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RurouniTJ
Reviews
Fantastic Four (2005)
A guilty pleasure, but only because of Chris Evans
I thought this was one of the worst comic book movies I've seen after a long string of passable to exceptional adaptations. It gets plenty of good reviews here so maybe I'm just missing something, but for me the appeal of the comic book movie isn't just in making you believe comic book characters could really exist, but that they could really exist in the same world as the rest of us. My problem with Fantastic Four is that there's enough cheesiness to break the illusion of reality. I never followed the comics, but if you only knew the characters from the movies, you'd think every fight was a carefully orchestrated scenario to make the Four use their powers together as a team. All told, the plot was weak, the characters weren't fleshed out very well, and the acting was pretty poor.
All that said, I do own a copy of it on DVD I bought used for five bucks, and the only reason I own it is for Chris Evans as Johnny Storm. He's the only actor who turns in a really good performance (even Julian McMahon, who I know to be a solid actor from his other work, didn't really impress me here, but I don't think he had very much to work with), his is the only character who comes off as someone you could find in the real world, and he's just too damn fun to watch. By himself he's not enough to save the film, but you get the feeling that if he ditched his teammates and got his own movie, it'd be a lot more fun than the hundred and six minutes sunk into watching this flick.
I like the serious comic book movies out there because they have a solid story to tell and they show people who aren't into comics that it is possible to use the medium to tell a solid story. At the end of the day, I just don't see Fantastic Four doing either of those things.
Guyver: Dark Hero (1994)
A Significant Improvement
As a fan of the anime, and its far better comic book source material, the first live-action Guyver was a painful experience. Surely any "Power Rangers" criticism is more applicable to that first film, with its campy dialogue and fight scenes, silly-looking creature designs, and overblown ending battle. While it hits a surprising number of plot points from the source material, it's a bad movie.
Guyver 2 still has some goofy Zoanoid designs, mediocre acting, and distorts the relative strength of human, Guyver and Zoanoid to keep a human fighter from becoming scenery and to keep the Guyver from plowing through too many rubber suits the movie couldn't afford. But it takes itself more seriously and employs some Hong Kong-style wire work and just a little CG to show you why the Guyver stands above the Zoanoids. This film too covers many major plot points from the manga comics, taking some liberties to bring together elements of the very beginning and very end of the comic's U.S. release and provide a satisfying ending battle.
Dark Hero makes just one direct reference to the preceding film that might justify a viewing. But if you followed the comics closely enough to be interested in the movies, you'll get it anyway and can spare yourself some suffering. Guyver 2 is a much improved film with some solid cult film qualities and enough substance to bring in fans of the Japanese original as well as the folks who stumble into decent B-movies channel surfing through evening cable.
6/10
The West Wing (1999)
Absolutely brilliant
I fantasize about having a president who is knowledgeable about issues, intelligent, compassionate, and funny. Or is at least capable of forming whole sentences. Over the drunk-driver car crash death of his secretary, Sheen's President Bartlett cusses out God in Latin, where the pretender to the throne demonstrates difficulty with basic English.
The writing for this series is consistently excellent, and the cast performs brilliantly, from the rapid-fire "Radar O'Reilly" exchanges to the dry humor to the office pranks. This is a spectacular program that shows us the Washington we should have.