I wanted to see this since the first one was decent and my main complaint about it was that they had to spend too much time on establishing the characters. I figured since they wouldn’t have to introduce everyone this time, they could actually tell a story this time. 😉
Rise of the Silver Surfer is the story of how the Fantastic Four face a global threat that arrives unexpectedly on the wedding day of Reed Richards and Susan Storm — the Silver Surfer. The Surfer, a man whose entire body is silver, arrives on Earth astride a flying intergalactic surfboard. He begins punching craters in the Earth, preparing it for its ultimate destruction in only eight days. The Fantastic Four must abandon their plans and challenge the Silver Surfer, learn his mission, and discover a way to prevent the Earth from being destroyed.
This one starts out slow — for about the first half hour I was thinking, “gee, this movie could use a plot”. The writers seemed to enjoy the characters a little too much, wanting to show off the clever everyday uses they’ve come up with for their powers.
But eventually, things picked up and they got to the plot, and it was indeed a better movie than the previous one since the characters had already been introduced. It was nice seeing the characters use their powers and catch phrases more comfortably, rather than with the experimental tone they had in the first movie. There were some funny lines and amusing quips, some cool action sequences, and some awesome technology. Von Doom fans will be glad to know that he makes his return in RotSS, and those who are already familiar with the Surfer and know what his arrival portends can rest assured that his role has not been altered for the movie. I loved the Stan Lee cameo in this movie, much funnier than in the first one.
Overall, this was a good Marvel movie — not a great one, but a good one, and better than its predecessor. Three and three quarters stars out of five.
See this movie if you’re in the mood for a fun superhero story and don’t mind a little ramp-up time before it gets going.