all setup when it reached the end I said, "That's it?" Thumb down.

The Punisher, on the other hand, I actually enjoyed. Don't confuse this 2004 version with the awful Lundgren version of 1989. This movie delivered exactly what I wanted - one man kicking ass to avenge his family's death. I bought the set-up for this one much more than Fantastic Four, and the set-up did not seem to dominate the entire movie. Clearly, it is not high art but it entertained me and delivered what I wanted - lots of fights, lots of guns, and the complete and utter destruction of the bad guys by the end.

The only negative was John Travolta. I swear, he is almost becoming a parody of himself, particularly when he plays bad guys. I didn't see a character, or a generic actor, but JOHN TRAVOLTA playing a role. It also was a little long (2+ hours), and they probably could have cut one assassination attempt, but that's a minor nit.

Regardless, thumb up on this one.

NYC

1 comment:

JamesF said...

For the FF: You forgot to mention the one thing that keeps the movie from being complete crap. Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. The guys steals just about every scnene he's in. Other than that, the movie stinks. The Thing's whole "Oh woe is me" shtick never clicked with me. And the "chemistry" being Sue and Reed was non-existent. Put X3 next to FF and you'll see what I was saying earlier about how I had a hard time giving X3 a thumbs down when you put it next to this pile of poo.

Haven't seen the new Punisher yet, but I've heard good things and it's in my Netflix queue.