Just Films & That is a podcast that celebrates underrated and underseen films. In this episode, Josh chose Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. He reckons it’s underrated, and even though it is clearly a lot better than the first one, the critics still gave it a bit of a rough time. You can listen to the full episode now, and all episodes of Just Films & That, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (dramatic music)
00:02 - It's here.
00:03 - That's bad. - That's really bad.
00:05 (dramatic music)
00:07 - "Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer"
00:10 is a sequel to the "Fantastic Four" film from 2005.
00:14 Now, Josh, you chose this partly
00:16 because I'd already picked "Fantastic Four"
00:19 and we wanted to do a bit of a double whammy,
00:21 but tell us why you think this might be underrated
00:23 or underseen.
00:25 - Yeah, I just wanted to copy you.
00:26 No, so just to give you an idea,
00:28 I picked this one because I think it is underrated.
00:31 So just to give you some idea
00:32 before I go forward with my argument,
00:34 at the time of the episode being recorded,
00:36 the IMDb score was 5.6 out of 10.
00:40 The Rotten Tomatoes audience score was 51%
00:44 and the critics score was 38%,
00:47 which averaged out at a 48%.
00:50 It's not perfect, it is flawed.
00:51 It's a little bit sort of cliche at parts,
00:54 a little bit weak in places, which we'll come on to,
00:55 but I think it deserves a little bit more love than a 48%.
00:58 Had you seen this one before?
01:00 - I hadn't seen this one before.
01:02 And I think some of the things that I did like about it
01:06 were quite similar to what I liked in the first one,
01:08 but this one did them a lot better.
01:11 And it was a very clear improvement
01:13 on the first one, I thought.
01:14 I think visually, it's so impressive.
01:17 What they've done with the Silver Surfer is really engaging
01:20 and I really liked him as a character
01:22 and I was so invested in him and his story.
01:25 - Another main thing for me is that I do think this film
01:27 felt a lot more focused.
01:29 So whereas in the first one,
01:30 it doesn't feel like it's completely clear
01:32 on what it wants to be and where it wants to go,
01:34 but this had a very clear narrative
01:36 and ultimately left you as the viewer
01:38 feeling a lot more satisfied when you got to the end.
01:40 - They don't shy away from making it quite bold.
01:42 They give him pretty comic book accurate costumes
01:45 and stuff like that.
01:46 But I think the villain in this is,
01:47 and the overall sort of plot device is better.
01:50 One of the main criticisms we had at the first one
01:52 was that the villain is just sort of there
01:54 because it needs a villain
01:55 and they sort of waste the big character of Doctor Doom.
01:58 Whereas in this, I think they do do it quite well.
02:01 What didn't you like about it or what would you change?
02:04 - So the main issue for me in this film
02:06 is the relationship between Reed and Susan Storm.
02:09 So the film doesn't do enough to make me care
02:13 about those two together as a couple.
02:14 And I can't tell if it's the script
02:16 or if it's the performances,
02:18 but so much of this film is devoted to the fact
02:20 that they are planning to get married.
02:22 And I just did not care about that whatsoever.
02:25 And every time Sue Storm's on screen,
02:26 she's talking about the fact that she wants to get married.
02:29 And I just thought,
02:30 this is not the kind of development I was hoping for.
02:33 I'd like to see a lot more from her.
02:34 - The Silver Surfer, I thought should have been in it more.
02:36 He is really visually interesting.
02:38 He's quite a guerrilla.
02:39 He's quite sort of magnetic as a character.
02:41 I still think that's underrated.
02:43 What do you think?
02:45 - Well, to be honest,
02:45 when you mentioned the scores again
02:47 at the beginning of this episode, I was shocked.
02:49 I'd forgotten how low it was rated
02:52 because there is a lot to like in there
02:54 and it is such a stark improvement on the first one.
02:56 So yeah, I would completely agree with you on this,
02:59 that Fantastic Four, Rise of the Silver Surfer is underrated.
03:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]