The Silver Surfer

Depend what you expect. the story is moving - the dream of every child. the technonology represents its time. short - a mix of smile and emotion. not spectacular. only nice.

The Silver Surfer comes to Earth and helps a kid whose Terminator doll was stolen by some bullies in this impressive student film. That's pretty much it. The short was made during the height of the Terminator 2: Judgment Day craze (hence the doll). Presumably the T-1000 in that movie made some people think "wow this technology could help make a wicked Silver Surfer movie" and so they set about trying to prove that on a small scale. We've since gotten an actual Surfer in the less-than-great Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. While those effects were better than these, they weren't light years apart despite the astronomical difference in budget. Obviously something like this shouldn't be rated on the same scale as something professionally produced (and I've seen far worse "professional" efforts). It's enjoyable for Silver Surfer fans or anyone who likes looking at amateur short films.

This 5 minute film basically set the pace for CGI animation. When I saw the Fantastic Four Movie /Sllver Surfer movie, I was moved that they had used the same animation 'styling' that Robert Letterman had used over a decade ago.

What people have to take into consideration is that Stan Lee Comics was NOT going to just 'give' the rights to shoot a feature film to a bunch of film students. Even if said students were attending USC and had access to the Spielberg film studio/lab. Which, at the time, was state of the art.

Also, if you notice, the Silver Surfer was an 'Improved' model over the Terminator 2's nemesis villainous character who was made of "polymemetic alloy" or whatever the hell it was Arnold was trying to say in the movie :)

So, I give this a 10 simply for the effort of the team of kids (at that time) that did this. Personally, I think the thing with the doll was the filmmaker's sense of cynicism and sarcasm. Of course, you'd have to ask them! :)

OK, so it might not be the most detailed storyline and, as far as sticking to the comic book, it couldn't really be further from the real thing. But don't be deceived, there's a reason that the Silver Surfer movie was made, and it's more interesting than you can imagine. To learn more about it go to http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=4403 I've been trying to find it on the net for ages so if anyone knows where it is, let me know! I really think this was a ground-breaking clip, not only because of the technological leaps that it took to make it, but also the fact that this was before the comic book revolution hit the screens and already big Hollywood players were scrambling to get into it, well eventually anyway.

Yeah, did anyone see a point? I mean, the effects were cool, and really damn impressive for a short film in 1994, but... what the hell was this? I sure didn't see a point. Oh well, if you're bored and like Silver Surfer, don't expect much, but yeah, it's kinda cool.