It’s been two years since Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), The Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), The Human Torch (Chris Evans) and The Thing (Michael Chiklis) powered into London to celebrate the release of their collective mega-bucks effort, Fantastic Four. And in the world of comic-to-screen adaptations, two years is a long, long time. The first movie was met with a double-edged sword of critical dismay and box-office glory ($330million worldwide) and since then Superman has successfully returned, Ghost Rider has blazed through the chart, and Spider-Man and the X-Men have both hit the top spot with their somewhat underwhelming third instalments. Can director Tim Story and his troop of tight-suited superheroes confound the critics and give those other costumed adventurers a run for their special powers? Empire is at the World Premiere of Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer to find out.
“We did think about bringing in different characters, but he [the Surfer] was really always at the top of the list”, revealed Story as he finally made into the foyer of the Vue Cinema. “Also we had the ability to use him, as Fox luckily owned the rights”. Very handy. And with the new surfboard-carrying, slick dude taking over, how did Marvel’s most notorious quartet feel about his dominance?: “Well, all the films in these kind of franchises bring in new characters, so the cast coped with it very well”, laughed Story: “And the Surfer just had to be the star”.
Hot on the heels of FF2’s helmer appears limber-limbed Welshman Ioan Gruffudd who, when asked for his opinion about the early, lukewarm critical responses to Rise Of The Silver Surfer, was quick to reaffirm the purpose of the franchise: “Oh look, I don’t read the reviews. Listen, this is a summer blockbuster movie. It’s about coming to the cinema with a bag of popcorn, a litre of coke, sitting back and escaping.” The very hurried and predictably stunning Jessica Alba added, “I think we really upped our game with this one, considering the first one did so well, we knew we couldn’t afford to disappoint”.
With Michael Chiklis quickly ushering his family into the cinema and Chris Evans looking like he’d really rather be somewhere else, the doors to the auditoriums are closed. The movie hits screens this weekend – you can read the Empire review by clicking right here.