Fantastic Four (2005) (Blu-ray)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	Audio Commentary-Cast-Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis And Ioan Gruffudd
Rating
Year Of Production	2005
Running Time	105:55
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:04)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Tim Story
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Ioan Gruffudd Jessica Alba Chris Evans Michael Chiklis Julian McMahon Hamish Linklater Kerry Washington Laurie Holden David Parker Kevin McNulty Maria Menounos Michael Kopsa Andrew Airlie
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	$39.95	Music	Miri Ben-Ari John Ottman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired English Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Over the last ten years we have witnessed an avalanche of comic book to big screen adaptations. Many of these films, such as the recent Batman and X-Men films have been both critical and commercial successes. Hollywood execs seem to be sifting through old comic book bins, now bringing even relatively obscure titles to the big screen, such as V for Vendetta and The Watchmen. It came as no surprise then, when during the week, Disney were happy to pay US$4 Billion for Marvel. Interestingly, while most of these recent adaptations have a very dark and adult approach, Twentieth Century Fox has occasionally opted for a more family-friendly approach, such as for one of Marvel's most successful franchises, Fantastic Four.

     With its 1961 debut, the Fantastic Four holds the title as the longest running comic book. Created for Marvel by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to compete with DC Comic's wildly successful Justice League of America, the Fantastic Four was to find a niche with audiences. The Fantastic Four are made up of aloof scientist, Reed Richards, his fiancé (later wife) Susan Storm, and pilots, Benjamin Grimm and Johnny Storm. The four were in space, when their rocket ship was bombarded with cosmic radiation. The rocket crashed to Earth, and the four find that they have been changed forever.

    While the Fantastic Four have undergone a number of changes over the last four decades, they still remain true to their original theme - a bickering family with money problems. Indeed, one of the features of the Fantastic Four that make them so endearing, and perhaps enduring, is that their petty bickering play as much a part in their stories as their superhuman heroics. For example, their personal animosities are often exploited by their enemies. Interestingly, as with Spider-Man, their superpowers don't solve their personal problems, but rather exaggerate them.

    In the movie, idealist dreamer, Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), is an absent-minded professor, who puts science and the pursuit of knowledge and good before all else. This cost him his relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba). One person definitely not ignoring Sue, is Reed's former MIT colleague and jealous rival, billionaire tycoon, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon). Meanwhile, Sue's younger brother, the thrill-seeking Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), is a hot-shot pilot, who loves to bait Reed's best friend, the tough-as-nails astronaut, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis).

    With the objective of studying a cosmic storm in outer space, the five travel to Von Doom's space station. But the cosmic storm unexpectedly hits the space station before the radiation shields are up, and as a result, the five are soaked with DNA-altering cosmic radiation.

    When the five return to Earth, the after-effects of the exposure gradually appear. Reed becomes Mr. Fantastic, able to stretch his body into any shape. The hotheaded and impulsive show-off, Johnny becomes The Human Torch, a fireball with the power of flight. Sue becomes the Invisible Girl who is also capable of manipulating and throwing force fields. Ben, who wore the brunt of the cosmic storm, turns into The Thing, an orange, rock-like mutant with super-strength.

    However, the greedy megalomaniac, Von Doom transforms into the evil Dr. Doom, whose skin is splitting to reveal a metallic skeleton, while electrical charges are discharging from his fingertips. When Von Doom loses his company and wealth as a result of the accident, he vows revenge against Reed.

    This leads to one of the major problems with the film's story. The villain is not after world domination (as in the comic book), but rather, he simply wants revenge on Reed and his friends. Thus the Fantastic Four stopping him isn't heroic, they're just protecting themselves.

    The choice of director for this big-budget, superhero blockbuster is strange, as Tim Story had only two lightweight comedy flops to his name, Barbershop and Taxi. While Story keeps the movie moving along at a brisk pace, he also keeps it pretty lightweight, shallow, and even silly at times. Indeed, the flimsy, dumbed-down script, co-written by Michael France, Mark Frost, and Simon Kinberg, always seems to be taking a back seat to a series of special-effects extravaganzas. For example, undoubtedly the most interesting and memorable aspect of the movie is the eight-minute action set-piece on the Brooklyn Bridge, during which a series of disasters unfold and the Fantastic Four get to reveal their powers to the World.

    The Fantastic Four also certainly lacks the intelligent sub-text of adaptations such as The Watchmen, Batman Begins, or the Spider-Man or X-Men films. Indeed, I would place the Fantastic Four in the same disappointing comic book to film bucket at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, The Punisher, Daredevil, Elektra, Catwoman, and the Hulk. Indeed, even the obviously expensive effects often look cheesy and out of place. Even worse, the movie features many glaring continuity issues and plot holes. For example, how does Ben as The Thing travel from his hospital bed in Switzerland to his apartment in New York City?

Video

    The transfer is very good and a significant step up from the DVD.

    Fantastic Four is presented with a high definition transfer, authored in 1920 x 1080p. It has been encoded using the older MPEG-2 compression, averaging around 20 Mbps. The transfer is presented its original widescreen aspect ratio of 2.35:1, in a native widescreen 16x9 frame.

    The DVD's sharpness was excellent for standard definition, and now the image is . . . well . . .fantastic. Consider, for example, the detail and depth in the aerial shots at 19:22 and 21:27. The black level is also excellent, with true deep blacks. Fantastic Four has a bright palette of perfectly saturated colours throughout.

    There are no problems with MPEG, Film-To-Video, or Film Artefacts.

    Only English for the Hearing Impaired and English Audio Commentary subtitles are present. They are accurate.

    This is a BD-25 (25 GB Blu-ray disc), with the feature divided into 32 chapters.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio is also excellent.

    Originally released theatrically in Dolby Digital, dts, and SDDS surround audio, there are two audio options on this Blu-ray disc: The first is an English dts-HD Lossless Master Audio for the feature. This format can potentially support an unlimited number of surround sound channels, and down-mix to 5.1 if required. The second is a Cast Audio Commentary, presented in Dolby Digital Stereo (448 kbps).

    The dialogue quality and audio sync are excellent throughout.

    The musical score is credited to Miri Ben-Ari and John Ottman, and features a combination of hip-hop and rock tunes, with a traditional music score.

    As with the DVD, the surround presence and activity is wonderful. The rear speakers are used effectively to help carry the score, and provide a lot of ambience. There are a number of rear directional effects, which includes panning between speakers, such as the flying helicopter at 19:29.

    The subwoofer is also utilised very effectively throughout, and the LFE track is used well.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    I assume that because this film was released on a 25, and not a 50 GB Blu-ray disc, the only extra is the audio commentary ported from the original DVD release.

Floating Menu

    As with other BDs, the menu can be accessed while the film is playing.

Audio Commentary

    Recycled from the original DVD release, the film's stars, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Ioan Gruffudd provide a screen-specific, chatty commentary, filled with anecdotes. They often seem to point out how difficult it was to act to 'nothing', as the film is so effects laden. They also occasionally point out a few of the film's many errors.

    Fantastic Four suffered a similar bare-bones Region A release.

    Fantastic Four disappointed me as a film, and perhaps a better title for this adaptation would have been the Bland Four?.

    The video quality is excellent.

    The audio quality is also excellent.

    The extras are limited to an audio commentary.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall