Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

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.