Fantastic 4

Ok, comic book movies are sometimes hard to judge, especially for me since a lot of the time, I’m in the minority.  I like The Punisher (with Thomas Jane) and I didn’t like Spider-Man that much.  But, I will break down Fantastic 4 on a scale for you:

Better Than:
Daredevil
Elektra
Batman Forever
Batman & Robin
Spider-Man

Worse Than:
X-Men
X-Men 2
Batman Begins
Batman
Batman Returns
Sin City
The Punisher

THE MOVIE
On the grand scale of things, Fantastic Four falls somewhere between Daredevil and The Punisher.  The special effects were not great but they seemed to know their boundaries for most of the movie.  The acting wasn’t fantastic but you also don’t expect it to be.  The two best characters in the movie (eye-candy aside) are The Human Torch and Doom.  Personally, I thought The Thing was played very well by Michael Chiklis but there are some that tend to disagree with me saying that he was taking too long to get into his stride.  But, I think we can all agree that, after the debacle known as The Hulk, the Director’s choice to make him in an elaborate costume instead of CGI was the best decision made in the production of this movie.  So, if you are looking for a no-thought superhero movie without a whole lot of depth, something that doesn’t take itself too seriously then pickup a copy of Fantastic 4.  If you are a stickler for comic-book intricacies and only find joy when Director’s take them to the darker side, then steer clear.

SPECIAL FEATURES
They are, of course, going to release a 2-disc special edition when Fantastic 4 2 comes out but as far as "barebones" DVDs go, this isn't one.  It has 3 fully produced deleted scenes (one of which is more of a joke for X-Men fans), behind-the-scenes, music videos, commentary and more.  If you are the type of person to wait for the expanded edition, you need not do so with this.  There is plenty here to entertain you and the only thing they could add is more pointless featurettes and commentaries that you will never listen to.  Unless you really want the free ticket to Fantastic 4 2, it's really not worth waiting the probable 2 years before that happens.