Back on the Bike
I took the bike out for a spin earlier today and this is my total mileage…
That translates to just over five miles, which is pretty paltry by my standards but I’m still a little out-of-practice, so I think I should cut myself at least a little bit of slack.
Not really much else to write about today. I’m currently helping a friend of mine with a review he’s doing on the Fantastic Four film from 2005. It’s a movie I remember really loving as a kid, but it never stuck with me the same way that many of the other superhero films from that era did, and watching it again this evening, it’s easy to see why. It gets some of the details nailed down and the cast all do a solid job (especially Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm… he’s the best part of the movie, hands down), but it’s often hampered by a script that constantly holds itself back from being a superhero film. There’s so much dialogue where the characters lampshade the absurdities of the source material and I’m pretty sure the Fantastic Four spend at least half the movie trying to specifically… NOT be the Fantastic Four. In retrospect, this movie plays itself way too safe and while the family dynamic of the titular characters is well established, it doesn’t build to a satisfying resolution.
For good measure, I also revisited Rise of the Silver Surfer, which is also pretty mid as well. It’s another movie I watched all the time as a kid, but yeah, it doesn’t hold up well. Once again, it constantly holds itself back from being a truly cosmic adventure -- the less said about this movie’s take on Galactus, the better -- and it more often than not resembles a superhero sitcom, especially with its opening act being based so heavily around Reed and Sue’s wedding. At least, we get one of Stan Lee’s all-time great cameos from it, though.
After these films and the godawful Fant4stic, I’m hoping that Next Steps will give us that terrific Fantastic Four movie that’s way overdue at this point. It seems like they are going in the right direction and I’m looking forward to seeing it when it comes out later this year, so here’s hoping it delivers.
