大象传媒

Fantastic Four's millionaire villain is called Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) - and that's before space rays change him into a metallic monstrosity with electric powers. This is hardly the gritty, semi-realistic world of Batman Begins. But it is a laugh. Caught in the same galactic accident as Doom, Mr Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), Human Torch (Chris Evans), Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba) and The Thing (Michael Chiklis) must come to terms with their peculiar powers and stop him, well, killing them.

Doom doesn't have the standard super-baddie plan for world domination. Instead, he wants to off the Four because his business is on the slide and Mr Fantastic has nicked the girl (Alba) he wants to marry ("Think of this as a promotion," says Doom, when proposing to her). His lack of overreaching ambition is a problem for the film, which doesn't have much of a story. After the accident, the Fantastic Four simply spend their time trying to find a way to return to normal - and bickering like irritable siblings.

"THIS IS ALL ABOUT SETTING UP A FRANCHISE"

But this isn't without charm. The Four are very watchable and Evans, in particular, has great fun as the cocky hotshot who can't understand why his friends aren't embracing this life-changing opportunity (his fights with The Thing provide consistent comic relief). Like the first X-Men movie, this is all about setting up the characters for a franchise. The result is hardly fantastic, but it is quite a lot of fun.