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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer reviews


5.2

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 106 votes
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FILM:

Fantastic Four

MPAA RATING: PG for sequences of action violence, some mild language and innuendo

Starring Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans, Michael Chiklis, Julian McMahon, Kerry Washington, Andre Braugher, and Laurence Fishburne

Marvel's first family of superheroes, The Fantastic Four, meets their greatest challenge yet in The Rise of the Silver Surfer as the enigmatic, intergalactic herald, The Silver Surfer, comes to Earth to prepare for its destruction. (20th Century Fox)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Fantasy \| Sci-fi
WRITTEN BY:	Don Payne Mark Frost (also story) John Turman (story) Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (characters)
DIRECTED BY:	Tim Story
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: October 2, 2007 Theatrical: June 15, 2007
RUNNING TIME:	92 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / Germany

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's almost a surprise that the sequel is actually better - much better - than the original.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

One of the most enjoyable pictures of the season.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, is . . . well . . . not terrible. In fact, "Rise of the Silver Surfer" is roughly 300 percent less cringe-inducing than its predecessor.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What keeps the Fantastic Four franchise alive is the Human Torch's emotional fire and the Silver Surfer's melancholy ice.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

As summer franchise superhero flicks go, it's tolerable.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

When will the people who adapt comic books into films realize that less can be so much more?

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Like its predecessor, this is a basic bungalow of a flick, where low-maintenance superheroes take their ease and you can pay your (dis)respects painlessly enough. In short, okay to visit, wouldn't want to live there.

USA Today Scott Bowles

Doesn't quite live up to the billing, but it improves mightily on the original. And the superhero family can thank its new addition for the upgrade.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

It's a decent comic-book movie that delivers its goods with good humor and a minimum of bloat.

Empire Angie Errigo

Bigger, better and more polished than the first, with a quite satisfactory ratio of action set-pieces and a lot of juvenile japery squarely aimed at its PG and fanboy audience.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's miscast, underwritten, muddily shot, and slackly paced, but there's something captivating about its unabashed shittiness.

Variety Justin Chang

At a time when tortured superheroes like Spider-Man, Superman and Batman would benefit from some serious psychotherapy, it's almost refreshing to see a comicbook caper as blithe, weightless and cheerfully dumb as Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

It is passable comic book stuff, dumb and loud. Loud. LOUD.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The script, credited to "Twin Peaks" co-creator Mark Frost and longtime "Simpsons" writer Don Payne, unsuccessfully strives for hipster irreverence.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

An improvement of sorts over the lifeless 2005 edition.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The result is strictly for those who like their comic-book movies short and stupid.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Good fun -- more fun than in the original -- punctuated by some lines of admirable awfulness.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Diverting, at times even visually impressive, but has neither the spirit or style of "Spider-Man" nor the ambition of "X-Men."

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Earnest, gee-whiz and foursquare, this simple and intentionally inoffensive sequel gets points for being easy to take and scrupulously avoiding obvious sources of irritation.

New York Post Kyle Smith

The silliest sci-fi movie since "An Inconvenient Truth."

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

More ambitious than its predecessor. It's also more cluttered and less fleet: The light, pleasingly casual quality of the first picture has evolved into something forced and metallic.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

The early dilemma in "Rise of the Silver Surfer " is this: Save the world or marry Jessica Alba . Your conscience says, "Save the world." But the Maxim reader in you knows better.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

A better-quality sequel, but that wasn't really too difficult. The original was one of the worst movies of 2005, and while "Rise" won't win any awards, it's (mostly) less offensive than its predecessor. Faint praise, but I'll be damned if I go any further than that.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Even within the context of the superhero universe, the Silver Surfer initially makes for -- let's face it -- a somewhat silly-looking creation.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The closest FF:ROTSS gets to wit is when Johnny convinces a reluctant Reed to attend a bachelor party, after promising the uptight groom-to-be that there won't be any "exotic dancers."

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Purists will balk at a pointless--and boring--revamp of a major villain, but that's the least of the film's worries. Only a few isolated shots of the group striding together as a team make Surfer feel like a Fantastic Four movie.

Entertainment Weekly Scott Brown

The dialogue aims young and low, and sounds translated from comic-book Esperanto.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A tedious, incoherent bore.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Relentlessly dull and curiously bombastic.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This sequel to "Fantastic Four" (2005) drags in the Silver Surfer, who looks like a gigantic hood ornament and, given voice by Laurence Fishburne, has about as much personality.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

This existentially and aesthetically unnecessary sequel to the equally irrelevant if depressingly successful "Fantastic Four."

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The perfect summer movie, that is if you're eight years old or under. For the rest of us, the sequel to the first "Fantastic Four" that miraculously amassed more than $150 million in 2005, is a plotless, brainless, witless bore.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

Surely the dullest of Hollywood's many comic-book-derived summer movies, "Silver Surfer" is drearier than corn dying in the Iowa sun, slower than molasses in Antarctica.

The average user rating for this movie is 5.2 (out of 10) based on 106 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

D H. gave it a7:
I thought it was good fun. Extremely silly but you have to expect that from a comic book adaptation.

[Anonymous] gave it a6:
An entertaining but uninspired blockbuster. There's no inspiration in the direction or script, or care for character issues or emotional depth of any sort. You're left wishing it was more than flashy effects and shallow entertainment.

JC A. gave it a10:
Very good, the best superhero film ever since X2.

Jared C. gave it a10:
FF2: Rise of the Silver Surfer has a weak point in its plot every second with a touch of dullness, and standards. But these special/visual effects we were given are amazing, I was astonished by them. And if you put your full thought into it, it is entertaining, and creative throughout.

Joe C. gave it a3:
Although i would say this was the better of the two Fantastic 4 movies, it would be much like saying, " Of the two times i have been stung in the face, this was definitely the most pleasureabe" or maybe, "That was the best head-butt to the crotch my nephew has ever given me." If this movie was just advertised as your run-of-the mill popcorn flick, it may have been tolerable. But if you're gonna call yourself a 'Marvel' movie and include the likes of The Silver Surfer and especially Galactus, you'd better do it right. First of all, the first quarter of the movie was still just talking. I mean, the 4 already have their powers and the beginning is still devoted to nothingness. When the story (and i use that term loosely) finally gets going, the movie really starts to disappoint. Apparently, the Fantastic 4 aren't nearly as interesting with their original powers so they trade around a little bit. At the end of course this all works out beautifully when the Human Torch (who is made out to be an unbelievably massive tool; 'Flame on' is an understatement) takes everyones powers (including the Thing, who just kinda turns back to a human, ridiculous) and saves the world from planet-eating Galactus (Who is now a cloud? There's gotta be a law against completely and utterly mutilating characters! Such a disappointment.). In fact, the only thing that doesn't make me reach for mouthwash and ginger ale is the Silver Surfer. The effects on him were well done, honestly better than I expected. My suggestion: if you're gonna cast Jessica Alba in a role for your move, consider maybe a role where she doesn't have to do that, that thing that actors and actresses are supposed to do. What's that called again?

Greg J. gave it a3:
I found The Rise of Silver Surfer or FF2 utterly disappointing. The script was not well conceived and written. Tim Story's directing was bad. There needed to be some shared vision and research between the two that was based in fact, because the movie totally distorted who Silver Surfer is. Also Silver Surfer seemingly was barely in the movie. Also the majority of the time he wasn't rising but falling and weak. Silver Surfer, the one from the original comic book series from 1968 was much more powerful, pensive and deep than the one portrayed in the movie. Andre Braugher- consistently great actor was even bad in his role-which extends to the entire cast. Had the movie been as good as the tralier-I would have given this movie at least a 5. I will say the look of the Silver Surfer is the only true success and his movements and such due to advances in computer technology. If there ever is an origin of the silver surfer movie made- keep Story and the script writer and or man who wrote the screenplay-far away from it. An SS origin film should be directed by Brian Singer who did a couple of the X-Men Films or Brett Ratner or the director of the latest Spiderman film and the coinciding screenplay writers with those well don Marvel franchise movies.

Ted S. gave it a5:
While the second film in the franchise does improve by leaps and bounds of it's predecessor, this film still fails to reach it's potential due to poor directing, bland acting by half of the cast and an overall dull script. As a longtime fan of the Fantastic Four it pains me to see the potential for good movie disperse as quickly as this film puts you to sleep.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation