Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer
Film Muser Rating : 1 / 5
Release Date : June 15, 2007
Running Time : 90 minutes
Watch Trailer
Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer brings back the original cast from the first film as they use their special powers to save the world. In this movie, the four man team have become pop icons and are as much celebrities, as they are superheroes. Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd) and Susan Storm / The Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) are just days from their wedding when the team is plunged into a partnership with the military to investigate an unusual phenomenon that has wreaked havoc on the Earth’s climate. It turns out that an alien visitor known as the Silver Surfer has made his way to our planet, and has some questionable motives that seem to be leading to the destruction of Earth.
I think that I was one of the few that actually didn’t mind the first Fantastic Four movie. But Rise of the Silver Surfer will get no such support from me this time around. The script was so poorly written, it was actually a little embarrassing. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was penned during a Grade 7 group project. The first film, despite its weaknesses, did have a redeeming quality in that I found some of it quite amusing. I particularly liked the banter between Johnny Storm / The Human Torch (Chris Evans) and Ben Grimm / The Thing (Michael Chiklis). The writers were definitely going for that same thing in the sequel, but it just didn’t work 95% of the time.
The acting was acceptable for the most part, but as nice as Jessica Alba is to look at, her acting really missed the mark on this one. I’m guessing the poor dialog had something to do with it, but it was just plain bad. It was really evident as she continued to show her frustration with her husband to be as he seemed more interested in his science experiments than their wedding. And speaking of the wedding, the movie spent way too much time on this subject. I’m assuming it was there for character development, but it just seemed out of place.
The special effects were not quite what you would expect from a movie of this budget. There were definitely some shots that just didn’t look right. The most noticeable was with Mr. Fantastic when he stretched out. It really just does not look good. The action is also sub-par, with only a handful of decent scenes. I really think the chase scene between the Human Torch and the Sliver Surfer could have been so much more. Chase scenes are always the best scenes in a movie, but this one just didn’t cut it.
I would not recommend this movie, and would definitely not suggest seeing it in the theater. If you really must see it you should most certainly wait for the DVD release, or catch it in a discount theatre. This movie just missed the mark far too often, with disappointing action sequences, terrible dialog, and mediocre special effects. I tell many people that even when I see a terrible movie, there was usually one or two scenes that made it worth it. I’m not sure that Fantastic Four : Rise of the Silver Surfer had any of those moments.
Memorable Scene
Galactus is a massive entity that consumes entire planets, extracting its energy for survival. You can probably guess his next target. There is a scene near the end of the film where Galactus is in the midst of consuming the Earth. The shot shows the cloud-like structure enveloping one half of the planet, like a giant mouth. Pretty cool.

1 out of 5 is generous.
Ha! I reserve the for ‘0′ score for the ultimate in brutality. I believe the only zeroes I have ever given were for Rumor Has It, Wolf Creek, and Date Movie. That was before I actually started writing reviews, and just gave scores. Those had not a single moment that I enjoyed.
Have you seen “The Final Cut”? Zero-worthy if anything is.