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Trailers and posters proclaim that “One will be bad, four will be fantastic.” The plot is essentially about a bunch of scientists who got hit by cosmic radiation while working at a space station, and then later discover that they now have superpowers. Sounds like a movie that fantastisucks. I admit that I almost didn’t want to see Fantastic Four this afternoon but it was either that, Monster In Law (Jennifer Lopez. No.), or War of the Worlds (which didn’t really appeal to me). If there’s one thing I learned today, it’s that you can’t judge a movie by its trailer, posters, or your preference for DC comics over Marvel.

Even as a comic book, Fantastic Four is a very character-driven story. If the F4 movie had bad actors I wouldn’t have enjoyed the movie as much. The plot in itself is simple and straightforward, and while every single event made sense and contributed to the story’s development, that alone doesn’t make for a very exciting superhero movie. But the four actors–yes, including Jessica Alba–had such great chemistry that they not only portrayed their roles convincingly; I could see from their bantering that they were all having a great time doing what they were doing. The humor was clever without sounding like they were trying too hard to be smart, and there were, thankfully, no cheesy lines. Oh, and the special effects were great. I loved the way Victor Von Doom looked so imposing and threatening in his iron mask and green cloak. The only minor disappointing thing was that there were no gadgets. I was looking forward to seeing how they’d pull off the Fantasticar.

Minor disappointment aside, Fantastic Four is definitely the best superhero movie I have seen so far. 4.5/5 Apparantly, the cast already signed up for another F4 movie. I am so looking forward to watching that.