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Product Description ------------------- Action adventure based on the comic books created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The lifelong dream of inventor, astronaut and scientist Dr. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) is close to being realised; he is spearheading a trip to outer space into the centre of a cosmic storm. There he hopes to unlock the secrets of the human genetic codes for the benefit of all humanity. Reed accepts a financing deal with his old college rival, Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon), now a billionaire industrialist. Reed's crew for the mission includes his best friend, astronaut Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis), Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), Von Doom's director of genetic research and Reed's ex-girlfriend, and Sue's hot-headed younger brother, pilot Johnny Storm (Chris Evans). While in space, the team are exposed to the cosmic storm. When they return to Earth they discover the exposure they suffered has fundamentally altered their and given them each an exciting superpower. .co.uk Review ------------- Fantastic Four is a light-hearted and funny take on Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help of former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) in order to pursue outer-space research involving human . Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and her hot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation. Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterisation isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them?" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book co-creator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages.--David Horiuchi, .com