Fantastic 4 – Rise of the Silver Surfer
Reviewer: Tom Leins
Issue 98 Xmas 2007
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Silver Surfer suffers a Wipe-Out!
The Lowdown: When the wedding between Reed Richards and Sue Storm is interrupted by a citywide blackout that has been brought on by a mysterious silver object radiating cosmic energy, the gang are pressed into service once again. It turns out to be the Silver Surfer, a humanoid who works for the planet-munching Galactus! As usual, only the Fantastic Four can save the world!
Review: Rise of the Silver Surfer is notable for being the first Marvel film since Howard The Duck to get a PG rating. Whilst it isn’t quite as bad as that famous debacle, its child-friendly certification tells you everything you need to know about the lightweight acting, flimsy plot and awful jokes on offer here. Marginally better than its awful predecessor, this distressingly cack-handed comic book adaptation is a real wasted opportunity. Sure, not all superheroes need to be dogged by Batman-style psychological torment or Spiderman-style Emo self-doubt, but this dangerously reductive approach is seriously wide of the mark… But how does it look on Blu-Ray? Pretty good, it has to be said.
The bright comic book colours literally jump off the screen at you, and The Thing and the Human Torch look top-notch in HD. The marginalised Silver Surfer looks sporadically impressive, if oddly dated. Overall, this Blu-ray adventure looks slick and glossy but rather soulless. In mitigation, Fox have provided an unusually generous selection of special features, the pick of the bunch being the super-cool 38-minute ‘Sentinel of the Spaceways’ effort, in which Stan Lee and a group of comic book specialists pick apart the real history of the Silver Surfer. All in all, this Blu-ray offers a good-value, good-looking package, which is let down only by the dreadful main feature. If small children could buy expensive new hi-def hardware and discs then I’d recommend this product to them. Any adult who invests in such a poor movie is obviously out of their mind!
FILM: 4
EXTRAS: 8
DVD Info:
Certificate: PG
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, Chris Evans
Director: Tim Story
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Original Release: 2007
Audio: DTS 5.1
Visuals: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Running Time: 88mins
Price: £28.99
Special Features:
Scene Selection
Personal Scene Selection Feature
Audio Commentary With Director Tim Story
Audio Commentary With Producer Avi Arad, Writer Don Payne and Film-Editors Peter S. Elliot & William Hoy
Extended/Deleted Scenes (With Optional Audio Commentary From Director Tim Story
‘Family Bonds: The Making Of Fantastic Four – Rise of the Silver Surfer’ Documentary
‘Sentinel of the Spaceways’ Documentary
‘The Fantastic Car – State of the Art’ Featurette
‘Scoring The Fantastic’ Featurette
‘The Power of Cosmic’ Featurette
‘Character Design With Spectral Motion’ Featurette
Stills Gallery
Interactive Trivia Game
BD-J Strategy Game
