On the spectrum of comic-to-film disasters, "Fantastic Four" rates better than better than "Batman & Robin" -- it's more on the "Batman Forever" level of suckitude. It is not wholy an abomination, unless you are a die-hard fan hoping for "Spider-Man" or "X-Men 2" type greatness.
In its favor, the film has Jessica Alba, who is about as easy on the eyes as it gets. I don't buy her as one of the world's leading geneticists for a second, even when they try to make her look smart by putting glasses on her, but she's nice to look at. It should be noted that "Catwoman" did a much better job of putting its sexy leading lady in hot supergear, which, considering how bad the sum of "Fantastic Four" is, it may as well have gone wild with. Chris Evans enjoys his role as Johnny Storm, and Michael Chiklis does a decent job as The Thing. Ioan Gruffudd and Julian McMahon are bland and over-the-top, respectively, as Reid Richards and the villianous Victor Von Doom.
"Fantastic Four" has some embarassing moments. Johnny Storm's X Games stuff is just stupid, and The Thing's love plotline is just ridiculously contrived. Worse though is that the overall storyline is so predictable that every plot turn is seen coming from a mile away. Predictability is okay when the execution of it is so phenomenal as to feel new again (see the "Spider-Man" films), but the execution is so ho-hum here that it just feels old hat.
Poor Andrew was distraught after seeing Tim Story's "Fantastic Four" movie. He hadn't anticipated a film this much since Tim Burton's "Planet Of The Apes" a few years ago (also a major disappointment). I took a little pleasure from laughing at a silly movie with characters I didn't care about. Despite the bit of ironic pleasure I took, I can't recommend "Fantastic Four" to anyone when "Batman Begins" and "Revenge Of The Sith" are still in theaters.
1.5/5 Stars.