Fantastic Four

Herald rating: **

Yep, another movie derived from a comic book about four relatively ordinary people - okay, they're super-intelligent scientists but they're relatively ordinary super-intelligent scientists - who are caught up in a mysterious space accident and given superpowers.

Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), the multi-millionaire - and isn't there always a multi-millionaire who wants to take over the world in these movies? - has discovered that a star storm is hurtling towards Earth. The energy in the storm might be extremely powerful. Could be harnessed. And valuable. And that money might just save Von Doom's failing empire.

So our geeks take off: Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd), the brainy one; Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), the fellow on his last mission; Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), the love interest - she's with Von Doom but has a past with Richards; and her brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans), the wild and crazy guy.

The storm arrives earlier than expected, everyone is zapped, and they return to Earth with superhuman powers. Richards can bend and stretch his body into any shape. Grimm has strength and size that'd put the Hulk to shame. Sue can become invisible. Johnny is now the Human Torch, and Von Doom is evolving into a metal man.

And that's pretty much it for the next couple of hours. In fact, an 8-year-old I know was so bored we left the big-screen version after an hour. Now that I've seen how it comes out, we didn't miss much after the really cool scene where there's an almighty crash on a bridge and all manner of fire engines, helicopters and boats get involved, and everyone shows off their superpowers for the first time.

Yep, another movie derived from a comic book about people with superpowers. That doesn't stand up against X-Men, Superman, Spiderman, Batman.

* DVD, Video rental today