Note: For those who want to see the movie, I'll give ample warning before I say anything that might take give away any part of the experience.

When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the Fantastic Four. Somewhere in the garage, I still have hundreds of their old comics that were individually sealed. Assuming they actually last (and survive bugs, hot weather, etc.), I'll give them to my kids when they are old enough to enjoy them. So last night I went to see the new Fantastic Four movie.

The pre-movie experience was bad – it reminded me of why I rarely go to a theater. I arrived about 20 minutes before the scheduled showing. After seating myself, I was bombarded with bad music and a ridiculous number of ads. At the scheduled time, the theater dimmed and then video commercials started. After about 5 minutes of commercials, then the theater played another 5 to 10 minutes of trailers. That was at least entertaining, but some of the trailers were very inappropriate for the young children who were in the theater. Once they start selling DVDs at the same time they release movies to theater (and I am confident that market forces will bring this day to us), I'll probably never set foot in a theater again.

Finally the movie started. It was a blast! It spent a little time up front developing the storyline and introducing the characters. I never would have cast Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm (aka The Thing), but he was wonderful. The characters play their roles straight (similar to Adam West in the old Batman television series) and it was a very enjoyable experience.

The special effects were incredible. Last year I was very impressed by Pixar's The Incredibles, which paid homage to many super hero teams, but especially the Fantastic Four (if you remember, with the addition of their youngest son, the Incredible family had all the powers of the Fantastic Four plus a Flash-type character). Pixar set a new standard for animation with their film. Likewise, the Fantastic Four movie set a new standard for superhero special effects. The final fight scene was worth the price of admission alone.

Fair warning! I'm now going to discuss a few specifics. I don't think reading this will spoil the movie, but if you dislike advance information, you should not read this until after you have seen the movie.

After Chiklis's role, my next favorite character was Chris Evans. He was a lot of fun as Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). Jessica Alba did an acceptable job of playing Johnny's older sister, Susan Storm (the Invisible Girl). She certainly looked the part and the character byplay between Susan and Ben were very true to the comic. I found the byplay between her and Reed Richards (played by Ioan Gruffudd) slightly disappointing, but my reaction to that relationship may have been confounded by my poor reaction to Gruffudd. Hopefully he'll grow into the role for the sequels, but I was not that impressed by his part. I also did not find Julian McMahon convincing as an arch villain (Dr. Doom).

Outside a few significant problems that were conveniently ignored by the movie, I found the new storyline to be quite interesting and a credible modern retelling of the old tale. The new storyline also explained why all astronauts do not develop superpowers (an unanswered question in the original comics). However, during the course of the movie (warning: small spoiler ahead), Reed Richards develops a machine that should be able to give superpowers to anyone. Since the new Fantastic Four (like the original group in their early days) is chronically short of cash, this is an obvious money maker for them. "Only $50,000 and you too can be a superhero. No results guaranteed and you take your chances." Somehow I doubt this will play a large role in Fantastic Four 2. Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone who likes the superhero genre.

Bottom line – A fun summer flick with awesome superhero special effects.

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