FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER

(PG, 91 mins)
Family/Action.
Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Doug Jones, Kerry Washington, Andre Braugher, Beau Garrett, and the voice of Laurence Fishburne.

Director: Tim Story.

NO SWEARING
NO SEX
VIOLENCE


It could be the end of the world as we know it in Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.
Forget global warming, the threat of war or disease.
An all-powerful, cosmic entity called Galactus - "the destroyer of worlds" - is heading for Earth, intent on sucking the very life out of the planet.


The Silver Surfer (Jones, voiced by Fishburne), an intergalactic herald who prepares each world for Galactus’s arrival, descends from the heavens and begins creating mile-long craters.


Gruff Army officer General Hager (Braugher) and sidekick Captain Raye (Garrett) implore the Fantastic Four - aka Dr Reed Richards (Gruffudd), fiancée Sue Storm (Alba), her hothead brother Johnny (Evans) and pilot Ben Grimm (Chiklis) - to help.


Tracking the herald’s path through the solar system, Reed makes a shocking discovery: "Everywhere the Surfer goes, eight days later, the planet dies," he informs the team.


So the super-powered quartet prepares to thwart The Silver Surfer and Galactus, only this time, they are going to need help: from villainous Victor Von Doom (McMahon), newly revived from his slumber in Latveria.


Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is almost half the running time of Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End, but ultimately just as fitfully entertaining, striking a pleasing balance between action and comedy.


The screenplay, co-written by Don Payne and Mark Frost, is riddled with risible dialogue but pacing has improved greatly since the lack lustre first film, and The Silver Surfer gently tugs the heartstrings.


"My service spares my world and the one I love," he reveals, explaining his devotion to Galactus.


Gruffudd and Alba still share no screen chemistry, which undermines scenes of Reed and Susan wrestling with their decision to quit the team and raise a family.


Chiklis is poorly served by the screenplay, reduced to growling "Crap!" and a half-hearted "It’s clobbering time!", while Evans obliges his fans with an obligatory topless shot, emerging from a shower, wearing just a towel and an impish grin.


McMahon is content to amuse himself by disturbing his villain’s blank stare with the odd raised eyebrow or sneer.


Banter between Evans’s fame-seeking show-off and Chiklis’s sensitive man-mountain has its moments, like when Johnny nervously broaches the subject of sex between Ben and his blind sculptress girlfriend (Washington).


"How do you guys… you know?" asks Johnny, skirting around the issue.


"I’d hate to wake one morning to find she had been killed in a rock slide," he adds cheekily.


The profusion of eye-catching visual effects, courtesy of wizards at Weta Digital (The Lord Of The Rings, King Kong), is a marked improvement.


In particular, sequences with The Silver Surfer are beautifully orchestrated, including a breathtaking aerial chase through Manhattan and the climactic showdown with Galactus.

A coda during the end credits blatantly sets up the next film in the series.

If successive sequels improve at a similar rate, Fantastic Four 7 should be unmissable.

Rating: 5/10