Fantastic 4 "Not Too Bad!"

I just got home from seeing Fantastic Four and it was much better than I expected. The series has always been one of the more campy comics, and while the movie stays true to that, it nails just about every other aspect of the comics as well. The characters are all quite accurately over-done and mellodramatic - critics complaining that the acting was poor must never have read the comics. I really can't think of anything more cheesy in this movie than most of Spiderman 2, and Jessica Alba is not only much hotter than Kirsten Dunst; she's a better actor too. The only reason I can see for the disparity between this movie's success and that of Spiderman 2 is the accessibility of the character: very few of us grew up knowing who Johnny Storm was, whereas Spiderman is a cultural icon second only to Superman.

Other comics-to-film like XMen and Batman (on the 4th try) have been able to get away from their tights-wearing campy comic origins, but Fantastic Four has much less to work with. The lead characters have homoerotic names like "Mr. Fantastic" and "The Thing", and the guy with the most personality runs around yelling "Flame on!" to activate his power. If you can make a movie from that and not leave the audience feeling like they've been snuggled by Richard Simmons, you're on the right track. Compared to other recent Marvel flops like The Hulk, Electra or Daredevil, this movie is a complete success.

In conclusion, even this movie was a billion times better than Star Wars 3.

This suit is NOT too tight.