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Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 9 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 33
  3. Negative: 6 out of 33
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  1. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    It's almost a surprise that the sequel is actually better - much better - than the original.
  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    75
    One of the most enjoyable pictures of the season.
  3. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    67
    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.
  4. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Michael Sragow
    67
    What keeps the Fantastic Four franchise alive is the Human Torch's emotional fire and the Silver Surfer's melancholy ice.
  5. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    67
    As summer franchise superhero flicks go, it's tolerable.
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Scott Bowles
    63
    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.
  7. Premiere
    Reviewed by: Glenn Kenny
    63
    It's a decent comic-book movie that delivers its goods with good humor and a minimum of bloat.
  8. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    63
    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.
  9. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    63
    When will the people who adapt comic books into films realize that less can be so much more?
  10. Empire
    Reviewed by: Angie Errigo
    60
    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.
  11. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    60
    It's miscast, underwritten, muddily shot, and slackly paced, but there's something captivating about its unabashed shittiness.
  12. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    60
    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.
  13. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Michael Rechtshaffen
    50
    An improvement of sorts over the lifeless 2005 edition.
  14. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    It is passable comic book stuff, dumb and loud. Loud. LOUD.
  15. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    50
    Even within the context of the superhero universe, the Silver Surfer initially makes for -- let's face it -- a somewhat silly-looking creation.
  16. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Kyle Smith
    50
    The silliest sci-fi movie since "An Inconvenient Truth."
  17. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    50
    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."
  18. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    The result is strictly for those who like their comic-book movies short and stupid.
  19. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    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.
  20. Film Threat
    Reviewed by: Pete Vonder Haar
    50
    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.
  21. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Sean Axmaker
    50
    Diverting, at times even visually impressive, but has neither the spirit or style of "Spider-Man" nor the ambition of "X-Men."
  22. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    50
    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.
  23. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Foundas
    50
    The script, credited to "Twin Peaks" co-creator Mark Frost and longtime "Simpsons" writer Don Payne, unsuccessfully strives for hipster irreverence.
  24. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    50
    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.
  25. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    50
    Good fun -- more fun than in the original -- punctuated by some lines of admirable awfulness.
  26. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Scott Brown
    42
    The dialogue aims young and low, and sounds translated from comic-book Esperanto.
  27. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Keith Phipps
    42
    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.
  28. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    38
    A tedious, incoherent bore.
  29. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    30
    Relentlessly dull and curiously bombastic.
  30. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    30
    This existentially and aesthetically unnecessary sequel to the equally irrelevant if depressingly successful "Fantastic Four."
  31. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    30
    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.
  32. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    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.
  33. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    20
    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.
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User Reviews

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User Score
5.1 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 147 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 37 out of 68
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 68
  3. Negative: 20 out of 68
  1. grandpajoe6191
    3
    "Fantastic Four 2" is extremely terrible. Everything has gotten one step worse, and the more you watch the more paint it will bring you.
  2. Zilcell
    4
    The good news is that its more memorable than the original. The bad news is that the problems of the original still remain.
  3. Cubixreviews
    7
    I found this movie quite a disappointing sequel, but still it is good. It is still with the memorable four superheroes, but the plot is quite disappointing. I don't know how this sequel gets better rating than the first movie. Still it haves it's great moments, and great villains. (7.0)… Full Review »
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