Director: Tim Story
Cast: loan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis
Have I Seen It Before: The reviews were middling, and there was plenty of other great stuff to watch that summer, so I somehow missed it during its theatrical run.
Theaters five way to DVDs, and I have the oddest, strongest memory of renting this film, watching bout twenty minutes of it, getting distracted by the types of things college kids get distracted by*, and never quite coming back to it until nearly 20 years later.
How in the hell did I watch Josh Trank’s Fantastic Four (2015) before I watched this? The mind boggles.
Did I Like It: I can kind of see where I lost interest in this, though. Where Trank’s effort is perpetual motion machine powered by misbegotten ideas, this film is content to not make anybody mad. In that first large era of superhero movies, that can be absolutely lethal in an attempt to revisit the film. or visit for the first time since. There are pop songs, and quick edits, and enough product placement to virtually guarantee the film was going to get a sequel, even if nobody bothered to show up.
It's the kind of perfunctory effort that reminds one of Daredevil (2003) and less of the resolutely individualistic efforts that helped X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002) break out from the pack... and inspire every movie studio that can get their hands on an IP to churn out this kind of movie.
With First Steps coming down the pike, I was suddenly inspired to take this one in, but I can"t say I'm particularly inspired to re-watch Trank’s film, or catch the sequel to this one.
Maybe it's finally time for me to watch Corman's version. It was at least created not to fill a studio's obligation for a summer weekend.
*Don't get too excited: I'm mostly talking about going over polling numbers in support of a political party that was all but extinct even then.