Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Action, Science Fiction

Ioan Gruffudd	Reed Richards
Jessica Alba	Sue Storm
Chris Evans	Johnny Storm
Michael Chiklis	Ben Grimm
Julian McMahon	Victor Von Doom
Kerry Washington	Alicia Masters
Andre Braugher	General Hager
Laurence Fishburne	The Silver Surfer
Doug Jones	The Silver Surfer
Beau Garrett	Captain Raye
Brian Bloom	(voice)
Michael Broderick	Johnny Storm / Human Torch
Joey Camen	(voice)
Gideon Emery	Victor Von Doom / Dr Doom (voice)
Matthew Kaminsky	Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic
Erin Matthews	Sue Storm
Stephen Stanton	(voice)
Fred Tatasciore	(voice)

Director	Tim Story
Producer	Avi Arad; Michael Barnathan; Paul Weaver; Ralph Winter
Writer	Don Payne; Mark Frost; Flint Dille; John Zuur Platten; John Turman; Stan Lee
Musician	Ron Fish; Julie Greaux

The Fantastic Four, fresh from their adventures in their first movie, are confronted with a strange and mysterious entity, the Silver Surfer. Disaster follows the Surfer and combined forces of Earth seem powerless to stop him. Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and more ravage the Earth. More importantly, it is discovered that days after the Surfer arrives at a planet, it is destroyed. What is the Silver Surfer's purpose here? Can the Fantastic Four stop the trouble he brings? Can they save the world in it's darkest hour against an otherworldly foe who seems unstoppable?

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is another entertaining romp for the Marvel-superhero franchise. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), is treading on thin ice when his fiancée, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), thinks he's more interested in a series of cosmic phenomena occurring around the earth than in the preparations for their upcoming wedding. Sorry, ladies, but Reed is right. The disturbances are caused by a surge of cosmic power from a mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (an all-CGI creation, modeled by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne), who not only zooms around the skies on his board, but also has enough power to fight the FF, sometimes by turning their own power against them, not only mixing up Sue and Reed, but also Johnny Storm, the Human Torch (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis). But that's not the worst of it. The Surfer is only an opening act, a herald looking for planets that his master, Galactus, can consume for his sustenance.

With its initial installment, Fantastic Four established itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself too seriously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal superhero franchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out war with Galactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer… just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metallic, more like a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi

Product Description
Catch a wave of "terrific adventure" and "non-stop action" (CBS-TV) in this fun and fantastically entertaining smash-hit! "Invisible Woman: Sue Storm and "Mr. Fantastic" Dr. Reed Richards are about to be married when a mysterious alien... the Silver Surfer... crashes the proceedings and heralds Earth's impending destruction. With time running out, the Fantastic Four reluctantly teams up with the nefarious Dr. Doom in a thrilling effort to save our planet!