Something Fantastic!
Early in my college years, I would often shrink away from people for a few hours and walk over to the local K&B Drugstore (sadly, long gone) and look through their selection of magazines and comics. Once in awhile I would read an article about rumors surrounding a potential X-Men film or other superhero flicks. One of the movies I remember reading about was the supposedly complete Fantastic Four film. I searched like crazy to find out when the film would be released and if and when a VHS copy would be made available but I kept on hitting dead ends. I eventually gave up hope and quickly forgot about the film, content with watching other superhero films such as Blade (1998) and the first X-Men film in 2000.
2005 found me extremely excited to finally see a Fantastic Four film on the big screen. It was by no means perfect, but I really enjoyed seeing four of my favorite heroes doing there thing against Doctor Doom. The film starred the very capable Ioann Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic, a young Chris Evans as Human Torch, the gritty Michael Chiklis as the Thing, the delightfully dastard Julian McMahon as Doctor Doom, and Jessica Alba going through the motions as Invisible Woman. The film was followed up in 2007 with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, and featured all of the first film’s main cast reprising their roles. I enjoyed this film even more than the first one, but the critics and most audience members disliked it, resulting in the atrocious 2015 reboot.
With the release of the film in 2005, I was reminded of the 1994 film and began to seek it out once more. I eventually found a bootleg copy of the film online and watched it. Oddly enough, I really enjoyed the film. Much like the 2005 flick and its sequel, this film was far from perfect, but it was fun. The film featured a very solid lineup of actors that did very good jobs with the script that they were given.
Alex Hyde-White played Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic in a very believable manner. He was intelligent and cared deeply for his friends. Speaking of friends, Michael Bailey Smith played Ben Grimm while Carl Ciarfalio played Ben as the Thing. The Thing is actually probably the best part of the film, as he legitimately looks like the Thing from the comics. Animatronics were used to move Thing’s eyebrows and mouth and despite a film budget of just one million bucks, he looked great.
Rebecca Staab portrayed Sue Storm/Invisible Woman. She was a little too “damsel in distress” at moments, but she was still solid in the movie. Her brother, Johnny Storm/Human Torch, was played with youthful flair by Jay Underwood, best known for his work in the Not Quite Human television films and in supporting roles in films like Uncle Buck and television series like Star Trek: Voyager.
Joseph Culp chewed up the scenery as Victor Von Doom. In his pre-accident form, he’s Reed’s college pal (albeit jealous of Reed’s intelligence). Once he is severely injured in a lab accident in the film (Reed thought he was dead), he is brought home to Latveria where he makes plans to destroy New York with a giant laser. Thankfully the Fantastic Four get their powers just in time to try and thwart Doom’s plans.
As mentioned before, the film only had a budget of one million dollars and was executive produced by B-film legend Roger Corman, so I wasn’t expecting much in the way of special effects. With that being said, the film’s effects weren’t that terrible. The Thing looked great as I’ve already said. His facial expressions reminded me of the turtles in the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) film. His movements were fairly fluid and I really liked the fact that Ciarfalio’s eyes could be seen through the mask. Doctor Doom’s costume crinkled….a lot…and I believe that Joseph Culp intentionally wrung his hands throughout the film just because he could. It’s a rather funny part of the film in my opinion.
The Invisible Woman’s vanishing act looked as good as any other vanishing act on screen at the time, and her force field powers looked pretty good as well. Johnny’s powers were held back until late in the film. For the most part, Jay Underwood would strike a pose and flames would “shoot out” of his hands. Later in the film, though, his character finally goes into “flame on” mode and that effect was handled with traditional animation similar to the animation of Kirk Alyn’s Superman in 1948 whenever he took to the sky. The GIF below is from the film.
Poor Reed Richards got the short end of the stick when it came to his special effects. Wonky arm extensions and an even goofier tripping scene made Mr. Fantastic not so fantastic. Still, Hyde-White’s performance was one of the best in the film, so I’ll give him a pass.
The film is available on Dailymotion as of this writing and I’m sure it’s available in other places as well. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend it. It’s a fun movie that people of a certain age will definitely appreciate. Let your kids watch it as well, if for no other reason than to be thankful for modern special effects.
Also, if you’re in the Lake Charles or Sulphur, LA area this weekend, you have the opportunity to meet the Human Torch himself, Jay Underwood, at the Lake Charles Film Festival. Be sure to check out their webpage for times and locations for all of their planned activities.
As always, thanks for reading. I’ll have a full report on the film festival (and hopefully a photo or two with Mr. Underwood) early next week.
Ken's Alternate Universe! 