4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer

Two years ago I missed this film at the cinema.

Then, last week, it got a screening on Channel 4, so I taped it.

Then, this week, as apparently is their wont, Channel 4 went and showed it again.

By the time I finally watched it this morning, (fourth time lucky) over four years had passed since Herschel and I had gone to the cinema to watch the first one. It's a good job that I'm a fan of the comics, or by now I might well have forgotten who all these super-types were.


Except for that mailman character - I remember him. Just what was that bouncer thinking - turning away such a hard-working fellow from Reed and Sue's wedding, just for pretending to be Stan Lee? I mean we've all done it.

Anyway, Herschel never shovelled-out for the sequel either, and since my film reviews seem to have been getting a bit negative lately, here just for a change is his review of it.

Remember now, let's keep that blood-pressure down...


"Way to mess up the ending, Hollywood!

So, the Silver Surfer just had to turn on the cloud and it would disappear forever. Well, maybe he should have thought of that as soon as he got his powers, huh? It's not like the Surfer is ever a bad guy in this.

I liked the cloud effect, but it so desperately cried out for a sentient presence inside it. The Surfer attracting a space typhoon made no sense. I wonder what non-comic readers made of that, whether it made more or less sense than it did to me knowing the original story.

And Galactus only got named once in the whole thing. Such a loss.

This was probably the greatest ever Marvel comic, the most glorious story ever put in comics, and they utterly loused up the ending. The rest trekked along with some wit and style, but it just bailed out entirely on the ending.

If the cloud had had any suggestion of sentience at all it might have made more sense, but it just wasn't portrayed like that at all. At least it could have spoken, "how dare you defy me, herald!" - something!!! But no, it was a weather system. A weather system of EVIL!

I'm sorry, Hollywood people... this was a better movie than the first FF, and there was some charm to the performances at least, but even if you have to lose the image of a giant guy in purple armour (which you don't, Galactus is the definition of awesome), you still need...

1. Galactus to have personality.

2. The FF to play some role in saving the day.

This was an Ultimate Nullifier short of a success. I give it 6 Hey!™s out of 10, the ending was just a shambles."