Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (Rifftrax)

Film Year:  2007
Genre:  Superhero, Comedy, Action, Fantasy
Director:  Tim Story
Starring:  Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Ioan Gruffudd, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington, Doug Jones, Laurence Fishburne
Rifftrax Year:  2007
Riffers:  Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, Bill Corbett

The Movie

*I HAVE SURVIVED WATCHING THIS MOVIE UNRIFFED*

"Oh right, like they saw the sticky, rained on dog turd that was the first movie and said 'Let's make another!'"

I hate to break it to you, Kevin, but that's exactly what they did.  And yet while I don't seem to share the disdain for these two Fantastic Four movies that the boys at Rifftrax do (as well as plenty of superhero fans around the world), Rise of the Silver Surfer doesn't do a lot to make me beg for another Fantastic Four movie.  And that bums me out because I really like the Fantastic Four and feel they deserve a film franchise, but nobody has seemed to cracked their code.

This time around the Fantastic Four are well established as a worldwide superhero team and global celebrities.  Leader Reed Richards and resident eye candy Sue Storm are to be married in the biggest wedding of the decade, but the pending nuptials are interrupted by a shiny alien surfer from outer space.  This Silver Surfer is the herald of Galactus, a giant space cloud* that devours planets.  Providing subplot distraction, the Surfer's presence somehow resurrects Dr. Doom for some silly reason.

While I enjoy the first film, I mostly think it passes by the skin of its teeth.  I remember sitting in a theater watching this second film with hopes that it might go full swing and deliver "The Spider-Man 2 of Fantastic Four," and yet my hopes being dashed early on and finding a film that doesn't quite seem to know how to deliver it's world ending stakes in a compelling manner.  The plotting of the film is maddening, because the film never quite provides a third act.  We're given an abbreviated action scene with Dr. Doom followed by the Silver Surfer flying into a space and exploding.  We're also given a muddled up gimmick in Johnny Storm being able to switch powers at a mere touch and a weak romance between him and a Barbie doll in a soldier outfit.

The final product of this Fantastic Four sequel is breezy (it's a tight ninety minutes long), moderately diverting, and kinda funny but not memorably so.  It's debatable as to whether or not that that's what the franchise needed to survive (I'd say history proved that it wasn't), but if someone is looking for an undemanding superhero entertainment that's over in a flash then they could do worse.  As silly as these movies are there is one thing I always associate with them and that's a memory of my niece.  Whenever I babysat her and she wanted to watch a movie the first one she'd point out would be this one.  Maybe this movie seems wanting from an adult perspective, but it has always been clear to me that children seemed to really like it.

Fantastic Four:  Rise of the Silver Surfer was meant to spawn both another Fantastic Four movie as well as a Silver Surfer franchise.  As fate would have it we had neither.  The closest we got was that Fantastic Four reboot in 2015, and while these movies aren't great it's a damn shame they have Rifftrax options and that film, as of 2017, does not.

*Note:  Galactus's lack of being a cloud in the comics means this creates massive NERD RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!

The Trax

In theory neither Fantastic Four film should be suitable for riffing, as they lean more toward family comedy over superhero action.  Whether they're successful at that is in the eye of the beholder, but even a bad comedy is a tricky subject to tackle.  For the most part I'm impressed at how good the riffs for these two films are.  While neither are great they somehow mold themselves around the film and interweave through the quips and gags to turn them into their own quips and gags.  It's fairly impressive to be honest.

Character comedy is no stranger to this riff, as they play up the various qualities of each F4 member:  Reed's a nerd, Sue's a bimbo, Ben's a grumbling glutton, and Johnny's a douche.  For some reason the riffers riding on these jokes doesn't become as tiresome as it could be, probably because the personalities are so diverse that each joke feels fresh after jokes at another's expense.  That's kind of playing off the appeal of the Fantastic Four in the first place, which is a similar design of enjoyable character contrast.

"I bet she's not the first one to experience a burning sensation after touching Johnny."

The faulted film has various points to pick apart.  Mike, Kevin, and Bill seem to very much zero in on the poor plotting of the film, which comes to a head at a point in the end in which a power swapping Johnny Storm touches all of his teammates and somehow gains all four powersets, much to Mike's confusion.  The buck doesn't stop there, as we're also giving the spotlight to Bill's unhealthy, stalker-esque crush on actress Jessica Alba, which is good for some quality creeper laughs.

Regardless of whether or not you enjoy the movie, a case can certainly be made that this Rifftrax enhances the enjoyment of the experience.  I wholeheartedly recommend it even to the superhero Scrooges out there.

Good