Fantastic Four

More like Mediocre Four. This is not an awful film, but it’s not better than your average comic book. In fact, it may most perfectly catch the feel of real superhero comic from ’60s, in that the dialogue is dopey and simple, the acting is off-kilter, and the story careens into action with little explanation and no consequences. Its biggest flaw is in spending too much time on the heroes’ origin story, and then wasting the middle third of the film on their uninteresting efforts to “cure” themselves of their powers. There are also some big plot holes, and the powers aren’t put to very good effect until the final 30 minutes, when the villain finally reveals himself, and some real action comes down the pipe. Nonetheless, Michael Chiklis is excellent as The Thing, and Jessica Alba is extremely well-proportioned as The Invisible Woman. Pretty much everyone else in the cast is weak, but you don’t go to a superhero movie to watch the acting anyway.