Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer review

The summer of sequels continues with the arrival of the latest Fantastic Four instalment which joins Spider-Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Shrek 3, 28 Weeks Later, Ocean's 13 and Hostel: 2 on the list of non-original features released in the UK before the end of June. Whether or not this indicates a collective lack of imagination on behalf the studios is a moot point: with the revenues that these huge marketing juggernauts generate it looks like the era of the sequel is here to stay.

So how does FF: ROSS compare to both the original and the flock of sequels surrounding it? The answer is about average. While it will no doubt attract Four-heads in droves, it's quite unlikely to convert any new fans, and those above the recommended PG age of 8 will undoubtedly curse the fact that they were persuaded to part with their cash by a well-oiled advertising machine.

Purists will already know that the Silver Surfer first appeared in issue number 48 of Stan Lee's Fantastic Four comic in 1966. As an ordinary guy on a distant planet, he had to sell his soul to the menacing Galactus, here represented as a sort of planet-engulfing cloud, in exchange for which he was turned into a silvery figure and given both a surfboard and free rein to cause havoc on other planets. If this sort of thing floats your own board then this is the movie for you - but most newcomers are likely to find the whole thing faintly ridiculous.

Once the Surfer arrives on earth and causes mayhem by freezing seas and famous objects, only one team seem capable of saving it. Reprising their roles from the original, Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards and Jessica Alba as Sue Storm find this something of an inconvenience as it coincides with their much-heralded wedding ceremony. But once they leave their rings to one side and enlist the help of Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm (Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis), the quartet use their fantastic powers, their fantastic car (punningly named the Fantasti-Car) to seek and destroy their new enemy.

Unfortunately, very little of this could really be called fantastic. The plot is simplicity itself, the actors are given very little to challenge them and it's very hard to feel or care for the situation they find themselves in. I was reminded of some of the larger studio-bound projects of yesteryear such as Lost in Space and The Avengers which used a megabudget marketing spend to lure in the guaranteed audiences of fans and then provided them with an empty, soulless specatacle.

There are a couple of interesting moments such as a set-piece involving the London Eye, and the Surfer himself is very well depicted, but it doesn't bode well when you can predict everything that is going to happen from about ten minutes in. The Marvel plague of killing off characters only to bring them back to life again still persists, and it's a small example of how silly the whole affair really is.

Paul Hurley