3) Human Torch Vs. Silver Surfer – Fantastic Four 2: Rise Of The Silver Surfer
There were quite a few things wrong with 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but the look of the titular and iconic shiny hero wasn’t one of them. The look itself isn’t hard to pull off (especially with CGI), but I give director Tim Story credit for not trying to ground the character in some sort of reality or resort to any half measures in adapting Silver Surfer.
The big issue with the earlier Fantastic Four movie is that it didn’t really have a defining vision, be it revolutionary or otherwise, which means it ended up being pretty forgettable, generic family-friendly superhero fare. In retrospect, it is better than the reboot, but that isn’t saying much.
The sequel was more or less the same, but at least it had the addition of one of the coolest characters in the Fantastic Four mythos, the Silver Surfer. The CGI rendition of the character (physically played by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne) is actually pretty good, and he does feature in the film’s standout sequence – an exciting chase scene between the Surfer and the Human Torch. If only the planned Silver Surfer spinoff movie had actually been made.
By the way, does anyone know what happened to that guy who played Torch? He was pretty good. So good in fact that he should turn up in another Marvel movie someday….