Ah, it's nice when I'm not disappointed by a movie. Admittedly, my expectations weren't all that high for this one. A number of friends had said they liked it, but a number of reviews were reportedly negative, so I wasn't counting on anything brilliant. It wasn't, but it was very fun, and it had a number of things going for it:
- Great effects - Yeah, the man made of quicksilver has been done on film before, but this one was particularly well-done. The chase scene with the Torch trying to catch the Surfer was nifty.
- My favorite villain - Doctor Doom is back in this one, and the storyline follows one of those in the canon. I'm not sure how closely it followed it; I'm only aware of it from some old panels I remember seeing.
- Jessica Alba - Let's face it, she's a good enough reason to see a movie. She's entertaining in this movie, though it's still a bit disconcerting to see her as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed Invisible Woman. Well, yeah - when she's invisible, you don't really notice those things, but you know what I mean.
We get to see a bit of Michael Chiklis without his orange rock hide in a few scenes, so he does get a chance to do facial expressions and the like. I guess those are possible with all that make-up on, but I'd guess it's challenging. He plays a few scenes for laughs well, coming across as Joe Normal stuck in some very abnormal circumstances. There are a number of funny parts in this movie, but maybe you need to be a comic geek to enjoy them.
Nah. This movie was worth the regular admission price, and it's going to end up on a shelf with my other movies. If you're looking for a Summer adventure flick, this should fulfill that need.
