Genre: Action adventure

Fact – The screenplay isn’t great. The characters are blah. The action is ho-hum. The special effects? Seen better. But somehow, ‘Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer’ is not bad.

In fact, you could say Tim Story’s story is actually mildly entertaining. Why shouldn’t they make a pointless sequel (that may actually work) to another superhero tale? Everyone else is doing it.

The film begins with a wedding. Or at least talk of it. Our superheroes Mr. Fantastic aka Reed Richards, Invisible Woman aka Susan Storm, her brother Human Torch (human name Johnny Storm) and The Thing or Ben Grimm (depends on when you catch him) are living the fabulous life.

Chased by paparazzi, frequently featured on E News, they might as well buy a Chihuahua and name her Tinkerbell (God knows Sue Storm already has the fake blonde hair and trashy make-up).

But the Wedding of the Year between Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman is off to a rocky start thanks to a strange silver man on a surf board who looks like a cross between an inside out Mercury man from Terminator II who copied the Green Goblin’s mode of transport. He cruises across the world leaving chaos and energy loss in his wake.

This calls for the brain and the beeping PDA of stretchy Mr. Fantastic, even while he’s at the altar.

The sequel to 2005’s Fantastic Four features the resurrection of the eerily dishy Victor Von Doom (don’t you just love saying his name?) played by Julian McMahon, the deliciously demonic Cole from TV series ‘Charmed.’

There’s more to Silver Surfer than meets the eye. Avaricious villain or part-man human superhero? While the Fantastic Four are on the job, they find gutsy Silver Surfer has in attitude what he lacks in anatomy.

There’s plenty of earth shattering action. And if you get bored, you can always have a crack at pronouncing Ioan Gruffudd.

SUSAN MUTHALALY

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