Nigel St. Buggering

Every once in a while, and with comics-based movies in particular, fandom-at-large makes a unilateral decision to hate a film that won't be released for months. Science has yet to explain how this phenomenon occurs, although we're pretty sure that Harry Knowles is involved. Such a case is Fantastic Four. For several months now, Internet fandom has been condemning it sight unseen, holding it up as an example of how a comics film should not be made, all based on a few promotional images.

Well, the movie is actually out now, and guess what? It's not bad at all. It is, in fact, pretty good. It's not brilliant film-making, and it won't be making any "ten best of the year" lists, but it really doesn't set out to do so. The only job this project had was to bring a classic, fun, somewhat goofy superhero comic to the screen, and the translation is more or less perfect. Anyone who feels that the four central characters are lacking anything is reading way too much into the comics.

It is, of course, going to be compared to the great superhero films like Superman, Spider-Man, and X2. However, the one movie this compares most closely to is probably Ghostbusters. While rarely outright comedy, it keeps a light tone, and chooses to focus on character-based moments rather than action. Anyone expecting two hours of The Thing kicking holy butt is going to be disappointed. This is a movie based, almost to a fault, on the tone of the classic Lee/Kirby comics of the sixties. The group squabbles amongst themselves, struggles to find their identities, copes with sudden celebrity, and does the right thing for no reason other than that it's the right thing.

What works here is that Michael France, Mark Frost and Tim Story know these characters. From the first moment they're on screen, anybody who's a fan will recognize them. They've been perfectly captured, and many of the moments from the classic issues that made these characters who they are are transcribed almost exactly.

While the film-makers are slavishly faithful to the heroes, the villain took a bit more rejiggering. I believe they've done a decent job of making Doctor Doom fit into the story more naturally, but it will probably be the hardest pill for fans to swallow. His transition from self-obsessed corporate raider and jilted lover to straight-out supervillain is a bit rocky, and could have used a bit more work.

Speaking of rocky, The Thing's look has been the subject of much disdain. The issue of bodysuit vs CGI probably isn't going away anytime soon, but I have to champion the suit. It looks decent enough, and Chiklis' ability to perform through it is impressive. A CGI character would have robbed us of his physical performance, and the other actors' ability to play off of him. The interactions between Chiklis and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm are particularly good.

In the end, this is not a movie that will challenge anyone's preconceptions of what a comics translation ought to be, and it isn't on the artistic level of Donner's Superman or Raimi's Spider-Man 2. It's a light, fun and very entertaining adaptation of a light, fun, very entertaining comic. I'd call that a success.

What Spielberg, Cruise, and Koepp accomplish here in the first two acts is nothing short of revolutionary. They've made a big-budget summer blockbuster about massive destruction and action that manages to studiously avoid every cliché and expectation of such films. It stays resolutely on the characters' points of view, showing us almost nothing they don't see, even to the point of coming tantalizingly close to a raging battle, then avoiding showing it. It keeps its focus on character instead of spectacle. The "hero" of the piece remains decidedly unheroic, wanting only to escape, and trying to talk others out of fighting back. The purpose of every piece of action is to frighten and disturb rather than thrill, making ingenious use of familiar 9/11 imagery. At the end of the second act, it is hands-down the best alien invasion film ever made, and perhaps one of the best sci-films of all time.

Then something strange happens. The filmmakers lose their nerve, and remember that this is an extremely expensive summer film financed by two studios. Or perhaps it was the fact that it stars Tom Cruise, who up to this point has spent almost two hours doing nothing but run for his life. Suddenly, and tragically, the film changes, violating not only its carefully established tone, but its own internal logic. Suddenly, Cruise begins to act like a hero, and summer action clichés force their way into the story like a worm into an apple. The transition is jarring, and it creates a serious disconnect from the story.

While it's true that Wells' original ending creates a problem for a movie, here they try to remain faithful to it, while still shoehorning moments of triumph into the conclusion. Unfortunately, these moments come off as alternately false, unbelievable, and meaningless, since it isn't mankind that defeats the invaders in the end.

Is it recommendable? Well, I suppose that depends on what kind of viewer you are. If you feel that 75% brilliant material overshadows the 25% that falls apart, then you'll enjoy it. If, however, you're the kind of viewer who feels that the final impression a movie makes is its ultimate stamp on your memory, you may be in for a crushing disappointment. On the other hand, if you're the kind of viewer who just likes the cliché of the boom-boom summer action spectacle, you're likely to be bored and frustrated with the first two acts, and only engage in the end. It is confused about what audience it's trying to reach, and consequently, isn't likely to satisfy any of them.

I'm about Ringed out.

I've seen all three versions of the first film; Japanese, Korean and American, the Japanese sequel, and now the American sequel to the American remake which is not a remake of the Japanese sequel to the Japanese original. Are we following? Hideo Nakata, who helmed all three of the Ring films in Japan, has been brought aboard here. This is an impressive show of fealty to the source material not normally seen in studio production, and it utterly fails to pay off. This is my fourth Nakata film, and a pattern has emerged: the man clearly believes that there is something primally terrifying about water seepage. Film after film, scene after scene, we are shown water seeping through ceilings, down walls, under doors...and all I could think was, "Man, that's going to play hell on those hardwood floors." To be fair, the screenplay doesn't do Nakata any favors. In going further back into the origins of Samara, and adding another unnecessary layer of supernatural gobbledygook, it resembles nothing so much as the "Nightmare on Elm Street" sequels. There are also several echoes of "The Omen", a much better evil child film than this one. First, there is a random animal attack that comes out of nowhere and is never explained or justified. There's also the use of photography to illustrate the threat. Finally, there's the protagonist being faced with a morally repugnant solution to the problem. Unfortunately, she accepts it far too quickly and blindly to make it believable, particularly since it comes from a lunatic, and the story winds up lacking the spine to follow through on this premise anyway.

Naomi Watts does her best to make this work, despite having to deliver half her dialogue in a forced whisper. The child actor playing her son, who I thought was quite good in the first film, drops the ball here. It might have helped him if his few lines of dialogue weren't so fraught with portent that they read like a neon sign flashing "Foreshadowing Alert".

There is really only one bit of creepy imagery near the end, and it is attached to a sequence that makes no sense whatsoever. Nakata obviously has a gift for staging and visual composition that lend some atmosphere to his work. However, one has to wonder if a director with a complete grasp of English might have recognized the weaknesses in the script, and done better work with actors.

In the end, it's hard to think of this as a missed opportunity, since it was an entirely unnecessary follow-up anyway, and since the Japanese sequel really wasn't any better. It's still disappointing to see so much potential go completely to waste.