Fantastic Four – This first film is the origin story of the team, telling the tale of how a strange solar wind gave them their powers and how they have to face their mad, rich friend who gained powers the same way. The story isn’t what makes this film, the Thing is. With his anger issues, his shame at what he has become and the general awesomeness of a stone man, Thing is the centre of a lot of the humour, sadness and reason in the movie. The characters have good banter together, there’s a bit of romance going on and Human Torch just wants to have fun but their focus always comes back to curing Thing. Dr Doom, the main antagonist uses this idea of curing Thing to his advantage with his motivation of pure jealousy. The characters definitely make this film as good as it is and with it being aimed at families, it works well to have that because the plot is a bit dull. I would recommend watching it but it’s only really good when you can also watch the sequel for a bigger story.

Fantastic Four Rise Of The Silver Surfer – No messing about with this one, straight away a speeding silver thing brings snow and power cuts to everything it flies over, the foe is the first thing we see. We then get to see the Four as they prepare for a wedding and track down the silver guy. We get power swapping, an alliance with Dr Doom and a world ending threat on the way. They even find a reasonably logical way for the powers of characters to combine giving us a fight of Doctor Surfer vs Stretchy Fire Invisible Thing which works because it’s short enough to not outstay it’s welcome. With the banter between the boys and the caring personality of the Invisible Woman the characters are likeable as a team and the audience want them to win. It’s intended to be a family film so it’s lighthearted and enjoyable. I always like returning to these films.

As a side note, I prefer Chris Evans as Human Torch to Captain America. “Flame on!”